Decentralization has clear advantages to the established meta, but there are also many downsides. Most of us here at Steem try to focus on the positive. We have stake in decentralization and want to see it succeed. This can cause blindness to the problems staring us right in the face.
Advantages of decentralization:
- Trustless
- Eliminates middle-men (and other friction)
- Community governance
- Free market
- Promotes cooperation
- Promotes innovation
- Promotes work ethic
When we look at all these advantages how can we not but conclude that crypto will be successful in the long run? However, how do we make up for all the disadvantages in the short-term?
Advantages of centralization:
- Leadership
- Organization
- Efficiency
This movement lacks clear leadership, organization, and efficiency. We are copying everything on the blockchain to every node that runs it. The masterminds (@dan) behind development lose control of their creations to greed monsters. Everyone is running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Goals and use-cases are currently unclear. What's the solution?
EOS has been getting a lot of flak lately. (From me included). Just recently, Block.One announced their intentions to use their 10% stake to vote for witnesses. This leads speculators to conclude that the platform is even more centralized than ever. An EOS oligarchy is going to control who the block producers are. Is this a bad thing?
The obvious answer is yes, of course it's a bad thing. It goes against the core concept of decentralization. However, I would make an argument that it's only a bad thing in the long-run. For now this development might turn out to be extremely beneficial.
Hybrid
By injecting centralized leadership, organization, and efficiency into the cryptosphere we might actually see some promising projects get developed very quickly. Nobody messes with horse-shark. Haha, bad example. A much better one would be hybrid cars.
Did we really expect the world to change overnight and become decentralized in an instant? No... it makes much more sense that hybrid systems would come into place long before decentralization takes over. EOS is that hybrid system. Sure, this crushes the idealists, but idealists literally never get what they want anyway.
Biggest Risk
The largest threat regarding centralization is that you have to trust the people in charge. Is this something we have to worry about right now in the cryptosphere? Referencing EOS in particular, I would argue no, we don't have to worry about it. EOS has a lot to prove right now. Until it becomes established and mainstream there is absolutely nothing to worry about. It is in the EOS Oligarchy's best interest to combat corruption and lead the platform to glory. It's what comes after that we have to be worried about.
It took hundreds of years for the United States Constitution to be corrupted and abused into what is it today. The Founding Fathers had the country's best interests in mind, but no document can stay relevant for so long. We live in a era of quickening evolution.
In the future, EOS may become corrupt. This is not a big deal like it is with America becoming corrupt. You can't easily fork America into a superior system. You can relatively easily do this with blockchain governance. This is the power of blockchain.
Everyone needs to stop crying about EOS centralization and how much of a huge disappointment it is. It's barely even up and running. I maintain that EOS is exactly what the crypto community needed. It is a bridge to close the gap between the centralized world and our decentralized dream.
Return from Centralization Isn't That Bad (EOS Defense) to edicted's Web3 Blog
