If you stated to the world at large that blockchain technology could help solve some of the thorniest problems the world is facing today, including climate change, you’d be met with derisive laughter. The decentralized blockchain is used to exchange tokens with funny sounding names in a way that governments and regulatory agencies can’t track - right? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Yes, cryptocurrency trading is a big part of blockchain technology and it tends to grab the headlines as prices rise and fall and financial pundits take to the airwaves to decry or applaud the latest ICO (initial coin offering), but the true upheavals the blockchain is bringing about have little or nothing to do with the exchange of crypto coins. The true strength of the blockchain, the real changes and value it is bringing about in society, commerce and the world are rooted in the applications, often called dApps that are making use of the power and structure of the blockchain technology.
This technological advancement is unprecedented even in a world as technically advanced as the one we live in. dApps exist on top of the blockchain that can touch every industry in existence, rebuilding them from the ground up and disrupting the long established centralized way of running the world and most of what society relies on in their daily lives.
The root of all of this change is the very decentralized nature of the blockchain. But Decentralization is not a solution for every industry and market sector. Just breaking the grip of the current institutions, governments and mega corporations who run the world may not benefit some industries at all. Rather than bringing a new order, decentralization can mean unnecessary system that complicate service delivery and actually make it inefficient.
While it is easy to scream from the rooftops “Decentralize Everything”, decentralization is not the answer for everything. Yes, it’s nice to give power back to the people, stripping the financial institutions, the Facebooks, the Walmarts of the world from the stranglehold they have on our daily lives. But the first question that needs to be asked is “Will this industry, corporation, or agency be improved with decentralization?”.
Decentralization only works when there is an end user base to decentralize TO. If there is only one or a very limited number of providers, decentralization will only complicate the delivery system. It also needs one of two things at a user level - active user participation, or an automated system to allow end users to “set it and forget it”. No one wants to manage the incredible number of daily interactions that a completely decentralized, un-automated system would entail.
However, if one massive corporation was already in control of several areas of product delivery, and that corporation leveraged the decentralized blockchain into their own business, we would have the very thing the blockchain promised to eliminate - centralized control of a large segment of our lives in a very efficient manner.
Amazon’s entry into the blockchain space is a hint of that centralized control. Let’s look at what Amazon does currently, and what their recent industry announcements and partnerships may portend for the industry and our lives.
Amazon is the largest retail entity on the net today. They have “cornered the market” on a wide range of consumable products, selling and delivering unheard of tons of merchandise. They have made substantial entry into the food market with millions of people around the world ordering non-perishable foodstuffs each day. They are making inroads into physical storefronts, run without traditional human checkout clerks. They have an overly large presence in the book market, the app market, the music market, the smart home market - you name it and it seems if it is consumed, Amazon has a foothold in that arena.
But what is often forgotten is the other side of Amazon’s business - data collection. Amazon is and has been one of the most efficient data collection machines ever seen. Their recent announcements at the re:Invent conference in Las Vegasbrings their well orchestrated entry into the blockchain ecosystem into the public eye. Not only will they be running a blockchain environment, they will also be introducing distributed ledger product and opening space for app developers to create dApps in their little corner of the blockchain universe.
Couple their existing reach in our lives, with their well honed data collection machine and take it to the decentralized blockchain, with Amazon providing a space and a well stocked toolbox to new app devs, and a ledger database for transactions and you have all the pieces for a decentralized system suddenly controlled in great measure by a very centralized company.
I think a popular saying sums it up pretty well. “Houston, we have a problem.”
Now the question is - “what can we do to keep the blockchain TRULY decentralized?”