Contemporary Decentralization
Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal · 2021
Chapter ) highlights the transition from Web ).5 companies, such as Google, Fa- cebook, and Uber, among many others, which have disrupted much of the economy, to more decentralized solutions. Consumers around the globe are becoming increas- ingly accustomed to the advantages of decentralized business. Improvements in peer- to-peer technology may over time remove the centralized owners of these Web ).5 companies. Bitcoin serves as an example of a measurably valuable network with a thoroughly decentralized ownership structure. The chapter evaluates how existing shortcomings in open source technology and webG DApps for decentralized autono- mous organizations, among others, can be addressed to help humanity benefit from the decentralized technology evolution. The book can be accessed here: https://www.amazon.com/Decentralization-Technologies-Organizational-Societal-Struc- ture/dp/3110673924/ and here: https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/569051 Chapter 5. Contemporary Decentralization Web ).5 started when companies exploited the power of decentralization using the tools of personal computers and the internet. Web ).5 began around KLLL with companies like Google, Amazon, and Wikipedia taking advantage of previously un- tapped talent and knowledge. Wikipedia decentralizes knowledge collection and or- ganization; PayPal decentralizes payment services; Skype decentralizes telecommuni- cations; Spotify decentralizes file sharing; Google Maps decentralizes data collection for knowledge about road traffic, just as the Google search engine decentralizes data collection for knowledge about website popularity by monitoring internet traffic; YouTube decentralizes video production, putting a television studio in the pocket of Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198
Cite: Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3782198
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