2021 or 2120?
Will my records be there in 2120?
We’ve all heard the hype! How blockchain technology will make the centralized data-lords fall to the will of the people. That we shall no longer be poked and prodded along, like sheep to the slaughter, while the champions of data squeeze every part of our daily lives into a money-making enterprise.
The story has been told, over and over. Yet, here we are in the midst of a data deluge, frankly suffocating in information, in an age where our Google-brains cry for more and then more again. This information comes from somewhere.
But where we may ask? Where is data stored so we may access it? Today, it is centralized. Central repositories of petabytes of information.
The nomenclature is called “cloud” computing. We “squeeze” the “cloud” by our query and it rains upon us, some would say it downpours. We ask the central system in “search”, and millions upon millions of responses come to us. We pick one or two answers and go on with our lives, maybe a bit better for the exchange.
Is that all there is? Is this the system topology that will govern the next 100 years or is there something coming that is far more powerful and far more fair to everyone and anyone? Innovation brings solutions but within each solution, a new set of problems occur.
So here we are in an age where the decentralized computer, strewn across the datasphere, paid for by little bits of “gas’ to keep the engine moving, mined for the profit of mining, using energy that is now measured in TWh (terawatt hours). However, there are only 52.4 million crypto-traders worldwide, or put in another way, about .01 per cent of the worlds' population.
Of course, these only represent estimates, but clearly the general audience is still in the future. As this audience joins themselves to this decentralized revolution, a new system topology must be invented. When this happens is anybody’s guess.
The caution we must all consider is the cost associated with the digital ledger technology. A question must be put forth that realizes an inherent danger to the loss of data when it becomes economically or environmentally unviable to continue, as the present topology enshrines.
Where oh where will the ledger go? Will it be lost to hyperspace or be destroyed, leaving many with keys but no locks?
We must then speak to this revolution and make some “baby steps” to ensure that information, especially information that requires long-term stability, such as medical records, patents, legal documents, trusts, property ownership, claims and the like, will be there in perpetuity.
History tells us that the oldest known operating company is Kongo Gumi, which was established in 578 AD. It had been run by a Japanese family for around 1400 years until 2006 and it became a subsidiary of Takamatsu. However, the oldest technology company, most would concur, is IBM. Old “Big Blue” has been around for about 120 years, give or take a few. The most valuable tech companies like Microsoft; $1.04 Trillion, Apple; $931 Billion, Amazon; $888 Billion, Alphabet (Google);$818 Billion, are all nascent creations with less than a 30 to 40-year history.
That leads us to the question. Will these NEWCO’s stand the test of time as their founders pass on? Will the fickle markets, whose game is immediate profits, support them as the future unfolds? Will the new decentralized open-sourced freeware cannibalize their grip on the world's data? Time will tell to be sure.
Ours is a data-centric world. A world where information is stored, in bits and bobs, floating in hyperspace, retrieved by search sentries, who, through AI and boolean architecture, find our very wishes instantaneously. Is this data world sustainable?
If I were a betting man, I’d say, in all probability, no.
What the future may bring is a guess at best. What is true, however, is that we all need to know our data is safe, our claims are substantiated and secure, our property rights and legal rights are maintained. These are essential to anyone in the 21st century and beyond. How may this be achieved?
My thoughts move to a “mesh” network. Each of us holds the equivalent of a “Cray-2” supercomputer of the 1990s in our pocket or purse. We call it a mobile phone. We can localize pertinent and critical information, such as medical, legal status, claims and property rights on our hand-held supercomputer and also copy this to the “cloud” in the data centers world-wide, within distributed ledger technology. But, by adding a little “twist”, we may all “share” a small amount of our compute power, bandwidth, and storage capacity with those around us, thereby creating a “mesh network”.
This is what will become to be known as the SKy. This topology will provide the sustainability and the connectivity necessary in the future; a community of people sharing resources for the betterment of each and every individual within the community.
Presently, our best and most sustainable opportunity corresponds to a blended topology which is enveloped in a permissioned and non-permissioned consensus environment; each having their faults, each having their advantages. As the consensus distributed ledger systems move into the future, a “shared” approach will provide the safety, sustainability and future prospects necessary to deploy this exciting, free and open environment that we all desire.
The SKy, for it, is us, our children and our childrens’, children. Frankly, as we now move into Space, the SKy becomes our gateway. We shall be able to share our future. We should, and can, form a new community about our human desires and lives.
Are we at the apex of a grand adventure? The road we shall travel to is truly up to us. Each of us has the ability to move into this data-driven world and change it. The foundation is being laid now. The internet, was to the Age of Information, what decentralized distributed ledger technology will be, to the Age of Value, where each of us will be recognized for the human capital we represent; where the systems will enhance community and data will be both private and shared, as we desire.
A “mesh” network in the SKy will create an open and viable system allowing us to make our claim to our independence, no longer dominated by the centralized systems of government and data-lords. It is ours for the taking but it requires individual responsibility and community, and a wee-bit of techy-tinkering.
This will ensure a bright tomorrow where 2021 meets 2120 and beyond for you, for us, and for those who come after. We must remember the future together and in so doing create a more beneficial and more equitable future. Blockchain technology, and its cousin Cryptocurrency, is but a doorway to a more sustainable and shared future.
Our mums told us to share, and so we must. Maybe, just maybe, she was right all along!
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