, Columnist
The Future Will Be Decentralized
Who will control the next big thing online? Everyone and no one.
Working the mines.
Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
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On the internet, as a friend recently reminded me, everything looks permanent until it isn’t. As technology evolves, the most profound and destabilizing change is likely to be the transition from centralized internet services to decentralized ones.
Centralized services typically are run by companies or institutions, such as Facebook, Twitter or Amazon. There is a command structure and a boss, and changes can be made by deliberate decision. In this parlance, even Wikipedia counts as centralized, though the editors and contributors are scattered around the world.