Most infrastructure gets described as neutral. The internet does not decide who builds on it. A database does not choose whose data it stores. Neutrality is usually how you know the infrastructure is working.
But neutral infrastructure still produces outcomes. And those outcomes tend to reflect who shows up to use it first, and at what scale.
This is something I keep thinking about with $SIGN . The schema registry is open. Anyone can register a credential format. Anyone can become an attester. The protocol does not gatekeep any of that.
What it also does not do is determine which attesters get recognized by the platforms and applications built on top of it. That decision happens one layer up, inside products and services the protocol does not control.
If the major platforms default to a small set of trusted issuers, the openness at the protocol level does not prevent concentration from forming above it.
Whether open infrastructure and equal access end up meaning the same thing in practice is still an open question.