The Push Towards Decentralization Is Taking Place Even If We Aren't Aware Of It
This seems like an easy concept yet there are some different layers that require some investigation.
There is little doubt, we live in a centralized world, especially when it comes to social media. Want to interact with friends, there is the Facebook family and that is basically it. For video, most everyone heads over to YouTube to get their fill. Of course, if we want to send out a few snippets that millions can see, Twitter is the platform of choice.
While there are other alternatives, we see little else that is viable on a mass scale. This sums up centralization.
Basically, centralization boils down to a lack of choice.
We see this with the aforementioned social media outlets. Essentially, we have a similar experience with the mainstream media. Governments are natural monopolies that offer no choice to the populous. Of course, the political establishment is ultimately the same clowns in different clothing.
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Blockchain and cryptocurrency are meant to decentralize the world. Thus, if centralization is the lack of choice, decentralization is the offering up of alternatives.
We see how the situation with Steem exemplifies what is taking place. When discussing this industry, we are dealing with a limitless factor that we do not see elsewhere. Open source provides the rapid ability to decentralize by our virtual movement.
Many asserted that Steem was centralized due to the Steemit Inc stake. This played out with the entry of Justin Sun. Unlike Steemit Inc, Sun is more than happy to use the stake to exert control over the ecosystem. He did the same thing with Tron so this is no surprise. Therefore, it is becoming very clear how centralized Steem is.
Yet, it is not the only game in town. Back in March, a number of people created an entirely new platform called Hive. It was a fork of Steem, thus was able to keep that data base as a foundation for what took place. This new system was put together in 6 or 7 weeks by a team of roughly 100 people.
Today, users have the choice of which platform they use. The options are there. An individual can post on either platform or both. The decision boils down to the individual.
Naturally, there are those who claim Hive is too centralized. That is fine. When we look at the overall, we are seeing a movement towards more decentralization as the choices are increasing.
Of course, within the Hive ecosystem, there are many options open to individuals. There are a number of front ends to use for posting. A portion of them have their own community along with a token that can assign value to the transactions. It is up to them to grow and expand.
Many talk about whales and how they are in control of everything. This is not true. Certainly, within a particular platform this is usually the case. However, when we look at it from a higher perspective, we see a different story.
Bitcoin Whales are different from those on Ethereum. Hive whales are different from EOS whales. Those with the largest Cardano stake are not the same as Tron.
Then we get into the "subsets" of each platform. On Hive, are those who hold the vast amount of PAL the same as LEO? Do we not see a difference between the DPORN holders and Marlians?
We know there was a time when the entire cryptocurrency industry contained only Bitcoin. Then, after a couple of years, other tokens showed up. Over the past decade, this grew to over 7,500 tokens listed on Coingecko. Of course, this does not account for other digital assets such as Splinterland cards that are very specialized in use and traded on smaller exchanges.
The focus tends to remain on Bitcoin and the fact it makes up roughly 60% of the total value of the crypto market. This is natural since that is what gets the publicity. However, yesterday we saw the announcement that CryptoKitties is moving to the Flow Blockchain. Will this result in billions of dollars worth of value being created on there as scaling takes place?
Only time will tell. Nevertheless, it does exemplify how wealth is being generated out of many different corners of the crypto-sphere. Eventually, the "long-tail" of cryptocurrency will see more wealth from the smaller projects than the mainstream ones.
There will be many projects that do not make it to the listing on the likes of Coingecko. However, there are going to be many with millions of dollars worth of value. That does not seem like much when we consider Bitcoin is worth over $160 billion. However, the impact on an individual balance is the same when holding $10,000 worth of Bitcoin or the same amount in some project few have heard of. We are going to see millions of different digital assets that have value.
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It is so true.
Everything is centralized in some respect. Centralized on many points that are dynamically growing and shrinking and evolving. Kind of a contradiction in terms.
I do like the thought of how crypto and blockchain enables us to decentralize our stakes and participation as individual decisions. If I don’t like the fact that a blockchain is controlled by too few, I pick another block chain. Centralize my interest where I choose.
I also enjoy how a place like hive can materialize on a blockchain and how I get to run my business how I choose for the rewards I want. With your big stake, following and ability to create posts which always produce fantastic payouts, you seem to enjoy having worked so hard for so long.
Congrats my friend and thanks again for the insight.
It takes time to build but there is opportunity for everyone. As new applications and platforms come online, we see the opportunity for anyone to become a whale in that certain arena. In fact, people can be whales on multiple platforms, thus having a say in what is taking place.
It might be difficult to see now see we really have not gotten too many apps to break through but what happens if 3Speak, as an example, starts issuing a token and content creators become the whales on there? It changes things a great deal for that platform.
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Thank you for your wonderful article and your continued work to draw the big picture that to often get out of focus if drama heats up the heads. The thing that is still desperately missing in this economy is the links to realworld value. As long as nobody takes the risk to sell products with a fix fiatvalue (from popcorn to cars) for crypto and not only new produced virtuality things, the average user will lack the faith calling everything a scam, a ponzi or fraud. I hope that the economic downturn and the resulting struggles may force some people to search for alternative marketplaces or customer groups to sell their products on a blockchain like HIVE, that is ripe to send its tokens for real world stuff. I would like to see a proposal on the DAO to buy a bankrupt company and providing their products or services exclusively for this blockchain, or using its products for the marketing of HIVE (Hive-beer,hive-wine,hive-honey) spending back revenues into the DAO over time. They will get not only my vote but also my support on and off-chain, because they would link real-world value to the tokens I hold.
I agree the major issue right now is the separation from the real world. What is needed is the bridge to where people can buy goods and services they regularly need with cryptocurrency.
When one can easily buy a can of beans or a pair of sneakers, then we know we will have arrived as a viable financial system.
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Solid read here. We're gently moving towards decentralization as many are waking to the reality of possible cage of their funds in the conventional banking systems. It's crucial that in our little ways, we keep spreading the news till everyone in our close niche hears this truth.
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It is a process @uyobong. There is still a lot of work to be done. However, each day I come across new projects that offer potential to people. Where will many of them be in a couple years? Many will be in the toilet since they will not be adopted. There will be some, though, that do breakthrough.
That is the key. To be part of the ones that do end up making a difference.
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