The web is meant to be a public utility that is not owned by anyone and shared by all. It’s fallen short of that ideal because the data on the web is owned by private companies that have made a tremendous amount of money from the information and content that the users of their websites produce.
The web needs a public database thats not owned by any centralized entity in order to live up to its original ideal. This is where the blockchain comes into play. It is just that - a publicly shared database for the variety of transactions conducted on the internet.
In order to maintain this public database we need a collective governance mechanism that can ensure the integrity of the database state. Thats where digital currencies come in. They are a finite resource that represent an ownership share of a blockchain (as well as the gamut of web applications that can be built on top of it). Through stake weighted voting digital democracy is formed.
Right now the online communities are governed by benevolent dictators, but liberation is fast approaching.
