Ultimate guide to Decentralized internet with Blockchain
The Internet has been improving every day since the beginning. But one thing had remained compromised:
End user’s privacy.
Yes, Basically Internet was started with the intention that anyone who owns a computer can connect with many other computers out there to exchange the information.
Although the underlying technology is same till date, tech giants are making a ton of money from the system.
But that ain’t where the actual problem lies.
What’s creepy about these tech giants like Google and Facebook is that they are selling end user’s private data in exchange for money.
So, what if you could think of a new technology that would literally collect zero user data and deliver all the functionalities that traditional internet had.
Won’t it be awesome?
So, In this article, I’ll introduce you to the Decentralized Internet with Blockchain aka Internet 2.0, which can solve all the problems that traditional Internet faced.
Before we discover how awesome the Decentralized Internet is let’s see:
Why do we need Decentralized Internet?
The current internet relies on centralized servers owned by few large powerful organizations to host your data.
These central points act as honeypots for hackers.
That’s not the only threat, the main threat is that people inside these powerful organizations can access all your data easily without your knowledge.
But the list doesn’t end there:
There are incidents where these powerful organizations were strong-armed by the government and other powerful organizations to give away their end user’s private data.
To quote an example:
Cambridge Analytica, UK based data analytics firm managed to harvest 50 million user’s data from Facebook and used for targetted political advertising during the 2016 US presidential elections.
So you may say your data is safely stored in the cloud, but anyone who is powerful and has money can easily get all your data.
I think we’ve seen enough.
Isn’t this the time we move on and take back the privacy from those “Powerful organizations” back into our hands?
Afterall it’s our private data, why should someone look into our private data?
This is it, this is what Decentralized Internet exactly does.
It’s a traditional internet along with the additional layer of security blanket which will make sure no one can access your private data except you. So, let’s now see:
What exactly is the Decentralized Internet?
I think you’ve heard of the blockchain. I’m pretty sure you did, thanks to the father of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, which virtually made everyone go crazy about the blockchain thing.
The blockchain is the new technology in the field of Computer Science and some believe that this technology can eliminate the need for a middleman in many sectors.
When it comes to the Internet these middleman roles are played by tech giants like Google, Apple, Facebook, etc,… which house a ton of user’s private data in their databases.
But the problem is security. All your private data which is stored in their databases are vulnerable to attacks or might be given away if strong-armed.
So, Internet 2.o brings the solution:
Decentralized Internet’s underlying technology is blockchain, which will eliminate the middleman and makes everything that you do on the internet will become a peer to peer communication.
But that doesn’t mean that we are eliminating Google, Facebook, Apple or any other company. Their databases will still be used to store your data.
But all your data will be stored in the encrypted form.
Important: Only the end users will have the key to decrypt the information stored in the database.
So, all the databases owned by these tech giants will just be dumb hard drives which store encrypted data and can access nothing because they don’t have a key.
How actually this blockchain technology works?
A new internet with blockchain will still have all the traditional internet infrastructure like downloading a browser, registering the domain, searching for query and everything.
But, The Decentralized Internet has a completely new design than the traditional one.
One of the most ambitious companies in the space is SAFE Network, which is trying to use blockchain technology to overcome pitfalls of current internet.
Let’s see what good are they doing and why are they doing so:
Coincentral experts say that the SAFE network ultimately wants to “create a secure, autonomous, data-centric, peer-to-peer network as an alternative to the current server-centric model.”
Let’s take a look at moving data onto the SAFE network.
When you upload a file to the network, such as a photo, it will be broken into pieces, hashed, and encrypted.
The data is then randomly distributed across the network so that only an end user who has a key can access the data.
It’s just that simple. So you might now ask this:
How to upgrade to the Decentralized Internet?
I’m pretty sure you’re excited about the decentralized internet with Blockchain. By now I’m pretty sure you’re stacked up with questions like:
- Is the technology available today?
- Should a get a techie help to set up the Decentralized Internet?
- How much should I pay to use the Decentralized Internet?
I’ll answer all the questions: Firstly there are two big companies which have already launched their services which lets you upgrade to the Decentralized Internet for free.
Yes, you heard me, it’s free to upgrade and will still remain for an entire lifetime.
Lastly, for setting up new blockchain internet you don’t need a techie help or you don’t have to be a native techie.
It’s simple as downloading a web browser and doing stuff.
As soon as you install a new browser it’ll ask you to sign-in, and that’s it. You’ll get a unique username and password using which you can access all your data online with a single click.
Remember: Only you, yes only you will be knowing your username and password. So, not even a queen of England can access your data.lol
Final thoughts
Blockchain technology is awesome, thanks to SAFE Network and Block Stack startups which have tried to bring revolution in the field of the Decentralized Internet.
It’s time we upgrade and take back the privacy from the hands of powerful organizations.
So, what do you guys say? Is it the time move on to the more secure Internet?
Do let us know through comments. I hope you liked the article. Thanks for reading the article.
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Originally published at niftyslash.com on March 31, 2018.
