The continued growth of Internet-connected devices is the main value that drives most innovations in the technology industry. According to data from the Pew Research Center, data related to Internet usage is also growing. Nearly 93% of American adults use the Internet, while only half of adults used the Internet in 2000. Increasing computing power and the driving force of human Internet interaction can be combined with the increasing use of decentralized networks. These decentralized networks are designed to disrupt our current centralized network, in which users no longer control their data and security information. Due to the advancement of blockchain technology, more and more startups and organizations have emerged with solutions hoping to return the power to people, so everyone can use their own digital footprint key.
The Internet effect of the network provides a portal for social media influencers, artists and gamers to expand their influence. Now more than ever, people expect the Internet to provide wages, social activities and basic interactions, which is changing the way society operates in daily life. As a result of this shift in Internet-connected applications, the coverage of large tech giants has expanded from children to the elderly. These large technology companies are collecting large amounts of personal data, which are used to predict future behavior and ultimately provide value for their own businesses. However, as more and more data breaches occur every year, the centralization of the Internet shows obvious signs of diminishing returns.
How is the Internet centralized?
The World Wide Web (also known as the Internet used by most users) is highly centralized. The main reason is that users can easily communicate and operate their daily needs and desires, which ultimately enables large technology companies to operate. Since Internet users usually express their opinions, needs, and desires online, a technology company will try to identify these common interests in order to build a bridge, or in other words, a digital footprint. Then, this bridge can be connected to another large technology company, and ultimately transfer users’ interests, desires, and behaviors to other websites to find common interests. This helps to attract users to browse the web, thereby showing them relevant content. Then, monopoly technology companies can take advantage of this, hoping to get direct traffic from one network to another.
Users are seizing the opportunities of these Internet monopolies. Obviously, many Internet users believe that large technology companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon have begun to try to take over the Internet. Users have become increasingly dependent on e-commerce to purchase household items, groceries, and almost all physical goods on Amazon. You can find unknown answers through Google’s quick search, but when you’re searching, you may wish to check your email and then open the Google Maps application to return to the homepage. The main problem behind these problems is the centralization of goods and services, and we have become dependent on these goods and services to run daily affairs. The question is, “Why can we abandon these monopoly companies and create better concepts? We can; however, users seem to tend to use these technology giant websites because they provide better interfaces and faster services.”
Why should the Internet be decentralized?
Throughout history, we can see signs of negative effects brought about by the centralized Internet. Since most centralized networks rely on a single entity, they cannot ensure that users are protected from some form of data leakage, nor can they guarantee user privacy. In most cases, large technology companies allow the use of basic privacy policies and control measures, but the amount of data collected on users is confidential and not easily accessible. Centralized site operators can even obtain user data without the user’s knowledge. In addition to these issues, facts have proven that the ability to manipulate beliefs and opinions during elections and during periods of social activity is real. When a consumer’s browser cookie leaves a trace on the World Wide Web, the use of data mining enables technology companies to predict consumer behavior. These data can be extracted, transferred, sold and traded, and the entire data economy is almost unregulated.
Although it is more convenient and easy to set up a centralized network and site, users who use a centralized site obviously have some shortcomings. If a centralized site is subject to a DDoS or network attack, the chance of a site going down and facing data leakage is higher than that of a decentralized site of various operators with multiple nodes and running a decentralized network. These basic concepts are usually provided on a decentralized network, such as security, fairness, and transparency. Decentralized systems are not simple points of attack, because they are connected by distributed systems, and attacking decentralized systems will require a lot of resources or funds.
Citizens have noticed that technology giants and monopolies that control the Internet are using personal information for economic or political benefits
The decentralized system promotes personal privacy and makes it resistant to attacks such as phishing for stealing passwords, personal data, information or manipulation
Developers need to create an environment that supports privacy and does not make mistakes
Nowadays, many decentralized network protocols tend to rely on peer-to-peer (P2P) or distributed systems because they usually provide a reliable method to save online data
Discuss the challenges of decentralization
If you can feel the desire for decentralized networks, then you will understand the desire for transparency of large technology companies. However, leading the decentralization of the Internet is not easy. Mass adoption will be an interesting obstacle. Because it is difficult for most people to explain decentralization, it will be more challenging to expect users to learn how to use these systems. However, in the early days of the Internet, the emergence of centralized Internet services was not an easy task. Many early Internet pioneers had to struggle with regulations, social standards, and previous habits to enable the public to use the Internet. As long as most Internet users do not understand how to use decentralized networks and websites, most people will avoid these complex issues. The growth of Internet-related startups helps users understand the competitive behavior of large technology companies. Breaking up these large companies and forcing them to compete is a good way to create better digital standards.
