Blockchain & The Journey to Decentralization
The mechanisms to ensure the security of digital files, general data and assets has been a problem in all industries at large. The traditional systems both physical and digital have had a solution such as blockchain for close to 30 years to solve such problems but it hasn’t been widely taken advantage of — could it potentially be on purpose? Why would certain sectors oppose decentralization via blockchain technology?
History has taught us that governments will tend to see a situation of uncontrollable protocols if not governed directly by them. Therefore, a red flag is waved in the air — that’s when you see pushback.
Between the 1900’s-1920’s, the United States was going through innovation in which they saw tremendous pushback from its citizens regarding the new way to deal with currency in commerce (and in general). They wanted to keep their precious metals such as gold and silver. The government, along with The Federal Reserve and various bank institutions announced the adoption of a currency, which we now know as fiat currency, e.g. the US Dollar.
Before the dollar, there were many different paper currencies making an attempt to be the next big innovation of the future of money. Sound familiar? This same notion is exactly what we are currently dealing with in 2021 with the acceptance (or no acceptance) of Blockchain, Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
Let’s be honest, decentralization scares many entities for reasons of their own. But, there are those entities that will go against it and realize that decentralization via bockchain technology can and will solve many problems currently lingering.
Let’s examine private blockchains vs public blockchains and how decentralization can play a major role.
A completely decentralized blockchain ecosystem has no entity at its control. No governmental, banking or other entities that may prevent the consensus protocol. On the other hand, you have institutions that may be open to adopting a decentralized technology but with a private blockchain. These types of institutions most likely will be the entities previously mentioned. The United States government, for example, is gearing up to establish a Stable Coin/Token that will be the government’s version of their own crypto currency. Because of its nature, the United States (and countries alike), could have strict private blockchains leading them to have controlled and centralized blockchains.
A 100% decentralized world will likely not happen mainly because of world governments. However, this doesn’t have any bearing on the fact that decentralization will still disrupt countless of industries worldwide. For example, Propy, a blockchain real estate platform is bringing decentralization for selling and buying property. Decentraland is the latest metaverse on the blockchain bringing decentralization to video games and building in virtual worlds. And Audiochain, the blockchain music platform decentralizing the music industry for proper music rights management, royalty collection and much more.
Decentralization is not going anywhere. As Web 3.0 replaces Web 2.0, the re-set will continue to happen. The blockchain will keep adding layers to the old internet — providing a wide-range of protocols for time-stamping, hash functions and transparency that will still bring a decentralized world.
–– Paula Reina (Founder of Audiochain) www.audiochain.io
