The new decentralised stack, by it’s inherent nature, leads to replication of the data and hence it might prevent a single point of failure

Decentralisation is important! And this cannot be overstated! In this article, I am going to explain how the new wave of web3.0 applications (dApps) is changing the entire perspective about the “owning” the data and monetising it.

How did it start?

  • The P2P transfer of digital information started with the advent of the internet, but then it morphed into centralised systems being controlled by a few actors
  • Now we are coming back to a truly decentralised ecosystem which started with Bitcoin in 2008. Bitcoin provided us with a decentralised cryptocurrency which could be shared without any central authority and gave back the power to the people.
  • While it is unfortunate that Bitcoin has been vilified through it’s use in the Silk Road and payments for ransomware because of it’s pseudonymous nature, the underlying blockchain technology is truly revolutionary in nature.
  • Decentralisation is becoming mainstream again, with shows like ‘Silicon Valley’ speaking about it.

How does it look in 2017?

With the evolution of Ethereum and other related P2P technologies like IPFS, today there’s a new way of building applications in a completely server less, decentralised manner. This stack is called the web3 stack. These are the important components in that architecture.

Ethereum

Ethereum goes one step beyond Bitcoin, wherein instead of just transferring “value” (read cryptocurrency) you can also transfer and distribute logic in a peer to peer manner in the form of Smart Contracts.

Also read: Money is going digital, and the underbanked will be among the biggest beneficiaries

IPFS

IPFS stands for Inter Planetary File System. You can look at it like a decentralised Dropbox, where the files are stored on a P2P network, and not stored by any one conglomerate.

Oracles

One of the fundamental limitations of blockchain is that it cannot interact with the wider internet. To solve this limitation without relying on any centralised authority, Oracle systems like Oraclize are being used by the community in order to “trustlessly” feed data into the blockchain Smart Contracts.

Token Model

It used to be the case that getting funded for a new project or startup meant relying on traditional funding sources like VC or PE funding, but today a new funding method has emerged — the token sale. The token sale can be likened to a crowd sale, but it is conducted in a completely decentralised way using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether.

How is it being used in practice?

There are several projects which leverage the decentralised ecosystem in order to give back control to the people over their own data.

Golem

Golem is a decentralised market for computing power, wherein you can earn for renting out the computing power of your devices. This can be used by other projects which require computationally intensive simulations like scientific calculations, machine learning and CGI rendering.

Lunyr

Lunyr can be compared to a decentralised Wikipedia, where users can contribute by writing new content or moderating existing articles, and earning cryptocurrency for that. This data doesn’t reside in any servers but on IPFS. Thus there is little to no reliance on a central authority. In this case decentralisation is important to avoid a single point of failure.

Indorse

Our team at Attores is building a decentralised version of a Professional Social Network called Indorse where users can “Earn for being awesome”. Instead of putting your entire profile in centralised servers and lose the control over your data, we aim to give the control back to the users. The users also have a chance of earning for their contributions to the network based on their Skills Profile and endorsements. In this case, decentralisation is key to the platform because it is central (pun intended) to allowing users to retain control over their data.

Also read: Unfurling the blockchain hype: Why it’s all about relationships and trust

Is the new stack more secure than the current architecture?

While I won’t claim that the new stack of dApps can completely stop or eliminate hacking, I believe that it is much more resilient to attempts at bottlenecks or trying to shut down databases. The new decentralised stack, by it’s inherent nature, leads to replication of the data and hence it might prevent a single point of failure as evidenced by the current ransomware attacks spreading across the world and also the DoS attacks on the DNS service provider which brought several sites like Twitter and Reddit down for some time!

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The author of this article is the co-founder of Attores, which is the company working on Indorse.

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