Decentralization a term that has been used a lot in crypto world in the last decade. It is not a new concept. But it is an important one, and have existed since the beginning. Just look at the universe. Look at the nature. Look at the plants, animals, humans, etc. You will find something beautiful happening in a decentralized fashion. The decentralization we humans talk about it usually has to do with social constructs, political structures, financial protocols, military strategies, open source work flow, etc. Decentralization has always been there. Its importance became evident and possible with the advancement of internet and global communications. In fact, any system oscillates between centralization and decentralization. We humans tend to bring things closer to centralization due to our desire for power, shortcuts to riches, nepotism, and efficiency.
Decision making and execution of ideas is more efficient within centralized systems. Because these systems can quickly gather and allocated resources to the priority items to get things done. But also corrupt nature of such systems, makes most of the work wasted on few and often do not accomplish the overall goal. This has been the case with banks and money. We have gone through many different financial systems at various times and various places. We achieved truly global financial system in the 20th century. But that lead to super centralization of financial system, and gave all the power to the banks and governments. Not all banks and not all governments. The system became so corrupt that it didn't serve its purpose the fullest. World Bank, IMF, and such made more harm than helping the countries they were created to help in the first place. From whichever angle you look, there have been problems and mostly had to do with corruption, benefiting few in a very dishonest manner. This system is still here. It will continue for a while, maybe even forever, but in a different form. However, today we have an alternative system in the form of bitcoin. Bitcoin showed a better way, a more honest way, a way that all participants of the financial network can trust on and benefit from.
Traditional financial system is not going away, not anytime soon. Bitcoin is not going away, not ever. People will have to decide what system serve them the best. Maybe even experiment with hybrid options. What is different today is, that there is a transparent option that works many times better than traditional systems. Future will tell which way we will go. At least people have options to choose.
Bitcoin's success wouldn't be possible without its decentralized nature. The power of bitcoin is in how decentralized the network is. It is so decentralized today, it would be counter-productive to make it even slightly centralized. Decentralization in bitcoin is not necessarily about who hold the coins, how many whales are there. It is about who can change the protocol. There is no one entity or group that can do so. There is so much money involved now, all heavy investors are constantly watching for all possible attack vectors. They have to do so to protect their property. Bitcoin would never reach these highs, would never be so successful without decentralization. Centralized bitcoin is no different than fiat and traditional systems. We often talk about its scarcity as its magical power. But this scarcity is only possible due to the decentralization. No money network can be scarce if centralized entities like governments, corporations, and central banks control them. Cool thing about decentralization is that everybody can participate. It doesn't matter if you are a corrupt government, greedy bank, or ordinary person. All can enter and exit the network as they desire. Property rights of all are guaranteed by the decentralized network.
You may be asking why you keep talking about bitcoin when the topic is about decentralization the Hive way. It is so much simpler to explain the importance of decentralization using bitcoin as an example. Because it solves a big problem. But what bitcoin solves has to do with global finance, and bitcoin does it well. Its proof of work protocol is perfect for what it does. Now there are other aspects of human life that decentralization is badly needed. Internet. While we may think internet itself is decentralized. It actually is not. It can be. Unfortunately, our greed tends to create systems that centralized everything including the internet. For example you may have a domain name, but you don't completely own it forever. It can be taken away from you, it can be confiscated, it can be stolen. This is just one example. Internet has been monopolized by big tech for a while now. Google owns all the information, Facebook own the social content, Amazon owns the online shopping, etc. Many of these big, medium, and small companies love to have their market share, and control. Without this control they can't make massive gains. They would still make gains, but they would be a lot smaller. There have been successful web based companies that embraced philosophical idea of not taking advantage of their users and not bombarding them with ads. They couldn't have easily done so, and made hundreds of billions. But they settle for tens of millions in profits, and maintained their niche market. Unfortunately such companies in minority and over longer time their market share is taken away by big tech one way or the other. Big tech won't stop when their opportunity to make more money, a lot of money.
