Blockchain as a solution to inequality?
The rate of technological change has been an important topic of discussion since times of the first industrial revolution. Since then, it became clear that technological development advances at a steep rate that usually outpaces other human developments. Back then, people expected that technological novelties like mechanized cotton spinning, steam engines, iron process innovations, and more would bring a positive impact to everyone. In reality, the unprecedented rate of technological change brought positive changes to a few, accompanied by several negative changes for the majority. One of the shadows of this unprecedented rate of technological change has been the staggering increase in inequality and unemployment.
Nowadays, in the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, we face a similar situation. Technological developments like artificial intelligence and blockchain are set to disrupt human reality and interaction as we know it. The question we ask ourselves is: will blockchain contribute to solve inequality? Here at Pool of Stake, we strongly believe it will. In the following article, we mention several blockchain projects that are already tackling this issue. We conclude by adding how Pool of Stake, too, makes a contribution to solve inequality.
The first two relevant projects to discuss are Synereo and Steem. Synereo is a decentralised social platform in which content creators get rewarded with tokens through their work. Higher quality posts result in a larger token reward based on readership votes. Steem is another social media platform in the blogging arena which rewards users with Steem tokens for their content. This allows every day writers to gain a passive income through high- quality posts. These two projects challenge big businesses like Facebook, which profits from content they do not generate, by redistributing the wealth towards the users that actually generate the content.
Another promising project pushing for a more equal system is Bitclave. The project aims to redistribute the wealth created by search engines onto users. This is done by allowing users to control their own data, which in turn empowers them to decide how it can be used. The idea is to compensate users every time a business capitalizes from their data. It is a direct challenge to companies like Google and Facebook, which profit inmensley by capitalizing user’s data.
A fourth project worth noting is Aragon. The objective of this project is to lower the barriers of creating a DAO- a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Additionally, the goal is to create a decentralized community that acts as a digital jurisdiction, an online decentralized court system that is not bound by traditional artificial barriers such as national jurisdictions or borders. This goes beyond solving economic inequality. It aims to solve the unequal vertical power structures in current organizations and companies.
Finally, there is Pool of Stake. The explosive popularity that Bitcoin and the whole blockchain sphere had last year led to the exposure of inefficiencies in many projects. The problems mainly stem from the protocol used to mine bitcoin, called Proof of Work (PoW). This power-intensive protocol led to high centralization and inequality. It is impossible to mine and create bitcoin unless you have millions to spend on graphic cards and electricity bills.
The obvious solution is a change of protocol. Proof of Stake (PoS) rewards the creator of a new block in a deterministic way, depending on its wealth. This eliminates the reliance on expensive hardware and high electricity consumption. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of PoS over PoW, check our article on the topic.
PoS sounds like the perfect solution, but it comes with its issues. The main issue is that people having the maximum stake on a given blockchain have the loudest voice. This brings us back to inequality. Since PoS blockchains give a higher chance of being rewarded to the participants with the highest stakes, participants that do not hold a notable amount of tokens are left out from verifying transactions and receiving rewards. Here is where Pool of Stake comes in.
Pool of Stake solves the inequality issues of PoS by creating a pool for PoS blockchains. The product lets token holders participate together in transaction verification by pooling their funds to stake together so they can share the rewards later. This lowers the entry barriers for staking. It also creates an equal environment in which all token holders can participate to secure blockchains, regardless of their initial wealth!
The previous paragraph gives a clear idea of how Pool of Stake can contribute to solving inequality. There are additional features that add further points in Pool of Stake’s quest against inequality. Additionally, the team has gone a step further to guarantee a lasting equality through a detailed governance system. The governance system will let the community stay in fair control of the direction of the project.
To sum it up, Pool of Stake is working to create a more equal environment where anybody, regardless of wealth, can participate in securing a blockchain. We take the question of inequality very seriously. The idea behind the project is to create a useful and fair product that lets anyone participate in staking.
