Decentralization will make our lives much better
(We are on a mission to decentralize, and you, too, can support the cause!)
This is the fourth of a series of five parts. Read the first part here: https://capodieci.medium.com/the-roots-of-blockchain-and-decentralization-f5fb049f8681 and see at the bottom of the article the links to all the other parts.
As mentioned in the previous post, the first quarter of 2021 closes the first phase of this journey toward decentralization, with the release of ZooBC. We enter now in the second phase, code-named DecBC.
Churning out ZooBC as something tangible from abstract and ideal concepts required the help of so many in-house experts in an intensive and extensive yet nonetheless rewarding two-year self-funded process.
Now that we have something tangible (a web wallet, a block explorer, and an app that people can download and install on their iOS and Android smartphones, and their Chrome browsers), we are more than eager to involve the public in a collective journey toward decentralization. Simply put, we would like to decentralize (to use that term again) the development and management of our project’s second phase.
We believe that decentralizing the second phase’s project management is also commensurate to our mission of using decentralization to make various aspects of public affairs better, most pertinently in the realms of content, identities, tasks, roles, and cooperation.
Before I start elaborating how the public can be involved in this decentralized journey of the second phase, let me start by laying down my case of why decentralization has recently proven its capability in making various aspects of human life easier and better. I hope to incite the public’s interest in becoming a part of our second phase by, first of all, exposing them to how, by taking part in the decentralization journey, they can also support the betterment of society, through (same examples between many):
1. Supply chain management
Supply chain management is the most potent area of decentralization application right now. Supply chain management, which involves a complex and interdependent ecosystem comprising the entire trade activity, from raw material sourcing to manufacturing to distribution, has been known as a highly messy process. Due to the diversity of functions and parties involved, supply chain management is often hampered by data silos, the use of different software for different departments, as well as unconnected dots along the way.
Decentralization solves these issues once and for all. The peer-to-peer network in the blockchain helps keep track of the entire supply chain flow, covering upstream and downstream elements, in a record that cannot be taken down. Furthermore, the peer-to-peer network also overcomes the data silo problem and the incompatibility among different software used by different departments in the conventional supply chain system.
This is the reason why lots of big retailer and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands such as Walmart, Carrefour, Nestlé, and Unilever have adopted blockchain to run their food systems and resource tracking activities. The field of logistics, also “notorious” for its complexity, have also made their operations somewhat more efficient by adopting blockchain.
2. More egalitarian content management
First of all, peer-to-peer (P2P) enabled blockchain networks are making the process of content sharing more democratic and fairer for a lot of content creators. As the social media giants have become ridiculously powerful economically, they have also become more powerful politically. One manifestation of this increasing political power is their arbitrary power to determine which contents are allowed to be published and which ones are not, which ones a user will read, and which ones not.
This has resulted in unilateral censorship, which could potentially cost citizens their freedom of speech and liberties. In the most high-profile case, the Twitter account of former United States President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) was permanently deleted.
While Twitter maintained that the erasure sought to prevent hate speech, other cases have pointed out how these social media giants are applying double standards to their censorship practices.
For instance, Facebook has cooperated with the repressive regimes of Pakistan and Bangladesh to block out pro-democracy contents, which threaten the power of these regimes. We also have no idea to whom these social media giants are selling our personal data, trading our privacy for a (massive amount of) profit along the way.
Meanwhile, the decentralized nature of blockchain technology uses group consensus as the cornerstone of content and data management. While it results in longer deliberation processes, it gives people their power and control over their personal data back.
3. Fairer compensation for creative workers
Thanks to decentralization, creative workers like painters, writers, and photographers can now get fairer compensation for their work. As we all know, the gatekeepers of the centralized system (such as record labels and publishing houses) often suck a big chunk of money they get from the work of these artists and writers, giving the creators very little in return.
No wonder, more and more artists such as the musician Grime have sold their artworks through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain. The NFT is like a digital version of an authenticity certificate. Recently, more and more art connoisseurs have started seeing the NFT as desirable collectibles.
The coolest thing about selling artworks through NFTs: the artist will retain his or her formal proprietorship of the artwork even after some people have completed financial transactions for them. This way, the artist can keep earning money from the digital art they have created while being recognized as the owners of the artworks they create.
From the creators’ point of view, decentralization is also beneficial as it allows them to retain more control over the transference and sales of the games they have created, instead of having big production houses taking control over sales and IP.
With the fairer profit-sharing scheme among content creators enabled by blockchain, we can also expect to see the gradual closing of the socioeconomic gap.
4. More effective and efficient procedures and workflow management
You might know already, that some blockchains also offer a solution called “smart contracts”. The “contract” here actually follows an “if …. then” algorithm which can automatically accomplish data management functions, once all the prerequisites are put into the system.
This way, people who work remotely can easily arrange, share and manage their work collectively. The automation of the entire process is also thanks to the nature of the smart contract system, which enables pre-set flow and authorizations using its coded algorithm.
Up to this point, or even earlier in the article, you might already wonder: then, how about the authenticity and reliability of smart contracts, considering that it involves no central verification authority?
In order to guarantee the authenticity and security of its processing, smart contracts have some check-and-balance measures in place, such as: timestamping (to keep track of the exact timing of each request), non-forgeable digital signatures, and a system to make sure that the data is unfalsifiable.
With these functions, many accountants have also recognized the use of blockchain in auditing.
