Blockstack co-founder Ryan Shea believes that if the Internet evolved into a communication platform, Blockchain is rapidly growing as a decentralized organization tool for applications, platforms and financial service providers.
“The Internet exponentially increased our ability to communicate. Blockchains exponentially increase our ability to organize,” said Shea.
Large-scale decentralized Internet
Over the past few years, Shea and his team at Blockstack have been working hard to build a large-scale decentralized Internet.
By using Bitcoin as its native currency or token, the Blockstack network allows users to control their own data and load applications locally.
Because Bitcoin and decentralized systems support non-custodial platforms wherein users have control over their data, Blockstack provides an infrastructure for decentralized Internet.
The Blockstack team has been heavily criticizing the current Internet system due to its security flaws and centralized nature.
Blockstack noted:
“Traditional apps store user data in massive data silos. This results in high-value targets just waiting to be breached. With a single app, confidence in the safety of your data requires blind trust in dozens of companies.”
Managing data
Essentially, Blockstack is a functioning representation of Shea’s vision that the Blockchain will be able to disrupt how data is managed in a similar way that the Internet revolutionized how individuals and organizations communicate with each other.
With Blockchain technology, users do not need to rely on centralized systems in order to facilitate the settlement of data.
For instance, decentralized applications in the Ethereum network utilize smart contracts to autonomously process operations that involve processing of information and money.
Over the past two years, some of the largest organizations in the fields of technology, finance and insurance have focused on commercializing Blockchain technology to automate certain large-scale operations, such as supply chains, financial contracts and escrow services.
Previously, Cointelegraph reported that the $561 bln technology conglomerate Microsoft launched its independent Ethereum framework named “Coco” that prioritizes privacy through the integration of zk-SNARKs, the cryptographic system implemented by popular anonymous cryptocurrency Zcash.
“Coco presents an alternative approach to ledger construction, giving enterprises the scalability, distributed governance and enhanced confidentiality they need without sacrificing the inherent security and immutability they expect,” Mark Russinovich, the CTO at Microsoft Azure, said.
Technical difficulties
Decentralization of applications and organization of data without the involvement of third party service providers come with technical difficulties.
Scalability is one issue Ethereum developers are actively working on in order to support large-scale decentralized applications with millions of users.
Once scalability is resolved, potentially, platforms like Blockstack and Ethereum will be able to create a decentralized Internet network that is far more secure and private than the current Internet.
The monopolization of data and vulnerabilities of domain names, applications and connections can be prevented, through the integration and commercialization of Blockchain technology.