Decentralization Receded in 2019, Although It Was In Great Demand

Decentralization is a dream pursued by humanity and it strives to be embodied in various forms, but fails under the inexorable laws of survival of the pack. The rise of decentralized projects on the blockchain coincided in time with the ever-growing discontent of people with authoritarian hierarchical systems, their inertness, slowness, inconsistency with the requirements of time and progress, with the desire of society to get more freedom. The decline of this idea takes place today; it has already passed the stage of uncertainty and confusion of their creators and users from the inability of cryptocurrencies to perform. Now, those who see the ideals of cypherpunks and the first hackers as an empty place, and whose main values are profits, have stepped onstage.

The real achievements of blockchain projects have already been taken into account by the owners of centralized organizations and they begin to apply them, but there are no decentralization benefits for users in these processes. Most often, the words “blockchain”, “cryptography”, “digital signature” and many others that sound in such cases are not related to the real freedom of common participants and their control over the systems.

Two fairly illustrative examples of this approach are the Venezuelan state cryptocurrency El Petro and the blockchain voting system in the Russian Moscow City Duma elections, the flaws and doubts about the impartiality of which were voiced by experts.

Numerous implementations of closed systems based on blockchain and crypto technologies, “forget” one of the main values ​​of decentralization — openness and independence. Blockchain is just a technical term for the type of database; it is a distributed ledger, the use of which does not make much sense in many cases and it leads to additional costs. But it is precisely these costs that are the main reason for using a chain of blocks with a transparent transaction recording system, with an implacable and tamper-resistant mathematical algorithm that gives users reason to trust the entire project, because it does not need to be trusted: it works by itself, and its work can be checked.

Another feature of true decentralized systems is the transition of power from central authorities to all participants. The example: central banks and credit organizations issuing new money from different countries are the most closed institutions, being authoritarian, highly centralized, and only narrow groups of individuals and associations have access to control their activities. However, the issue of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, is a completely transparent process: anyone can check it and, moreover, become a participant. At the beginning of its life, bitcoin enabled each of its users, regardless of geographic location, capital availability, status and any other restrictions, to participate in the issue of coins and verification of transactions.

Given all of the above, what can be said about the gaining popularity of central bank cryptocurrencies? Most definitely, these projects will not have anything to do with decentralization: monetary regulators are incompatible with openness and equal access to their activities. You can easily take any modern projects (including cryptocurrency) and come to a disappointing conclusion: decentralization recedes, and it’s an obvious trend.

The flagships of the cryptocurrency market, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are moving away from the idea of ​​decentralization, giving up and adapting to modern conditions with the introduction of sidechains, monopolization of mining and authoritarian leaders. There is no need to talk about other leading projects: Tether, Ripple, Tron, Litecoin, EOS and others — they survive as they can, and the ideas of freedom and equality are not their priorities.

Meanwhile, the demand for decentralization is ripening. Perhaps it has not yet been fully realized by the majority, perhaps many are dissatisfied with the current situation and simply do not realize the possible direction of their claims, but these days humanity really needs decentralized projects.

• Property inequality is growing: wealth all over the world is concentrated in the hands of a small number of individuals. Is this not the situation that decentralization must fight against?
• The natural chaos that monopolists created with the personal information of their customers — data leaks become routine and news about it appear every day. The solution to this global problem, most likely, lies in the field of decentralized systems.
• The growing discontent of ordinary citizens of different states with their governments, state systems and institutions. In this area, decentralization is the key.
• The penetration of networks and information systems into all areas of the modern world is an uncontrolled process,fueled by the thirst for profit of the largest corporations, the desire for global control by the states. The dangers that it lurks are ignored. The priority of a decentralized and transparent architecture of such systems may be a solution.

Despite the fact that many icons of the blockchain movement lose the main features for which they were created (democracy, equality, openness, decentralization), these values come to the fore all over the world, and perhaps in the near future the time will come for new, truly decentralized systems.