5. More effective and efficient document issuance and management
Decentralization can also help institutions and organizations manage their documents better. Running any sort of human affair — including business — does involve lots of documents because we want to make sure that every aspect of the affair is handled by trustworthy individuals while keeping track of these activities. Due to the diversity and huge volume of these documents, many familiar document-handling glitches, such as different staff members using different document formats, can interrupt workflow. In many countries, lack of proper document management systems also often leaves doors open wide for corruption by people who know how to exploit these loopholes.
Blockchain can help optimize document management by using its virtual system to verify and validate documents that are entering and leaving a system. The blockchain also records all alterations in these documents in real-time. Using virtual document pattern recognition systems, you no longer need to worry about different people using different formats having communication difficulties with each other.
Decentralized document management can also pave the way for a “technocratic” society, ending the bullying of citizens by unscrupulous bureaucrats and civil servants once and for all by migrating the issuance of important documents into the blockchain.
6. Making up for what IoT lacks in data security and privacy
Internet of things (IoT) enabled solutions have made life easier for so many of us. From smart offices to smart cities, the IoT has proven its worth in integrating bits and pieces of data synthesized from various devices (sensors, cameras, etc.) to make the operations and maintenance of these buildings more efficient.
Yet, many experts have raised concerns over the digital security and privacy elements of these IoT-enabled operations. Most solutions rely on a central system to function. Each request is processed in a data center that sends the request to the device. This means that when asking Alexa to open the door, the request travels from the device to a central data center, and from there a command to the door lock is sent. When the “smart” thermostat feels it is too hot and it is time to turn on the A/C, the request goes from the thermostat to a data center managed by a third party, and from that data center, the request goes to the A/C making it go on. They still contain lots of loopholes that can be breached by unauthorized third parties. For example, an unethical employee of one of those data centers can send a command to open your house door without anyone having sent a request for it, or turn off your A/C without the thermostat request to do so. Time and again, on the other hand, blockchain’s system has proven to be both tamper-proof and mathematically accurate. Owing to this quality, an IoT device such as the thermostat can digitally sign the request for the A/C asking to go on and send it directly to the A/C. The A/C can then verify the thermostat's digital signature and decide if obeying the command or not. And if this process is done through a lightweight blockchain, this can contribute to having an auditable list of requests sent and received, removes the need for centralized data centers, and makes a man in the middle (MITM) attack impossible, thus strengthening IoT’s security, and accelerating its adoption among users.
Have the examples above convinced you by now on why decentralization can help make human life easier? If so, what could you do to support the long journey toward decentralization? The great news is: you do not necessarily have to be a computer programmer or a tech-head to join the second phase of our journey.
DecBC, the evolution of ZooBC, will build the basis to bring decentralization to all the use cases mentioned above, and many more. The best way to achieve success is to hand over the project to the public, by decentralizing not only procedures built on top of the platform, but also decentralizing the process of how the platform will come up, what functionalities will come first, and what use cases will adopt the platform first.
There are 3 main groups of people we aim to reach to support the project in its second phase: 1) Excellences (what we call superheroes) that are supporters (promoters, evangelists) of decentralization, and want to dedicate a few hours of their time each week or month to support the project by being part of the steering committee, 2) IT experts happy to support the technical aspects of the open-source project, and 3) last, but not least important, the general public that can suggest functionalities, report bugs, and be an active part of the community. Here’s a glimpse of each of the groups:
1. Steering committee
This block will comprise people from various non-technical expertise fields (including, among others, business and marketing) who can help steer, promote, and enhance the decentralization solution development.
In order to spread the buzz about decentralization, we are enlisting people of prominent positions across various sectors of endeavors. Essentially, supporters of decentralization engaged in activities to further promote its adoption, that are joining us to help the cause.
By nature, these decentralization enthusiasts come from a very diverse range of sectors, owing to the very versatile application of blockchain in various industries (e.g. a supply chain bigwig supportive of the adoption of blockchain, an industry consortium representative willing to decentralize the infrastructure between the consortium members, a content distribution agency CEO promoting the sale of digital artworks through NFTs, a public policy academic supporting technocratic bureaucratic reform, etc.)
2. Tech Decentralization Advocates
This group that spans from senior analysts to the open-source community, covers tech experts interested in bounties to work on the code. From insights from super experts with years of expertise in specific industries, to help in debugging code, the project needs large participation to grow in a decentralized manner.
3. Regular users
In order to refine our decentralization solution, we will need constant feedback on our application’s UI and UX from regular users. The regular users who would like to join our community will also get some gifts and merchandise for their active participation in the project.
Of course, these are just a glimpse of how you can help the project. Each aspect of the implementation of DecBC requires a certain amount of effort. To keep the participation open, each supporter offers a certain amount of time/work, and it goes toward filling a bucket in such a way that, with many supporters, the bucket is filled each month. For example, if the goal is to have 10 hours of work done in analysis, 2 supporters giving 5h each do as 5 supporters five giving 2h each. The website https://decbc.com will soon contain more detailed information on how these roles can fit your field of expertise or interest. You can now leave your contact in the home page, to be informed as soon as things go live.
Then, to get a picture on how you can get lots of boon by joining the DecBC’s development, stay tuned for my upcoming article.
This is the fourth part of a series of five parts. Here the links to the other parts.
Part 1: https://capodieci.medium.com/the-roots-of-blockchain-and-decentralization-f5fb049f8681
Part 2: https://capodieci.medium.com/how-cryptocurrencies-have-increased-blockchains-public-visibility-157cd1fd52a3
Part 3: https://capodieci.medium.com/blockchain-zoo-and-the-first-phase-of-decentralization-solution-development-19111290ce51
Part 4: is the article on this page
Part 5: https://capodieci.medium.com/join-our-ino-support-the-decentralization-journey-f851549247e8
