They were DDOS protection first, then expanded into edge caches and reverse proxies. Back then, they did not offer paid services to DDOSers to bypass their protection, or if they did, they were at least discrete about it.
Actually they were a honeypot first, or so I'm told. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhZ2vOjF5s
Actually they were a honeypot first, or so I'm told. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhZ2vOjF5s