CHAPTER 5Blockchain: Can Trust Be Decentralized?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I gave a friend a ride to the DMV so she could get her driver's license. While she was off doing her test drive with the instructor, I decided to utilize this time productively and initiate the process of renewing my own license, which was about to expire. I will spare you all the details; needless to say, it was a huge mistake because the whole process ended up taking the entire day. This is an example of bureaucracy and inefficiencies in a centralized system.
Like me, you've probably been in many government offices or business buildings for one reason or another. Maybe it was the hour-long inefficient line at the bank, the local DMV, or the voting booth. Whatever the case may be, bureaucratic inefficiencies and all the hassles that come with centralized management systems are becoming a calamity. What if there was a system, safe and secure enough so we would never have to stand in line again?
On the other hand, big tech also operates in centralized fashion with centralized leadership, centralized power, and centralized operations. Although counterintuitive, the problem here is that the systems are too efficient and working too well, thus giving a handful of citizens too much power with little to no accountability. What if there was a system where power resided in the hands of the people?
Whether it's too much efficiency and consolidation of power at the top of big tech, or the bureaucracy and the ...
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