"Not Getting the Blockchain Revolution" is really bothering me. Unfortunately, the full attention of us, who will benefit, correction: "be saved" by the Blockchain Revolution, are onto the coin prices, the charts, the meaningless namings of "what the charts look like now and 2 weeks before", or the super volatility of the market. I am not suggesting not to care about it at all, but I am trying to lift the curtain and shed some light upon what lies beneath: The Blockchain itself.
If I was blurring out these thoughts of mine on a regular social media site, like Facebook, I would be crying out, at the peeks of Barad-dûr, aka: the Dark Tower, the Eye of Sauron... I was honestly terrified when I learned what Facebook is capable of doing with the data of us using their genius algorithms.
I don't post on Facebook, or even check it no more than 1-2 times a week. But not 5-6 years ago... I was, as most of us, sharing, writing, liking things that I thought were funny, watching videos of cute puppies and feeling happy. And now... I know that Facebook knows about me more than my mother knows about me. And how great but also very very dangerous could that be for me if that knowledge is up for sale and handed over to the highest bidder?
Sadly, when it comes to corporations or governments, money most of the times wins its battles against ethics or morality. They have no stoppage of milking more cash from you, the product itself. Or if that data is shared, how would you like your government knowing every little detail about you?
Let's just focus on the monetary value of that data for now... How much would it worth to know a person better than that person knows herself? How about having that same data for 2.3 Billion people on Earth, as of 2018, Quarter 3?
In the end, the quarterly earnings look shinier, all the graphs point to the sky, shareholders have grins on their faces. And the next quarter, keep looking for more ways to extract more data out of you, learn every Carbon that makes you, You! Of course my whole post won't be about Facebook. Amazon, Google or Apple or Microsoft and the rest are no angels either.
They have an algorithm that "figures you out", after you checkout a few posts or like a few things or even type something and then delete immediately. Yes they even track your key strokes.
Their algorithm is so effective, that it can make an educated guess, that you are highly likely to have depression in the upcoming weeks. From your history at Facebook, the mood of your last WhatsApp messages, your Instagram likes or posts, or even your credit card purchases (yes they also buy that data to make you an ever better product)... It makes that calculated guess. It knows that you went to Vegas once and you like BlackJack. A 33 years old single guy, who will be in depression in a few weeks, and who also likes gambling. The algorithm flags you as a potential target customer for the Vegas Hotels and Casinos or Airline Companies or Travel Agencies... These agencies pay Facebook its share and have direct access to the exact customer they're looking for, right through his 4" handheld beacon device, his iPhone!
This algorithm could repetitively show you "news" or talks or videos that can alter your "way of thinking". I am not joking. You know how "fake-news" blah was used to even alter the elections in the most powerful country on earth. With his own words, Mark Zuckerberg said that they couldn't stop some "tools" to do harm. Here's what he said before a joint Senate Committee:
"[I]t's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."!
I am sorry but if Dr Frankenstein would ever make an apology, it would have sounded just like that. In the end, they are creating a dystopia just to make people click on ads, as Zeynep Tufekci says in this TED Talk, which I highly recommend you to watch.
Google Maps track you no matter what. Even if you don't use it, you realize it actually recorded the place where you parked your car and show you when you're looking for it. And you feel like: "Good job!! Good job!!". You open the Google Maps to look for an address, but can't stop noticing a picture of a juicy tenderloin steak, oh what a coincide, it's about dinner time and you happen to be hungry. Oh hey, this juicy is served at a restaurant only a block away. Well everyone wins, right? Google sells the data of where I am at what time and knows I always buy a tenderloin steak whenever I go to Ralph's and pay with my credit card, which is always; or dine out at Steak Houses pretty often. And this is exactly what the restaurant paid Google for: Find that meat lover dude and show him that picture, he'll come! He'll come.
It is my data and many parties are involved in this data. Someone sells, the other buys, one other takes his commission from the payment, and the other from the phone, or data usage fee etc. etc. I think I want a share of that transaction.
My very good friend Huseyin Cihan who is a great photographer, takes frequent adventure trips to different parts of the world and take a lot of amazing pictures. He once showed me a picture he took at Cape Town, a Great White, catching a seal in the air, after a 5 feet jump. It's really brilliant! He told me he waited for hours to catch that moment that happens in a split of a second. But he did! He is proud of that photo and shared it on Instagram. It was viewed and liked by many people... Instagram sold ads for these many views, using their powerful algorithm, identifies just the right thumb-scrollers to show an ad "just right" for them. Well Huseyin got the many likes of these thumb-scrollers and nothing else.
For Free!!!
It seems like everything is free, but actually the only thing free is us, the people.
What I am all mumbling about is, "the only escape from this evil system will be with the use of Blockchain." Let's not get stuck on altcoin prices or "head and shoulder" graphs... Let's try to understand what Blockchain could do for us.
Technology was here to make the lives of humans easier. But it's making the lives of corporations a thousand times "more" easier. Now the humans are turned into products. With the algorithms and AI using the Big Data of "Us", we could be shaped as one can desire as long as its fee is paid for.
As you have noticed, I have not even talked about how banking will change, and no third parties involvements will be required with the use of crypto currencies, etc etc. These will happen any way. But what better will happen is, our data won't be as easily accessible and be marketed as it was before. And if we "decide" to do that, we will get our share of it.
Cheers...