When dealing with cryptocurrencies the word decentralized is omnipresent. Centralization is bad, decentralization is the ultimate goal. Any project which is even remotely related to centralization gets a negative connotation.
Just yesterday, after China virtually banned all ICOs and trading of cryptocurrencies in China, people were quick to refer to the power of decentralized exchanges for people to keep trading without government (centralized) intervention.
However, is decentralization always better than centralization? A couple of months ago I came across the lbry.io project. lbry.io is a blockchain based content publishing sharing and consumption platform, or in their own words: "Meet LBRY, a content sharing and publishing platform that is decentralized and owned by its users."
The idea is a no-brainer as such platforms already existed and exist in various forms and sizes. Take napster back in the old days, or any bit torrent platform, or youtube today. The idea is the same. Publish any content, share it with the world, so that everyone can consume it.
Where centralized platforms e.g. youtube give power and benefits to the entity running the platform (deciding on the rules, taking content down which is deemed inappropriate, or even making money off of it), decentralized platforms give power to the content creators or the publishers. This is a good idea.
What I am not so clear about is, how will the decentralized community set ethical rules? Will they set ethical rules at all? Who makes sure, that content is not pirated, so that the real content creator does not get scammed? Who makes sure, that content is safe for children? Will hate content be treated just like any other entertaining material?
Today with centralized platforms the ability exists to have certain content removed. Sometimes due to legal force, sometimes just because the platform has defined what it deems appropriate and inappropriate content. This might not necessarily be in everybody’s interest, but it makes it a place where the majority of users feel "safe" to roam and to search and consume content.
Will decentralized platforms find means to create such an environment for its users? Or will users simply have to tolerate anybody’s content? Voting systems will probably not work as a means to separate the appropriate and inappropriate content. What I might find inappropriate (hate speech, Nazi movies or music, violence towards animals, etc.) others might have a fetish for. So, other means must be in place to make browsing and consuming content safe for me or my children on those platforms. Otherwise I am confident an adverse selection process will lead to a platform with predominantly illegal or inappropriate content, as such content will benefit the most from a decentralized solution which cannot be taken down and which people will be able to access from anywhere in the world.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
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