This is where Hive comes in. Hive offers a better system for everything on the internet. Be it social platforms, communication platforms, online gaming, e-commerce, etc. Hive can be utilized for solutions beyond internet as well. What makes Hive different from traditional web and so called web3 solutions is that Hive is actually decentralized. Many projects may have similar claims. But in reality they are lightyears away from decentralization, the Hive way. Hive is a decentralized blockchain network that offers solutions for the above mentioned activities online. However, that doesn't mean all solutions are available today. The blockchain can power these solutions. It is up to the participants of the network to create and implement these solutions. For example, Hive would be excellent for e-commerce. It has a potential to be something a lot better than Amazon, Ebay, Shopify, and others. We just don't have the right solutions built yet. Hive can easily power it. The problems developers would face would most likely be the infrastructure that connects the network and the world, legal and tax obligations in various jurisdictions. There is nothing wrong with building centralized solutions on top of the decentralized networks. In fact, that's how it should be done. Decentralized core layer provides all the transparency, technology, and tools solutions may need.
Bitcoin is great. It is for everybody. But is not a great solution to power the web, all the social activities, interactions, gaming, e-commerce. Sure bitcoin can facilitate financial aspects of such solutions, but that is not enough. Big tech is not making tons of money because of how people are transacting. They are making all the money because they control all the activities on the web and monetize them. Few share some profits, a little bit. But most hoard and hoard. That's what they are suppose to do. That is what their boards and investors encourage them to do, regardless the fact they may be engaging in dishonest behavior, and taking advantage of people. Hive provides the alternative. Anything you can think of done on the web, Hive can power it. We know there are those who already are building solutions on Hive successfully. Things may be going slower than what would like, but things are moving. Hive is not going anywhere. It will be around forever because of its decentralized nature. Centralized fake web3s will disappear, that's what happens to centralized systems. Others will take over eventually, if they fail to grab a decent size of the market share. Decentralized network can't disappear. It doesn't matter they grow or not, they grow slowly or fast. They will just be. Hive will always be. It is here as an alternative. People need to decide what they choose. Everybody is welcome to enter and exit the network.
Growth in decentralization requires participation. Not everybody can dedicate time, work, effort, and money for decentralized networks. Every singe effort, time spent, and word done, money spent makes the network stronger and more decentralized. There are many ways of participating in Hive and other similar systems. People have options. About a month ago, hivebuzz was kind enough to remind me that I have been seven years on Hive. Wow. Time flies. When you see notifications like this you wonder where the time went, and you also wonder why you are still here. I may not be as active as I used to be when I joined the network. I may not be as involved in the network as I used to be in the past. But I am still here. So are many others. I am here for decentralization and I am not going anywhere. I may disappear for a month or two, for a year or two, but I will still be around (if I am that is). Such is the case for many Hive participants. Many more join the network and do the same. But there are also those who leave for good. I have met many wonderful, and not so wonderful people on Hive who are no longer active participants. Most will never return. That is fine. Because it is an open network. And nothing wrong with leaving. Once you create an account, you have it forever. Unless you give the private keys away, lose, or burn them.
The private keys is where the power of decentralized networks is. Full and complete control over the wallets and accounts in the network is something we have never seen before in what traditional systems offered. Traditional systems like the keep this power to themselves. This give them full access to our accounts and wallets, data and money. Big tech loves this control and would never share them with its true owners. Hive changes that. It give full and complete control over accounts, wallets, and assets to its owners. Once you have it is yours forever. Just need to make sure all private keys are secure and nobody can steal. No whales, no witnesses, no companies, no teams, no individuals, no governments can take away these awesome property rights Hive offers. It is only possible due to the decentralization. If Hive was centralized, or if it was so easy to centralize it then no accounts and wallets would be safe. There would be no reason to trust Hive. Fortunately Hive's decentralization is as strong as bitcoin's, that all assets are safe.
In conclusion, Decentralization the Hive way is the best. It give ordinary people from around the world ability to participate in decentralized systems, share their knowledge and creativity, build awesome things, enjoy the best property rights, be owners, and not the users. And much more.