Blockchains and decentralization that is quite an interesting topic when it comes to why I choose to engage with such systems in the first place. There are a couple of things I’m personally looking for that end up making these things. It more comes down to having a voice unless I vote for someone else to carry my voice with a bunch of others. Having some kind of balance of power so no one side can rewrite the rules overnight. Along with protecting whatever it is I want to build.
Decentralization Can be Messy But Not Impossible
Not everyone all the time is going to agree about everything. That is just how we are as individuals and it’s not impossible to come to a solution for moving forwards either. It can even seem like a monumental task at times when everyone is voicing their opinion all at once.
What is quite interesting is just how many centralized organizations can come together to create a decentralization ecosystem. There are so many communities that are nowhere decentralized and have a single leader that has the final say on all matters. Sometimes those centralized communities overstep their bounds and need to be reminded they are not the only ones in that ecosystem and the choices they have made are now affecting the whole ocean.
We have seen over the past week(s) people speaking on the behave of others. That is always an area decentralization can struggle with. Since when you are doing business deals, for instance, a centralized company sends a couple of people over and the other side tends to do the same thing. We have no issue with that. However, Steemit Inc (Tron) is not Steem.
Steemit Inc (Tron) for whatever reasons without my consent, has been trying make decisions on my behave that deeply affect me using other platforms in our ocean. I have not voted you as my witness. You don’t own me. I use your site less and less every day. You are just one private company using this thing like everyone else. Yes, Steemit Inc has done a lot more than most. So you usually get a bit of a pass that was until Tron. It seems we have not been decentralized enough when dealing with you. As Tron has been treating us like something you buy off a shelf at Walmart. You are just one company in this ecosystem.
The people who I have voted as my witnesses for better or worse are representing my tiny voice and many others. It’s not reasonable to expect 10k+ individuals one at a time to make a one hour presentations every time something comes up. Real witnesses take in community feedback when they can and to the best of their ability as a decentralization ecosystem. Sometimes yes things have to be solved quickly and that is why they have been voted in to make that choice when there is not enough time for debate or security reasons.
When they do stuff I don’t agree with I unvote those witnesses. The majority of the blockchain can’t unvote Steemit Inc (Tron) as we have never voted for them in the first place. Steem has become bigger than Steemit Inc (Tron). Stuff gets messy. It is, however, we as a community to be messy when it comes to Steem. You can do wtf ever you like on your dam website.
Ignoring the real witness that represents such a wide range of individuals, however, has been a massive disappointment at the whole start of this mess. It’s one of the very systems we have to quickly deal with things and it got override removing the power the people gave them. Unless you want to take direct input over months on every single little thing when it comes to Steem. If I wanted a single monarch over my head I’d still be on YouTube.
Exchanges Make Money But Are Not Around To Govern
The biggest threat I see to decentralization is always who can make the most money can control it. Exchanges for better or worse by just taking a cut and providing a much-needed service have a huge money-making opportunity. This also means they accumulate a very massive supply of the cryptocurrency.
Naturally, the ones that are great at their job can then afford to spend money on advertisement, referral programs, amazing deals and even offer free cryptocurrency for using them during special promotion. As a result, the market will as it has been being very top-heavy in dominance by just a couple of exchanges.
If they can’t understand the threat they pose to decentralization that is a massive issue. They could very well be the thing that kills the soul from where the money rains. It has become clear they don’t even understand a lot of cryptocurrencies they are involved in. A smart business person should realize getting involved in politics of something they don’t understand just makes a huge mess.
The only way to try and combat this is having lots of exchange options and them making it clear they are just an exchange. Choosing to do business with the smaller ones even if they cost slightly more as long as they are safe and do they do their best to handle any issues a customer has. Along with using other alternatives such as DEXs. Otherwise, you are just compounding the risk by making the top even more powerful in their centralized operations.
I Didn’t Sign Up For YouTube Like Control Over Me
It’s one thing to have a reward disagreement and downvote content before it closes. It is another to have a centralized authority that someone can manipulate to do their bidding.
Back in the day long before Steem, I made YouTube videos. I had a hundred videos after grinding hard for quite a few months. I was a small-time channel and didn’t make much which I was fine with. One day I woke up to someone copyright claiming one of my videos and getting forever whatever it earned.
My only solution to that at the time was telling the people who were stealing from me that they made a mistake. The video game I was playing at the time had a gunshot sound it in. Somehow they were able to claim it matched a song that had zero gunshots in it. The music video and my gaming video had nothing alike.
It was a mess even trying to work out who had the legal rights to the song since there where around twenty different companies all claiming they had copyrights sometimes in different regions. Yet one of them was able to claim all future revue regardless of region.
After they refused to remove the copyright claim on said video and I was not going sue them over the twenty cents my videos was made at the time. I woke up one morning to them claiming everything. That told me all I needed to know about YouTube and I got the heck out. It’s still a massive issue they have nowadays.
As far as my own content on YouTube I made the chose to delete it all. I refuse to live under a system where that can happen. Which is the route centralization leads to once you start thinking how to deal with the safe harbor act and a bunch of other legal stuff. The small guy will always get exploited by those who can play the centralized game and have the money.
Only I Can Delete My Content
One big thing that is seen in the gaming industry and elsewhere is many companies do not deal with criticism very well. Many places have in the past gone out of their way to not only have the content removed from websites but those content creators as well.
While I understand once something is posted to the blockchain it’s there forever. Edits can still be made so front ends display those edits instead. This requires my keys to do so from the blockchain side of things. Someone just can’t say remove my review about some game from everywhere if they don’t like it. Sure they can get a court order and then go after every single front end to have it no longer displayed. It’s still there however on the blockchain.
It’s nice knowing I don’t have to worry about waking up tomorrow and finding out my account was removed overnight due to getting a bunch of strikes in a row from a company seeking vengeance against me speaking up about them.
Freedom Of Choice
In a centralized platform like YouTube, you have them and no other options. Even if you wanted to build another option for people to upload videos with that is a no go. It’s their private centralized network and platform afterall.
I think Steem from this point of view has a lot of options. If you want to post written content you can do so from Steempeak, Steemit, busy, a bunch of different tribes. Heck, you can even go make your own. The same applies to video content you have a couple of options of who you want to use that then share that videos link to the blockchain.
If one of these places does not like you and even bans you from their front end. You have other options. Even if every front end decides they don’t want you as a user. You could, in theory, go make your own front end and run your own node.
Final Thoughts
The freedoms my gaming content and I get on a decentralization blockchain is worth me earning less in the short term on that content. If it was all about the money I would have left a long time ago. I would have dealt with all that nonsense centralized platforms have with how they treat content creators in what they can say and create.
Information
Screenshot is taken and content was written by @Enjar. Screenshot is from No Man’s Sky
