The mind trick of the sharing economy
We seem to share a lot, but big corporates get the most
To stay up-to-date on the progress of Centrality’s ecosystem, follow us on Twitter and our Telegram Announcements channel, plus join our community on Centrality’s Official Telegram, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook.
We live in a sharing economy but not everyone is getting an equal part of the pie. CEO Aaron McDonald explains how we can create a different kind of sharing economy — the UNeconomy where our data is safe and the benefits are equitably distributed.
Social media platforms — what’s unfair about them?
Social media platforms seem relatively innocuous — they’re free to use and provides a way for users to connect and share with other people. However, there’s increasing evidence that the information social media companies gather about users are being used for purposes that we don’t know about. For example, Facebook is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Contrary to many people’s opinions, it’s not a social media company — Facebook is a data broker. That’s their business and their product is you.
But what if we don’t want to give up Facebook?
All the applications that people love today, like Uber, Google, Facebook and messengers can be accessed in a fairer way, using an infrastructure that’s owned by the community. We have the opportunity to enjoy the same experiences but rather than the company reaping the rewards, have the users benefit directly back. We don’t need Facebook to make a Facebook. We don’t need Uber to make an Uber. That’s the power of blockchain technology.
Why is blockchain inherently fairer?
Blockchain works a little bit like a modern-day cooperative, like how dairy farmers band together and pool their resources and milk to produce products. With the blockchain model, we bring our data and infrastructure to the table and merge those together to create a cooperative blockchain environment. We then build applications on top of this platform and benefit from the development of those applications as they progress. As the applications grow in value, our underlying assets also gain in value.
Who owns the underlying assets in a blockchain environment?
The whole community owns the underlying assets — not the corporate body or directors. In a blockchain environment, the rules about the infrastructure are written in code. The brilliance of the infrastructure and software means that interactions like ordering a ride-sharing service can happen within the blockchain environment without a company being in control. That’s how blockchain acts like a data cooperative.
How is data managed in a blockchain environment?
Data typically sits in two places within blockchain. There’s your personal, unique data, and that would sit in an information silo, which is controlled by your own private key, and you personally allow applications to access that. And then there’s common data, which is the information that the net knows about itself. The common data is transparent, meaning everyone can see that information, leverage it and build their own applications on top of it.
How is Centrality creating an alternative model?
Centrality makes it easy for people and developers to make the transition into this new paradigm. We try to make it easy for developers to build applications that consumers love in the blockchain environment. We’re also enabling users to move seamlessly between a suite of applications with lower friction than currently. We think that if people are presented with the option to participate in an economy where they were fairly rewarded for participation and their data was safe and private, they would opt in. The economics are built into this environment to encourage people to become part of it — once you’re a part owner of this community, you’re going to generate a viral effect that gets everyone else involved. The only clip in the ticket is the network, instead of companies, shareholders and corporations taking asynchronous value compared to what they provide. There’s a small charge for the infrastructure but it’s not disproportionate to the value they provide.
Is our data safe with Centrality?
The infrastructure is owned by the community. If there’s a change in the network that needs to be made, everyone is required to agree on it. If they don’t, they pick their data up and they go elsewhere.
How’s Centrality progressing?
We’re a relatively well-known project on the global stage and now have close to 30 applications that are building in all different areas of life, including things like the next Uber and Facebook. Several of the applications have been working hard to get great user experiences and we’re now starting to onboard users into the ecosystem. As the next couple of months progress, there will be beta versions of these applications launching with the view to go out with a bang next year. One application that people should check out first is Sylo — they’re going to the foundation for the next Facebook.
To stay up-to-date on the progress of Centrality’s ecosystem, follow us on Twitter and our Telegram Announcements channel, plus join our community on Centrality’s Official Telegram, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook.