Internet users do not need to add other troubles in their daily lives. Adding more steps to the on-board users of the decentralized service will only increase the user’s responsibility, which may be a clear way to deter users of the centralized service.
I think it is the responsibility of developers to start creating applications that utilize advanced technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized autonomous exchanges. In the Ethereum white paper, Vitalik Buterin and others discussed that Ethereum will one day host many applications. I should develop some of my favorite applications as described in the Ethereum white paper, including decentralized autonomous organizations, non-homogeneous tokens, decentralized file storage, identity and reputation systems, financial derivatives and stable currencies, Comprehensive employment contract.
V God believes three reasons for decentralization
Fault tolerance
Decentralized systems are unlikely to fail unexpectedly because they rely on many unlikely independent components.
Resist attack
The cost of attack, destruction, or manipulation of decentralized systems is higher because they lack a sensitive central point, and the cost of the central point of attack is much lower than the economic scale of the surrounding system.
Anti-interoperability
It is much more difficult for participants in a decentralized system to conspire to sacrifice the interests of other participants in a way that benefits them, while leaders of companies and governments conspire to benefit themselves but harm poorly coordinated citizens, customers, and employees The way of working with employees is much more difficult. It has always been the public.
Lead a decentralized team
Grindez-freelance job market
Grindez is a P2P work platform, hoping to lead the decentralized work market. As the preferred job market for custodial cryptocurrency payments, Grindez connects freelancers and customers through smart contracts, providing strong protection and efficient custodial payments regardless of where they are. If you are familiar with any large freelance platform, then you will be satisfied with their function in the freelance market.
OzoneAI
OzoneAI allows users to more finely control who gets the data, thereby protecting users’ privacy. Companies can skip large advertising giants such as Google and Facebook and buy users’ own anonymous data access. Users need to pay for access, and companies can use this data to better target their ads.
Interplanetary File System (IPFS)
The main goal of IPFS is to create a decentralized file sharing system while storing records in these files so that they will never be lost.
IPFS hopes to create a decentralized file system to store and share content. Since I first discovered the IPFS system, IPFS has made great progress. IPFS can be compared with BitTorrent because they both allow users to store and share files using hashes. In the next few years, IPFS will assist in storing information for historical and research purposes.
Oasis Labs
Oasis Labs is a privacy-first cloud computing platform running on the blockchain. The smart contract created by Oasis can provide complete privacy without causing any damage. The company’s cloud computing headquarters is located in Berkeley, California, and offers a variety of options in decentralized trust and privacy protection products.
to sum up
I hope this article can provide a certain reference value for the exploration of decentralization. Although it is simple to understand the necessity of decentralized exchange, implementing decentralized systems, networks, sites and applications will not be a fast and easy task. The complexity of current decentralized systems only applies to those who have advanced knowledge in the use of these systems, which may pose a challenge to ordinary Internet users. Although we have noticed that to fight against the centralized large-scale technology monopoly, the gap needs to be filled, but today’s developers who develop Internet applications bear the responsibility. With the free control of data, the preservation of information flow and media content becoming more and more important, the advantages of decentralized networks will gradually appear in the future of the Internet. I believe that the Internet should be open, fair, transparent and decentralized. Internet users are beginning to realize the importance of these.
Author/ Translator: Jamie Kim
Bio: Jamie Kim is a technology journalist. Raised in Hong Kong and always vocal at heart. She aims to share her expertise with the readers at blockreview.net. Kim is a Bitcoin maximalist who believes with unwavering conviction that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency – in fact, currency – worth caring about.