Why Decentralization Isn't as Important as You Think

In particular, I find the diffuse capitalization, ownership, and control of these kinds of networks extremely appealing. It’s this — not stupid ape avatars or hype about Bitcoin as “digital gold” — that gets me charged up about crypto/blockchain stuff. It’s also why think we need to be careful about regulation that could strangle the baby in the cr... See more

Like any new technology, crypto is far from inevitable—no matter what its boosters claim. More precisely, decentralization—crypto’s core principle and its most significant contribution to reshaping markets—is far from a sure thing.

This is, admittedly, a very powerful idea. The challenges of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 around ownership, censorship, and digital rights are highly nontrivial ones. For web3 enthusiasts, these issues are existential threats to the web, threats that web3 will eradicate simply by eliminating the question. There can be no debate on the power or responsibilit... See more

Every year, centralized social networks place more restrictions on what users and developers can do. They seem to believe that limiting choices is the path to a healthy network, while the opposite is probably true. A decentralized social network can challenge this hypothesis by making two powerful promises that centralized networks cannot. They can... See more

But decentralizing the internet has been hard to do. When contrasted against the well-established efficiency and stability of centralized systems, decentralized systems have struggled to keep pace. Now, however, the emerging technology of crypto and web3 — specifically, programmable blockchains, composable smart contracts, and digital assets — make... See more