Decentralized Social Media is an important step in the right direction. While the centralized model of social media continues to prove its own inefficiencies, sluggishness and unbearable exertion of unnecessary regulations over time, more and more people are beginning to turn the tide against it. We have seen this exact scenario first-hand what even an asymptote of centralization can do to completely destroy an entire social media platform. This is what happened to Steemit as a result of the unbalanced political power within it.
However, There are many similarities between these groups, some very obvious, others less so. But there’s one similarity that sets them apart. They are all decentralized.
This is not an opinion, or a belief. Rather, it is a scientific fact.
To start with, there is a scientific definition of the word “decentralized,” which means that “the parts are independent from and do not need to communicate with each other for a task to be completed.” For example, a decentralized cell phone network is one where the parts communicate with each other over telephone wires instead of radio waves. Or, an example of a decentralized digital currency is one where each individual does not have to trust anyone else, or pay the network to send their transactions.
Of course, this doesn’t make the networks decentralized. Rather, it makes them a distributed system. It’s much like a decentralized organization. The parts are independent from each other, and their only communication is over the internet. But as you can see, both decentralized systems and organizations are, by definition, distributed. And while this may not seem like a big deal at first, it is.
The internet itself was born as a distributed network, and its continued success has been based on its distributed architecture. It was originally conceived as a means of transmitting data, without borders nor regulations, all over the world with ease. We are in an era of technological revolution. No other species exists, as far as we are concerned, is as connected to each of its individuals as we are. Zooming out of the picture, this ease of transmission is only the beginning of the snowball atop the mountain.
We’re all familiar with the internet as it exists today, with its centralized, private web, straying from its distributed roots. From the data you create and see to the applications you use, everything on the internet is owned by a single organization and governed by their rules. You must either work for them or they’ll make you buy a subscription in order to access it. This centralized infrastructure is expensive, slow, and has many inherent issues. But despite that, we live in this current system today.
Centralized systems have a natural monopoly: there is no reason a business can’t simply create an app and sell it to you, thus acquiring all your personal data. And they have the infrastructure to keep it from you. Even the most free-spirited of us can be tracked when we visit a site like Facebook, and even if we don’t actively share anything we’ll still be tracked to build a profile of our interests.
When I came across Bitcoin, I realized that the technology and ideology that is behind is is not merely a part of cryptocurrency, but a fundamental ideology for all kinds of decentralization, including social media. I believe this technology is the way of the future for the Internet, and to a lesser extent the world in general.
The philosophical significance of decentralized social media, falling under the wider umbrella of the decentralized internet, cannot be overstated. It is a decentralized, free exchange of information between all of the web’s participants. It is the concept that we all should be able to speak and listen without being censored. It’s the idea that everyone should be able to express his or her own thoughts and ideas, and not need to adhere to an arbitrary set of rules or norms. In practice it means that there is a much more organic conversation happening around the world on the web, an environment where anything goes and everyone gets a voice. This is the future of the Internet and what we need to strive for.
The reason why we can’t have a truly decentralized, free exchange of information today is because we’ve adopted a flawed philosophy of how the Web works. By letting big tech conglomerates ravage the landscapes of the internet, we have essentially caged ourselves within their own standards. Steemit was to battle this unfair imposition of standards, HIVE is its successor.
I have already said this before, and I still stand by my beliefs that the adoption of this decentralized technology, whatever form it may manifest itself in (such as DeFi, Social Media, NFTs, Play2Earn, or simply as a currency), is going to be driven by the frustration and discontent of the people at the centralized model of the wider web, rather than by pure innovation.
HIVE's biggest advantage is the fact that it rewards your effort and quality of content with rewards, but that is only the superficial side of the network, and which a lot of people usually adopt HIVE for. However, those who look past the monetary potential of the network will find that HIVE truly guarantees something greater than that.
To adopt HIVE and any of its derivatives is to buy into the guarantee that you will never be silenced, censored, restricted nor completely banned. HIVE, in short, symbolizes and puts into practice not only the philosophy of the decentralized internet, but also the will of the people.
In addition to what it symbolizes, the mechanics and inner workings of the network is also driven completely by the will of the people. If the people will it, your post will be generously tipped and put up in display at the top of the front page, just as well as the opposite might happen.
I usually steer clear of trying to predict the next trends in the crypto industry other than simply stating that the Blockchain is going to see even more adoption. But by the reasons I stated above, it is my belief that HIVE will rise to the top 10 cryptocurrencies by the next Bitcoin halving event. Jack Dorsey has already entertained the idea of a social media able to sidestep any regulations, whilst being able to remain self-sustaining. Hell, HIVE's flagship Splinterlands game has already become mainstream in the P2Earn sector despite being in this space for years. It's only a matter of time until people start utilizing HIVE's social media capability to its full potential.
