It is clear that the tide is changing in Silicon Valley. As parodied in the sitcom of that name, the companies were heralded in recent years for their intention to “make the world a better place.”
However, recently the attitude towards the omnipotent tech-hub has soured. It is difficult to pin down the exact moment the mood shifted, but there is much evidence to support the view that Silicon Valley is no longer the entrepreneurial world’s golden child.
Fake news and Russia infiltrating Facebook. This is probably a good place to start. Does this suggest that the social media giants are dirty or that they no longer control what they created?
This is certainly the view of Sean Parker, the controversial founder of Napster and first President of Facebook. He has stated that Facebook is “exploiting” people and “God only knows what it is doing to our children.”
To me this just not mean that the world is doomed and people are destined to become silicon valley slaves, but rather it means that we have reached a tipping point.
The time is ripe for decentralisation to take centre stage and to make applications for mainstream use.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitshares, Steemit and EOS to name but a few are all proponents of this. They are creating new ways in which people, companies and properties can interact with one another.
Together we can remove third parties, remove the manipulation and bias that is necessarily associated with a centralised power.
The recent news that Bitcoin has decided to cancel the fork scheduled for 16th November is testament to the power that decentralisation affords to the users. The power of consensus: the majority of people who spoke up with regards to the imminent fork were against it and rationally explained why it was not a good idea. As such, the fork has been postponed, at least until it meets the desires of the majority of users.
Compare this to unpopular changes that giant tech companies have made and insisted upon despite consumer outrage.