The (Super-) Power of Decentralised Transactions
Blockchain is all about decentralisation and that's a concept that is sometimes misunderstood by newcomers. After all, why would I need decentralised transactions when centralised ones are working perfectly ?
At first, it feels weird, like a newly discovered superpower
Some will argue the contrary, centralised transactions and commerce is not working perfectly but that's not the idea we are going to try to get accross. Today, we're are going to talk about what wasn't possible before blockchain existed. At first, it feels weird, like a newly discovered superpower but once you are used to it, you don't even notice it … It's like when you first used the Internet … That is if you are old enough to remember that, if not, you'll have to trust me … it felt like a superpower, a pixelated one, low resolution and 56k speed …but nevertheless, access to knowledge and people that was faster than anything we'd know. Today through, it's so engrained in our lifestyle that we don't notice it anymore. Fact is, it's not a superpower per se because everybody has it.
Let's define a bit of vocabulary: "decentralised transactions". I keep saying transactions eventhough exchanges would be more appropriate but it would confuse the hell of everybody because I'm not talking about a market maker (like Osmosis or Uniswap). I'm just refering to the simple action of exchanging one thing for another. Executing a human transaction. In Starname terms, that would be exchanging a *starname against some IOV tokens.
So what is the true super power of a decentralised transaction ? Well, let's not speak about the middle man of a centralised system because we'd just be comparing the old versus the new. It works when we're talking enhancement, upgrades, or new modified version of existing paradigms but it just doesn't do justice to a new technology that has the power to create a new paradigm. Like the Internet did and like blockchain will and is slowly doing.
The superpower of blockchain is the certainty of the expected outcome
A succesfull transaction is one that ends up, for both parties, like they envisioned it would when they agreed to do it. It's a double fulfilled promise. Centralised and decentralised transaction usually work well enough to achieve this but decentralised does it in a trustless environment. Here lies the superpower. Our mind will easely link "trustless" and the middle man of a centralised environment because all parties need to trust the middle man. But trustless, in this context, means no need for trust. Thanks to blockchain, you can execute a transaction, know that it will end the way it is supposed to end and you can do this without trusting or even knowing your counterpart or any other person. That is the superpower of a decentralised transaction. Never before could this be achieved in the history of digital exchanges … And maybe even in human history (Please, someone prove me wrong on this one). You can strike a deal with a stranger and you don't need to know or trust that person or entity, you know that the deal will execute, the way you expect it. The superpower of blockchain is the certainty of the expected outcome, and it works in a new type of environment, an environment that doesn't rely on trust. To some it will sound so incredible that it's impossible, to others it might not seems like a big deal …
Never before could this be achieved in the history of digital exchanges … And maybe even in human history
Does this qualify as superpower ? It kinda depends how familiar you are with blockchain. At Starname, we call this superpower an escrow account that allows our users to freely exchanges starnames without the need for trust.
With the Internet, we've all became superheroes, able to communicate across time and space like no science fiction novel predicted. Now with blockchain, we can do business and not need trust … Yes, we'll need a bit of time to adjust and see what we can achieve with that.
