From a business perspective I am curious to see how the blockchain space evolves. To me the blockchain space is like the new Silicon Valley being created right in front of us.
This is very true and there are a few very interesting years ahead of us for the early adopters. We get to watch it all being built in front of our eyes and see it rise and fall in real time.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The early adopters get to earn and stake hive first, but I fear that this staking mechanism can be exploited by the ultra-rich. These ultra-rich folks are already "staked" in the current "fiat" economy, but they can just take their dollars and buy a ton of Hive Power and use that to give themselves undue influence on this Hive platform.
They can use dollars to concentrate and centralized power in a platform that is supposed to be decentralized and you saw that with Steem. That is how Hive was born. A person (Sun) with a ton of money bought Steemit and had a disproportionate influence on the Steem blockchain and so we forked. Will people just keep forking over and over?
The root of this staking problem is a deeper technical issue with the consensus mechanism in Hive and an issue with the consensus mechanisms in the blockchain universe in general. This technical issue is also a more universal issue.
It is this ancient battle between centralization and decentralization and you see this battle play out in every sphere both social, technical, physical, biological, economical, etc. I will write a long post about this.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
He did but he also bought cheaply beneath the counter to gain that influence. An option that isn't there today and would cost a lot more in the open market. The longer that we are in operation as a blockchain, the more decentralized that it becomes as stake spreads further and wider making it harder to buy a majority. Still possible but less probable.
There have also been further protections added since the hardfork to prevent exchanges influencing the chain which is the real cause of his takeover. Without their stake it would not have happened the way that it did. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next few years but i do think that people will realize the need for alternative options to the big companies that are creating a powerful monopoly over social media these days. It's a dangerous path to follow unless people begin to change their habits.
I agree with you. Facebook financial started as a company that monetized your attention and used it to direct your purchasing behavior which made Facebook really rich, but now the social media companies and the rest of the big data companies are using your attention to drive your voting and political behavior. These platforms are also allowing people to create tribal identities at scale and with grave political and physical consequences. I see QAnon as a tribe. They have a religion with their own mythology and it is directing real behavior and some of it is violent.