A decentralized computer network architecture and method that gathers metadata from local and remote clients and, based on that metadata, locally makes a decision whether to send a packet over the network. Each client listens to what other clients are doing, and only sends when the total number of concurrent speakers is below some threshold. In a multi-party voice conferencing embodiment, the threshold is a number of concurrent speakers that is restricted to less than a certain number. Under the decentralized computer network architecture, the type of network topology used to connect the clients is flexible, as long as each client is running a peer-aware system to decide locally whether to send their packets. The decentralized computer network architecture and method is distributed to run on each client, making it suitable for a wide variety of network topologies (such as full-mesh, bridge-based, or a hybrid of the two).