Everything from Uber To AirBnb would become much more efficient if they were decentralize, but there is currently no practical way for that to happen.
While the ideas of a decentralized ride sharing app has the possibility be successful, having to build an independent application specific blockchain to power the app would make the development and implementation of the application extremely difficult. While the Ethereum project could make these types of applications a reality, the costs associated with running the application on the network would make it very difficult to implement. Not only would the Ethereum network likely not be able to support the amount of transactions that this type of application would require if adopted, but the transaction costs would also add unnecessary costs that would lower its advantages over centralized services.
The aspect that I believe will really enable EOS to achieve success is the implementation of a graphene blockchain system, which is vastly technically superior to other blockchain systems. The ability for graphene systems to scale much easier than any other system, gives it a direct advantage in terms of actually being able to handle mainstream adoption if it needed to. EOS gives developers the ability to develop a wide array of different applications all running on the same blockchain, and has a consistent scripting language of wren. Instead of developers having to construct a custom application specific blockchain for each application, the EOS platform will be able to run them all on the same blockchain.
From a user standpoint, having a wide variety of applications all on the same platform is the most convenient method and in my opinion will be extremely important in the success of a project. Ethereum attempted to tackle this goal, but it appears as they are still coming up short. Instead of users having to have a different username/password for every different application, being able to use the same identifier on a variety of applications makes things much more convenient and simpler for the user. When considering the possibility for long term adoption and success, the ease and convenience that the platform or project grants its customers is an extremely important factor to consider. The common identifier across different applications on the EOS platform will also mean that application developers will no longer have to establish their own username/key combinations for users, as they will have a common identifier that can be interpreted and utilized in the application easily.
Before any applications gain mainstream success, individuals must have a greater level of trust and understanding of the technology.
Words like decentralized and blockchain often still 'frighten' many individuals, simply because they don't actually understand the technology and its implications. The incentive for users to turn to a decentralized application would likely need to be very big, but when we consider the level of fees that firms like Uber take, the most likely incentive for users to make the switch would be cost savings. When we consider what a firm like Uber actually does it is clear that their fees are simply vastly disproportionate to the service they provide, and a decentralized ride sharing application isn't actually that crazy of an idea. Everything from reviews, reputation scores, average rating, ect. could be automatically updated onto the immutable blockchain, which could even make these applications more trustworthy compared to traditional centralized applications.
A decentralized application would have tremendous cost savings in terms of hosting the application, because on the EOS platform individuals are granted the amount of bandwidth and storage in proportion to their total stake in the EOS network. This means that instead of having to consistently pay hosting costs like a firm would currently, a 1/500th stake in the total network will always entitle you to 1/500th of the total network's bandwidth and storage. If an individual or firm did not need all of that bandwidth and storage, they can 'rent' some or all of it to other users. The same thing goes for if a user requires a greater amount of resources than what their stake entitles them to, because they will likely be able to easily and seamlessly rent out additional bandwidth and storage from other stakeholders. This gives developers the ability to easily and quickly scale with the resources that their applications demand, which is vital to long term success and adoption.
While the platform will likely not see mainstream adoption and success for some time, the long term potential of the EOS platform is huge. It will likely take some time for the platform to be able to have an application that is adopted by the mainstream, but I think that applications that are more practical and usable will present themselves quicker than we may expect. The consistency of the scripting language and uniform authentication methods across the platform will free up developers to focus directly on creating and building different applications, which will enable applications to likely come to life quicker than they otherwise could on existing platforms. The ability to use a single account for a wide variety of applications will make the platform convenient for even the less technologically educated users. The creation of a single platform where many different types of applications live is the best way to achieve long term success, and I believe EOS may be the platform which achieves this success first.
While Steemit lives on an application specific blockchain, it can be considered a decentralized alternative to applications and websites like Reddit and Medium. While Steemit is gaining support and users at an increasing rate,m the true potential the Steemit platform has is much greater than what it is now. Nothing happens overnight, but the Steemit platform has made consistent and practical improvements as time has progressed and will likely continue to do so. Decentralized alternatives to traditional platforms and applications do have tremendous potential to achieve long term success, but it will likely be some time before that begins to achieve mainstream adoption.
I really hope that you enjoyed this post, and as always I urge you to leave any comments, input, questions, ect. below. Thanks for reading!