Introduction
Since the 70s, computers have changed the way we do things.And the main change in our life with these technologies, is the multiplication of possibilities, of alternative ways to do something. This is a very impactful change in our society and could in the future make our world better.
Let's dive into the subject and see what am I talking about -
The pyramidal pattern
Governments, famillies, companies, etc ... The whole society is organised in a pyramidal structure.
A pyramidal structure is a hierarchical organisation where the more a position is important, the less there are people at these positions. This is a very stable structure and that is why it is used in a lot of situations.
Its main negative aspect is that the base fears the top. That mean the top controls absolutely everything, and can do everything they want. This can lead to un-ethical decisions, frauds, (a lot more exemples are possibles); dehumanizing the compagny managment.
Changes in technology
With the arrival of opensource software and peer-to-peer exchange in the late 90s , it opened a whole new world in Internet. And most pyramidal companies noticed that opensource is very efficient when it comes to developement, security and functionnalities (Google, Microsoft or Facebook are now very active in opensource and inside the Linux fundation, but that requires its own article).
This launched a brand new design philosophy. A developer no longer think about their software as made for users, but for actors of a network, designing it so it reinforce itself using its users.
A user is no longer a leaf of a tree, getting sap from the roots; but it becomes a node on a network, getting informations from everyone.
The Tor network, the P2P download and the blockchain are the best exemples of this philosophy.
Today's technology impact on our society
It's useless to say how much the blockchain has an impact on the technologic world. The very basis of this technology allows a lot of variations, a lot of different implementations, and a lot of applications.
This technology has an impact on the money system
(Bitcoin, Monero, Tether, etc...), on the software design (Ethereum, Steem, Tron, ...); and a lot of others fields already has a blockchain made for them (Gridcoin, Wagerr, Filecoin, ...)
In addition, the open-source philosophy has a very important concept: "Do not trust, verify". That means you shouldn't trust a compagny saying "This messaging app is secure, don't worry" but refusing you to verify, they may be (intentional or not) backdoors or security issues. With the open source, you can be sure that an app that has thousands of users have been verified by developpers to be certain it is secure.
This technology has an impact on the money system
(Bitcoin, Monero, Tether, etc...), on the software design (Ethereum, Steem, Tron, ...); and a lot of others fields already has a blockchain made for them (Gridcoin, Wagerr, Filecoin, ...)
In addition, the open-source philosophy has a very important concept: "Do not trust, verify". That means you shouldn't trust a compagny saying "This messaging app is secure, don't worry" but refusing you to verify, they may be (intentional or not) backdoors or security issues. With the open source, you can be sure that an app that has thousands of users have been verified by developpers to be certain it is secure.
In a close future
These technologies brings us alternatives, we are no longer obliged to buy a product or a service to a compagny that lock their sources, forbid modification / customisation, benefiting from their monopoly to impose rules.This could replace a lot of existing institutions, in the fields of government, democraty, justice, energy distribution, banking, author copyrights, games, journalism, etc ... It can lead to a technologic revolution, taking down an old system where users were consumers, to a system where users are actors of their numeric space.
But it may be the exact opposite, big companies taking the technology and creating systems where they have a form of control (Facebook is currently investing on blockchain technology); and politics, governments banning forms of this technology because of their "uncontrollable" aspect (like Tor in most countries).
Conclusion
SteemIt is one of the best blockchain application I've seen so far, and I'm really happy to see it work and grow !
Challenges are coming, opportunities too, but I'm not worry, the future is ours, and I trust in today's crypto community to reshape it.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider upvoting it, following me for more awesome articles in the future, and feel free to comment, resteem, make this debate grow :-)
Take care !
Warlkiry