Could it be, that the digital revolution will shift our economies dramatically to a setup without centers? There are some very different forces, that seem ti clearly indicate it…
Decentralizing transfer of values: The Blockchain
It may enable all to interact in a more direct way, when transfer of values are concerned.
Also — it may significantly change the market for witnessing transactions, from notaries to certifications in quality or truth.
And last in this reasoning, the Blockchain technology also holds a potential to disrupt the so called platform ecenomy as it potentially could replace an Uber, Facebook or AirBnB by a combination of SmartContract and dApps.
Which would form the Protocol Economy, but that’s another story ;-)
Intermediaries, that add no value to an economical relationship are endangered by the Blockchain technology. The protocol connects the edges.
Decentralizing how we create products and services: Open Source
Open Source Software development has decentralized how software is created, maintained and how it evolves to new heights. Also — previously closely guarded IP has been erased and replaced by the idea of a fork — simply copying a code base and creating a sibling of a project.
Maybe there will also be a move to “open” data and other significant areas. At the moment, one cannot be sure and surely big corporations have no interest in sharing their data with others.
Hopefully Elon Musk and his Hyperloop, which he shared with the public domain, is a beginning.
Open Source significantly changed how good software is produced.
Linux’ stability may not have entered the households significantly, but it conquered the professional server market and showed that letting potentially anyone check your code leads to a much better security than having it only checked by your developers. Linux is more stable than any other operating system of its distribution size.
Let it sink in…the open, decentralized orchestration of software is safer than the closely safe guarded software inside an organization that makes billions and has thousands of the best developers…
Decentralizing how we organize the creation of products and services: Agile
One of the most surprising moments in my 2017, was when I for the first time reflected how decentralizing Agile is.
I have known the Agile manifesto for a while, mainly because of //SEIBERT/MEDIA where I worked from 2000–2002 and that has transformed itself (after I left, obviously) into an agile organization— letting teams run most aspects of the company.
I myself have become a certified Product Owner in 2014 (or so) and now even hold a ScumMaster cert, myself.
But it was this year, after all the decentralization talk in the Cryptosphere, I dived into, that I realized, how decentralizing Agile is.
Scrum shifts the power to those who actually do the work — away from those who planned it before. Empowering the edges.
The self organizing teams decide and communicate, what work can be done and iterate by reflecting their work directly.
The agile movement potentially kicks out intermediaries, my generation has believed to be the ruler of companies.
The manager. Of course not all are in danger, but especially those that do not understand what a servant leader is, may find themselves out of the game.
More decentralizing effects
3D & 4D printing (production of physical goods when and where they are needed, 4D adding the ability to morph objects by external influence such as temperature), Nanotech, SmartGrids and CRISPR in bio tech (you can now buy a set to change genes in bacteria) are just three relatively well known developments, that are as decentralizing as those mentioned before.
The other side
There are of course also centralizing effects in technology and our society — just thinking of AI or Quantum computers, I see centralized markets shaping before us…at least for the moment.
But maybe Google will see the value of the new age and OpenSource the findings of TensorFlow or share it with OpenAI??? ;-)
