Centralization is monopoly. Maximalism is centralization.
The tendency to centralization is powerful. Centers will form whenever possible, and foresight is needed to see where they will take root and grow.
Society will always have some centralized entities, governments, agencies, institutions, companies and other authorities responsible for some areas. It is impossible to achieve 100% decentralization at all levels of our existence.
Centralization at the societal level does not mean that we cannot use decentralized services at the technological level. Each centralized entity can be more transparent, guarantee a higher level of security, be more accountable and open, when using decentralized services, being a good prevention against inefficiency, corruption and fraud.
So, when we talk about decentralization, we are talking about putting power and decision-making authority in several hands. A distributed consensus.
In a decentralized system, there is no central authority to dictate and enforce those laws.
Today, in the digital age, decentralization is primarily about information, and as they say, information is power.
Information from a single centralized source is dangerous.
We were educated to receive information from a single source, we were not taught to think, (nor were we allowed to).
The revolution is the change of paradigm, a new way of thinking.
“Don’t trust, verify” or “do your own research” (DYOR), are concepts that were not, and are not, part of today’s “mindset”.
When a disruptive technology is beneficial and easy to use, it induces people to change habits.
Conventional wisdom also understands decentralization, without consciously knowing it, when it advises “not to keep all your eggs in one basket”.
Security and privacy are closely linked to decentralization. The security of the crypto ecosystem gives us autonomy, and is summed up in two well-known slogans, “be your own bank” and “not your keys, not your cryptocurrencies”.
Privacy is under attack by KYC (Know Your Customer), which is the centralization of (your) information in hands of few.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You believe in a leader, you are centralizing, unlike if you have several referents, peers, you are decentralizing. You believe that someone should take care of you and your money, you are centralizing.
We were told the story of tribal chiefs and peoples following their mandates, messianic leaders, kings and commoners, feudal lords and vassals, left and right, east and west, but crypto-economics showed us the truth, removing the smokescreen, it was always about centralization versus decentralization, concentration of power versus distributed power.
People are not ready to think decentralized, are you?…then you are already decentralizing because you don’t depend on the single thought, you don’t get dragged down by collective centralization.
I leave you a (crypto) poem of my authorship, which I registered in the metadata of the Cardano blockchain (see Metadata) as proof of decentralization, as proof of freedom: “Proof of Liberty”.
