The Move Towards Decentralization

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One of the great things about public blockchains is the ability to decentralize. We all know the Internet is a siloed system run by a few entities. The Amazon-Google-Facebook-Apple cartel controls almost all that takes place online (at least for those in the U.S.).

Blockchain offers people hope this will change.

While we are in the early stages, it is important to note that some progress is being made. That said, not all is what it appears to be.

Tron is one of the latest blockchains to gather a lot of attention. Justin Sun is now a superstar achieving celebrity status. This is common in the tech world. He has the backing of a lot of money which means the PR machine can go to work. Unfortunately, this might not be in the best interest of all involved.

One of the co-founders left the project to start his own blockchain. The reason is because he feels that Tron is too centralized. Lucien Chen, the CTO for the company, says that Tron strayed from its founding principles by becoming excessively centralized. This is evident, in his view, of the DPOS status where most of the transactions are handled by Tron itself.

In addition to his concerns over centralization, Chen also said that as the former CTO who helped build the platform, he knows that real internet applications currently can’t function in the Tron network.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tron-co-founder-and-cto-leaves-project-alleging-excessive-centralization

Here we see an instance where hype is the main driver. Tron is a (mostly) centralized system that does not have real applications. This is a major problem that could cause a major fall in the future. These are some of the warning signs that we need to be mindful of.

EOS is another project that appears to be moving forward with the decentralization engine. Dan Larimer has a different vision for that blockchain. He set it with the intention of it being forked all over the place. The idea is to have DPOS on top of DPOS on top of DPOS. With each fork, a new set of nodes are established, being verified by different parties. If a chain does end up centralized, it is just one within the entire ecosystem. It is insignificant among the hundreds or, possibly, thousands of forks that will take place.

I mentioned the other day how Steem is decentralizing the wealth. While the spreading out of STEEM Power is rather slow, newer token creation is allowing non-whale accounts to amass power. With the introduction of SCOT (and later SMTs) we are going to see power amassed within different communities that is within the Steem ecosystem yet outside the base framework. A Steem Red Fish might be a Whale within a particular community.

We also see MIRA being implemented. This is in test phase and should be complete within a few week if there are no setbacks. This is a major move for the ecosystem. What this does is alter the memory requirements for the nodes. Using SSD as opposed to RAM means the system is more cost effective to run. This will allow others (i.e. applications) to open up their own nodes, further decentralizing system.

The more decentralized a system, the stronger it is. One of the powerful advantages of the entire crypto world is that it spreads out as time goes by. Whereas the present system, both power and money seem to be filtered more into the hands of those who hold it.

With crypto, the exact opposite happens. Tokens distribution spreads out over time as more people get involved in the system. The development of other chains means we have more nodes, collectively, which to build upon. Even Bitcoin, which was accused of centralization, saw the mining pool spread out due to the collapse in price and some big miners going out.

And finally, we have Old Softy. Microsoft announced that it is building a Digital ID (DID) on Bitcoin. This is mostly going to be a testing network, at least for now.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/microsoft-builds-decentralized-identity-network-atop-bitcoin-blockchain

When a company like Microsoft is looking at the decentralized world, you know things are changing quickly. This is a huge benefit to humanity since centralized system make control very easy. A number of companies like Microsoft see the shift while most others are trying to maintain their control. This could prove to be a fatal mistake for them.

This is a process that is not going to stop. The tools and number of people interested in this keeps expanding. Decentralized products are, in many instances, just as good as the centralized counterparts. Over time, we will see them improve even more. This is going to place the centralized entities in a tough position. Without that control, their ability to "compete" is hindered.

One of the biggest advantages of blockchain is the ability to tap into resources outside of one's payroll. Ecosystems grow on their own as developers get interested. This is a different model than what the Fortune 1000 are use to dealing with.

Each day, things just keep on spreading out.

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