Facebook’s Decentralized Login Button
Zuck spoke with a Harvard Law Professor, Jonathan Zittrain, about the potential of “decentralizing” their login button. In it, he talks about a theoretical scenario of using blockchain to decentralize control of user data and the pros and cons of it.
Anyone with a basic understanding of blockchain would be aware of this sounding a bit like taking catchy words to gain appeal among crypto enthusiasts.
His idea sounds more like a change in user agreements which would essentially allow Facebook users to own their usage data and give permission to apps leveraging Facebook. To call it a decentralized login button sounds funny- let’s call it what it is giving users the ability to own their data.
A disputed ledger and smart contracts could help provide users of a platform “true” data sovereignty however there are simple ways to do it now without adding extra complexity. I admire Facebook’s approach to adopting new technologies. We need to be mindful of the crypto boom where we saw publicly-traded companies use crypto as a marketing ploy to simply boost their stock prices.
