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In my last article I spoke about my thoughts on the state of the world, mainly that political power and governments are rapidly declining. Among the comments I received, one stood out to me. This person was pointing out that while what I said was true, he was afraid the replacement of politics would be Big Tech. There are many reasons why this view is indeed a horrific one. We have more examples than we need or want to understand why their surveillance system, algorithms and censorship are among the greatest adversities we face as a global society. Yet, in my opinion, their destiny is to fall as well.
Once again let us take a look at Bitcoin. The greatest asset this technology possesses is that it is completely decentralized. No one owns it, no one can alter it. We can all adopt it, use it, and no one can stop us from getting access to it. I believe that this is the blueprint to our future. Like the government, Big Tech has grown too much, requiring ever bigger budgets to sustain itself. At the same time they are all public companies, meaning that they NEED to turn a profit every quarter. This is one of the main reasons it is hard for them to adapt to a changing landscape. Most of the time in order to do so you need to let go of short term economics. However, once your stocks are issued, you no longer own the company, now the shareholders must be kept fat and happy.
At the same time we are seeing the rise of new platforms that don’t have these problems. These new structures are made to maneuver the changing tides. Some of them are completely integrated within the crypto space and have a big leaning on individual sovereignty. There is a huge trend that is leading to decentralized and encrypted technologies. We can quickly mention signal as a competitor to WhatsApp, minds as an alternative to Facebook, odyssey looking to take on YouTube, even the BRAVE browser and duckduck go’s search engine are disrupting the space. Sure, these are not at the same level of their Big Tech counterparts, the trend however, is clear, and it only flows one way.
Like the Government, for Big Tech to adopt all this innovation would mean sacrificing everything that makes them so powerful today. And so they find themselves in a bind, the more power they lose, the more they will try to assert themselves. Problem arises, since the more tyrannical they become the more they’ll drive people out. This results in all the alternatives starting to look more appealing, some will rise, some will fall, yet some will remain.
My guess is that the most decentralized will end up winning, those platforms who figure out a way to give the most value back to the users. The ones that have no “investors” or “share-holders” who are usually guided by greed. More likely than not they’ll adopt the form of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations - I'll write about this in the future), where the users will also be the owners. Some of these platforms already exist, feel free to check out AUDIUS (a music streaming app very similar to Spotify, where those who use it own it).
In short, we are transitioning into something much better than what we have today. The only problem is the period that we are in now. One in which the old structures are collapsing while the new ones aren’t quite ready for mass adoption. Even though the end goal is within sight, it is not within reach. We need to be ready and prepared to maneuver these strange tides. Recognizing trends before they play out will be more important than ever, we need to stay nimble and adaptable, these will be the key factors.
When we look at where to build our digital presence I’ll suggest looking for the most decentralized applications, those who focus on their community and individual sovereignty. They will have a much higher chance of winning against others. I have mentioned some earlier in the article that I like but I’m sure we will see a lot more popping up in the next few years. Understanding new technologies and adopting them early will be one of the most important factors that will determine the winner and losers in these scenarios. This will no doubt benefit those who have less resources and status, therefore being more incentivized to look for alternatives, than those who already have accumulated a lot and have become complacent.
This means that in this transition, all of us who have not attained much success previously are actually in a better place to benefit from the shift.
My only goal is to keep learning as much as possible and communicate every useful info I get. Hopefully I’ll improve at doing this over time. I hope this is useful to you and serves you in such uncertain times. Have a Great Day!
P.S: This is a very exciting and hopeful moment for all of us who are lucky enough to be alive and aware. Enjoy it, and make the most out of it :)
