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IS BLOCKCHAIN THE INTERNET OF TOMORROW?
With the Internet becoming a modern-day necessity, there is an increasing effort to liberate it from the grip of regulatory agencies and monopolistic tech heavyweights. Many internet users are becoming wary of firms that may follow and sell their most sensitive private information.
These difficulties have paved the way for a novel idea: a decentralized version of the Internet built on open-source blockchain networks. Several projects are attempting to replace critical components of internet infrastructure with decentralized, peer-to-peer systems that do not rely on a single intermediary or point of failure.
Problems of a Centralized Internet
The internet has democratized access to knowledge in unprecedented ways, and as we link a growing number of people to the internet, we like to fantasize about a globalized digital society in which everyone is free.
But there’s another side to this digital utopia, one that suggests the internet is silently becoming a new type of prison, one in which our lives are spied on and our personal choices are impacted in ways we’re not aware of. Tech-giants like Google and Amazon, as well as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, understand that the internet has transformed personal information into the most valuable commodity. Some people are beginning to believe that this power should not be allowed in the hands of a few firms and are experimenting with new technologies to provide an alternative.
The most prominent platforms on the Internet, from browsers to websites, collect personal data from their users, ranging from who they are to what they do. Everything you do online is recorded and can be used to create money by companies. Indeed, gathering and analyzing data isn’t always a terrible thing. For example, behavioural data on the Internet can assist businesses in developing more tailored content, which many people value.
The majority of internet services provide data protection through privacy agreements…
