Blockchain — Does it represent human behavior or a technology marvel?
I just read an article in TechCrunch that covered a discussion around the adoption of blockchain. The argument goes like this
Early uses of blockchain will barely be visible — Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/06/early-uses-of-blockchain-will-barely-be-visible/
An excerpt from the article — “For a lot of consumers, you’re not going to realize when the bank or a web form at a government website or when you go to LinkedIn and start seeing green check marks against people’s claims that they attended this university — which are all behind-the-scenes that will likely involve blockchain,” Behlendorf told interviewer John Biggs.
Let’s try to validate this. Early uses of the Internet were very visible. Internet wasn’t used to improve some workflow or add a checkmark somewhere stating “Powered by Internet”. Internet Addresses appeared almost everywhere, but they were never hidden under something else. It was very visible and people wanted to understand and participate in it. Without people’s participation, it would be nothing.
On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence went through a slow background adoption model. Data collection & training of AI systems happened for many years before we saw the smallest benefits of using them. It was introduced in our recommendations first, then devices, then pretty much everywhere now. But it is always hidden under something like a service, device or system.
So what is so different between these two models and What is Blockchain like?
Internet vs Artificial Intelligence
Internet — This is a system that connects people & machines. The initial Web Servers were not a technology marvel. They were just simple software systems that took requests from a specific port and returned responses back. But what made them special was the information people brought into it. People willingly participated to exchange information. It was mutually beneficial. It was the information that made the Internet — not technology like Apache or Tomcat.
Artificial Intelligence — This is a system that processes data to make machines learn about our world. Most of the AI systems are technology marvels. They are complex systems trained over the years in the background. What made them special are the algorithms and the data collected from us without our knowledge. So they mostly stay invisible to us. It makes sense for AI to be introduced in the background and slowly making people aware of it.
So will Blockchain be driven by proactive participation (like the Internet) or driven by background process improvements (like AI)?
When we look at the fundamentals of Blockchain systems, we understand that they are simple systems that are more like the Internet or what the Internet was meant to be. But Blockchain systems are being compared with AI, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and all the other technology waves in the past.
Here are some examples:
Open-source companies release their own ledger technologies and call them blockchains. Cloud companies host these technologies. Conferences treat them as a technology track. Companies that consult in the cloud & big data systems are coming forward to learn HyperLedger & Smart Contracts to add Blockchain in their portfolio. But is blockchain really all about the technologies that power them ? or the trust it brings to our everyday interactions?
Maybe we should talk more about Decentralized Networks and not about blockchain itself. In that case, all the above blockchain companies reduce down to just the technology providers that power the Decentralized Networks (like Apache for the Internet) and nothing more. The point here is Apache is not the Internet. It is just software we ran to keep the internet running. We are on the Internet.
Now coming back to the article we started with — Do you really think the early uses of Blockchain will be barely visible? Can blockchain really add value without active participation from people? Can we release a blockchain-based technology and improve something significantly in the background?
What is your opinion? When someone says blockchain, do you get curious about the system’s behavior (the technology behind it) or do you get curious about the human’s behavior (economics behind it)?
