What Does Decentralization Mean To Me? Initiative

@theycallmedan asked Steemians to write about what decentralization means to them. This is my answer.

What do you think are the fundamental building blocks of blockchain?

A blockchain is an immutable distributed ledger. Transactions on a blockchain are supposed to be uncensorable and final or tamper-resistant once they're included in a block. Transactions are grouped into blocks that make up a chain whereby each block contains the hash of the previous block. For this reason checking the validity of a a blockchain is fast and cheap. The problem is how to make sure that the transactions included in a block are the correct ones. This is accomplished through a consensus mechanism that relies on no trusted central authority.

Steem has Delegated Proof-of-Stake as its consensus mechanism. Steem has a number of so-called witnesses that are accounts that run servers called witnesses that are used to create a block out of new transactions every three seconds. Witnesses are elected in an ongoing vote based on locked STEEM (Steem Power). Twenty witnesses with the highest amount of stake backing them and one witness picked out of the rest take turns signing blocks. The agreement of seventeen out of the top twenty witnesses, called consensus witnesses, is required for the rules of the blockchain to be changed.

The security of a blockchain must require as little trust as possible. However, on Steem, the number of consensus witnesses is small because one central design goal of Steem was low cost of use and high throughput at the cost of security. Dan Larrimer, the designer of Bitshares, which is a cousin chain and a predecessor of Steem, wrote an article on this entitled Overpaying For Security. Delegated Proof-of-Stake involves an element of trust. This is why it is very important for stakeholders to pick the witnesses they vote for very carefully. Stakeholders must always ask themselves if the consensus witnesses are competent enough and have the best interests of Steem in mind.

Content rewards have been and I believe continue to be an important way to decentralize the stake distribution. Currently, the rewards are distributed in the following proportions: 10% to witnesses, 15% to Steem Power holders, 10% to the Steem Proposal System and 65% to content creators and curators. Out of that group, the rewards of content creators and SPS fund recipients tend not to be tied to their amount SP they hold. What that means is that 47.5% of the inflation pool is distributed to users who need not have practically any stake at all. That's a slow way to distribute stake but it has proven somewhat effective as the emergence of a middle class of users in the range of 5,000 to 50,000 SP in recent years demonstrates. Not many other blockchains have so many unique users creating value in exchange for stake distributed to them.

What does decentralization mean to you, is it important, why?

I'm a veteran online content creator. I've participated in countless conversations on various Internet forums for the last 30 years or so. I really hate it when my words get censored or altered. The freedom to express the truth as I see it is very valuable to me. Out of any platform that I've ever tried, Steem is hands down superior to any other in terms of freedom of expression.

What are your thoughts on blockchain and decentralization?

Decentralization is an organizing principle that seeks to eliminate central points of control from an organization or a system. The free market is a decentralized information system that has always emerged wherever people have come together to exchange value. In modern society, free markets have undergone vast expansion as a result of the increased division of labor. Free markets and the decentralization of political power go hand in hand.

Public blockchains are yet another type of technology that allows for free markets to expand. What's particularly interesting about Steem is how the Proof-of-Brain mechanism allows for rapid capture of value for digital creations based on community consensus. Compared to PoB, typical ways for online content to capture value such as affiliate marketing, advertisements, pay walls and tipping depend on the content creator mastering search engine optimization to maximize their reach and targeting the right audience. Monetizing content that way inevitably taints the creative process with marketing concerns.

Public blockchains have existed a little over a decade. Their success remains to be seen. But I can honestly say my experience on Steem has been so good that the only frustration I have is slow pace of its adoption, a consequence of its novelty.

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