I was in a conversation with a friend today and he mentioned something about the power Google has because of the data it is able to collect on us and leverage in a multitude of ways to keep themselves as front runner. If there is one thing Google has understood Very well is that, Knowledge is Power. Actually as I see it, knowledge isn't power, the power comes from how that information is used, but the reason it is powerful is because other people don't have it, there is a knowledge gap.
A great deal of Google's business model hinges on widening the knowledge gap as it is about collecting data, analyzing it and distributing information to those willing to pay, who then use it for their own purposes which is generally to gain an advantage over large groups of people to either sell them something or, get them to act in a certain way. However, in a hypothetical scenario, what happens if all the information Google has access to, everyone had access to?
If there was a blockchained world where all digital interactions are recorded on transparent and immutable ledgers, this would close the knowledge gaps and then it would not be about the ability to collect the data but instead, the ability to analyze the data to make it useful for those willing to pay.
This opens up another interesting position of competition because not only will there be the challenge of speed of service for competitive advantage, there will also be the accuracy of interpretation which will itself be able to be cross-referenced at both the source and tracked for results.
This means that there is essentially a web of trust built around those who are information disseminators and they are able to be audited relatively easily. Due to the immutability and consistency of blockchains, even the smallest transactions can be traced and as the tech evolves, the chains propagate and multiply and start to intertwine with side-chains and cross-chains, a single interaction can be followed like a radioisotope trough the network to see how it behaves, how it affects behavior and how it spreads, replicates or mutates throughout the system. The diagnostic capabilities of this level of granularity and clarity will be incredible.
So, what happens to the information sellers when information is free? What happens when people start exclusively using blockchain transparency as a defense against invasion of privacy by taking away the incentive? I am not sure exactly how this would work but when the majority of the people are the consumers that empower the minority through decisions made, they also have the power to redistribute through their decision making.
As I explained to my friend tonight about actually owning an asset, I also mentioned that this would work in two ways. Last night I mentioned a scenario where everyone in Nigeria bought 1 dollars worth of Steem to hold as an asset or, trade between each other with. That would actually be impossible because there is not enough Steem in circulation to do so as they would need 570 million Steem and there is only 300 million. What about 1 Steem?
1 Steem today is 34 cents. You want to know something interesting? That is the average price for a can of coke in Nigeria. 1 Steem. What happens if rather than buying a can of coke, Nigerians used that same money to invest into an asset class? Essentially, the Coca-Cola company can no longer operate in Nigeria as, there is no demand for their product but, it is worse than that for them because those same Nigerians are also now skimming some asset profits for themselves by gaining staked access to the investment pool instead of being solely consumers. What happens if they extend their personal redistribution to exclude other non-value-adding companies from their disposable income so they can invest a little more?
Yep, this will likely lead to various kinds of job losses, but this is the power of the masses of decision makers who believe they don't have the power to change the distribution of the world. Most jobs in this world that are currently done are not necessary for survival purposes, they are driven by our desire for entertainment and comfort of some kind or another. If we as consumers start consuming from sources that can provide similar on the blockchain, what it does is force the jobs to create for the blockchain, that immutable and transparent place where information is freely scrapable.
Free information sounds scary but the thing is, it already is available for a price, just ask Facebook or Google who monetize what they collect to increase advertising revenue and swing public opinions.
While I don't have any kind of time frame or full picture of this, I do know enough that as consumers we have the upper hand, but as consumers we don't know enough to activate it. So, we have knowledge gaps that can be leveraged and manipulated to continually choose to buy-in to a system that does us no favors and makes us believe that we don't have enough to start investing into asset classes. We all have enough, we just have to make our own asset classes and support them as if they are valuable and magically, they become valuable assets.
The potential changes to the economic flow of wealth creation is enormous and the ramifications potentially world changing yet, it will eventually all come down to game theory and personal decision making which means, those with the knowledge on how to use knowledge will have the power. Old habits die hard, as they say and we have been conditioned as consumers who drive value to the top without realizing that if we change our behavior and demand different, distribution of resources changes to include a great deal more spread at lower levels.
This is where real economic empowerment across the globe will come from, us.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]