Decentralization is not a destination but, rather, a direction, here's what this means

This was extracted from the content "Ethereum Is Banking 2.0: Vitalik Admits No Decentralization" and this content aims to throw more on the topic of decentralization, mostly why it isn't absolute.

What is decentralization?

Google says:

Decentralization is the transfer of control of an activity or organization to several local offices or authorities rather than one single one.

It seems rather boring, how can we reform this definition to sound exciting? Let's try

Decentralization is the process(direction) of establishing fair power distribution within a system or ecosystem to promote healthier decision making thereby combating the flaws of centrally managed structures.

There are two words to pay attention to here:

Process and fair!

Why?

Let's start with fair.

There's a general misconceptions that decentralization should mean "equal", we literally live in a world where nothing is designed to be equal, there's definitely not going to come a time when a woman can rob shoulders with a man, it isn't a design nature agrees with, we are all built in different forms and sizes literally because equality is a myth, everything has a hierarchy, yes, even decentralized systems.

It's high time we stop getting these things twisted, decentralization doesn't mean everyone will have equal rights, no, it won't be equal because while others have thousands of tokens to influence governance, some will have millions, that isn't equality because the weight of their votes will differ, but one thing is certain tho, everyone has a fair chance to climb up the ladder, one just has to determine to build that influence.

This is from an article I published 21 days ago titled "Decentralization is not about equal rights, but fair chances, here's how you know the difference"

So looking back at this article, we understand what decentralization is about: "fairness", now some may argue that it can still be exploited as opposed to systems where influence is measured in human heads, that is "1 human 1 vote influence".

It is a really fun concept to play around with, I have personally thought about it a couple of times and I've seen others too writing about it, even Worldcoin claims to be building towards this - but that's a lie obviously.

But you see, the problem with such a system is that "greed" cannot be maximized. Oh you thought greed was a bad thing all the time?

No, greed isn't always a bad thing because many decisions to do things are often backed by the desire to have more, oftentimes more than necessary(greed), so in a system where one can actually not see the benefits of doing more to get more, why would anyone bother?

That's right, nobody would bother in that angle, but something else would occur and that would be "bribery". People in a quest to acquire more influence would bribe the multitude to support things that grants them(the single entities) more influence and you know one thing about the masses? They aren't very educated or at least are vulnerable to the arts of manipulation.

So, decentralization is about fairness, not equality.

That said, where does "process" come in?

Google defines a process as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.

In blockchain governance, there's no end because value grows and falls consistently, structures get built and torn down, things just continue happening, so if that is the case, what else should be expected?

The shift in power is what.

The largest stakeholder today may not be the same in the next 10 years and the stake making him/her the largest holder will be different, so when we say process and direction, we are effectively saying that we cannot absolutely attain decentralization because every next second and minute alters the structure of the last.

So absolute decentralization cannot be attained, but a relative balance can be built upon, this is how to approach building on decentralized ecosystems, there are no guarantees but our collective efforts and actions can affect our future either positively or negatively.

What enables us to attain a relatively decentralized system is consistent fight against structures that would give power to a few.

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha