These past 3-4 years or so I've seen social media morph into something complete opposite of what they once were. Today I'm seeing it being pushed hard in coding and in the video game industry, all the way out to comics now. There is currently a war on social media (which is the obvious one), linux (which is an open source operating system), and in the online video game community. Linux could have huge repercussions depending on the outcome, as a lot of stuff we use is built with linux and a lot of businesses use linux because it's free.
Social media is obvious, so I'll spare sources on those.
Linux -- https://itsfoss.com/linux-code-of-conduct/
https://lulz.com/linux-devs-threaten-killswitch-coc-controversy-1252/
Video if you don't want to read -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5VvJiNUCIA
https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/464567-battlefield-5-launch-party-criticisms
http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/blizzard-jumps-on-the-social-justice-and-identity-politics-bandwagon/
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/04/blizzard-ceo-mike-morhaime/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh0mKpzXf5A -- blizzard video
Luckily the gamer market is handling the SJW game developers
EA -- https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/ea ($148 in July, $80 today. Almost a 50% drop)
Activision/Blizzard -- https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/atvi ($83 in October, $47 today. Same as above)
All of this is beside the point, but i just want to give everyone a feel for how far this is spreading.
Now lets discuss what I came here to talk about which is blockchain technology. In my opinion, the issue we're seeing is centralized entities slowly evolve with or without the consent of the general public. What ends up happening over time is these companies begin to lose touch with their consumers and it begins to go unchecked essentially due to the attention economy arms-race. So at best, we have a system that will cycle and repeat itself via centralized entities. New company starts, slowly turns into ideologically driven company, turns into something user base doesn't like, new company starts to compete with ideologically driven company, repeat. Centralization is at the core of most of the issues we see today. This is why decentralization may be the only real long term solution, which is what blockchain technology offers in many areas.
When most people hear the word blockchain they think of bitcoin, which was the first blockchain that went live back in 2009. Bitcoin is a transfer of value from A to B, or digital cash. Since its inception it has been self-sustaining and publicly governed via the bitcoin Proof of Work protocol. In a nutshell, anyone can buy mining hardware and start mining for the blockchain. Miners validate transactions and provide security for the network (more hashpower = more expensive 51% attack ). Their incentive to do so is being rewarded with bitcoin. Every block they mine they get rewarded with a number of bitcoin. Thus creating a decentralized transfer of value with no corporation or government oversight, all the work is done by the public including updates to the protocol. Miners get to vote on BIPs with their contributing hashpower to the network.
The next step we've seen in the blockchain space was Ethereum which used the underlying blockchain technology of bitcoin, and create their own decentralized world computer essentially by adding in smart contracts/programming languages into the blockchain. This allows decentralized applications (dapps) entirely to be built on top of the blockchain, creating their own self-sustaining publicly governed applications. The most valuable things Ethereum has to offer are DApps and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). What this allows is for the Ethereum network to have layers, the Ethereum protocol will have its own rules and protocols as far as governing/validating transactions for it, which is the layer 1. The DApps/DAOs will then have their own rules and protocols for the same things which is the layer 2 which is all determined by the DApp/DAO itself. I would like to give some DApps I think the IDW should look into certainly, then other stuff that's currently unusable or has a cool concept.
The first one is BAT Basic Attention Token/Brave Browser which is targeting the ad/attention economy, as well as patreon inadvertently. The brains behind all of this is Brendan Eich -- creator of javascript and founder of Mozilla Firefox. SJW culture had also already infected in firefox which led to him getting fired..
Here is Brendan Eich giving the new decentralized attention economy rundown -- https://vimeo.com/209336437
The Brave Browser and the Basic Attention Token will in a duo to get the current ad model back to sanity. Brave Browser blocks all ads/trackers natively. There is also very big emphasis on privacy beyond that built (or being built) into the browers. It is a fork of the Chromium (Google Chrome) software which will incentivize developers to build on it, while also allowing compatibility with addons -- though vetting process will not be the same. They have private tabs, TOR (Onion browser) tabs, and are currently working on a built in VPN for maximum privacy. Here are my Brave stats for ~1 year of use -- https://imgur.com/a/t3pWBP3
The BAT token comes in as the value for the decentralized ad ecosystem. Consumers will have the choice to opt in or out of ads on their system. If they choose to allow them, they will be rewarded with BAT tokens. The browser will help learn about what ads would specifically be valuable to you but not mine your data. Users will then give BAT back to their favorite content creators. I have personally participated in 5 separate payments throughout the year, right now they offer a lot of free promo BAT to give away so if interested definitely check out the Brave Browser and look in >Settings >Payments and you can mess around and earn free promo BAT tokens. You can send directly to websites, including specific YouTube channels.
List of all verified publisher websites -- https://batgrowth.com/publishers
Getting started on becoming a verified publisher -- https://brave.com/publishers/ -- The only two who I support that are verified are Bret Weinstein and Dave Rubin. I still send to other IDW channels though because they will be notified when they hit 100$ worth of tokens.
Whitepaper for much more technical overview -- https://whitepaperdatabase.com/basic-attention-token-bat-whitepaper/
E-commerce
The next area I want to talk about is e-commerce and blockchain. There are a couple I recommend looking into for invoicing on the blockchain. BitPay for bitcoin payments and Request Network for Ethereum and dapp token payments. What they offer is decentralization and basically a "Pay with PayPal" button for cryptocurrencies. They also track all the backend stuff like date, time, how much was spent, etc. Standard invoice/auditing but on the blockchain. So you don't have to deal with all the hassle of tracking and organizing your payments for tax purposes. In the future a lot of the accounting work will be automated by Request Network or other alternatives via smart contracts. Bitcoin sadly doesn't offer smart contracts but we might see some interoperability in blockchain very soon. The REQ token will be used for governance of the protocol and processing Request Network transactions. Giving the people who are invested in it say in what happens with the protocol.
Detailed rundown of Request Network -- https://coincentral.com/request-network-beginner-guide/
Whitepaper -- https://request.network/assets/pdf/request_whitepaper.pdf
Both of these could be tools utilized today, though adoption is still in it's very early stages. Now I will list other concepts that haven't fully emerged as usable but are either in alpha/beta/propriety closed development until done.
SingularDTV -- https://singulardtv.com/ -- Tokenize yourself. Make your own token that represents your work and have the public value it accordingly. Aimed to be a decentralized entertainment industry, it could impact anything from YouTube to Record/label companies in music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQJeAE0KTnY -- YouTube video explaining the essence of this platform.
They will have a lineup of applications for different functions but the SNGL token will be used as the governance token. Tokit is the first application where you can hold a sort of crowdfund for yourself, which you are able to do today -- https://tokit.io/
Peepeth https://peepeth.com/welcome -- Censorship resistant blockchain based twitter alternative
Steemit https://steemit.com/ -- Value based posting reddit alternative
Aragon I've heard Dr. Peterson speak about an autonomous education system and I believe he could potentially build one with proper developers. There is a DAO that is dedicated to DAO startups called Aragon, which is what I immediately think of when I hear him talk about a new education platform. Something self sustained and self governed. I'm not nearly smart enough to try and solve any game theory behind this but it could definitely be a starting point. They have already assisted multiple successful DAO startups such as district0x which is a DAO where people vote on developments. One of the first developments voted for was Decentraland which is a blockchain based VR world where you own the in-game property via tokens. So if nothing else is appealing in this list then I would suggest starting to build a DAO of your own!
TLDR; Centralization bad, decentralization good. Blockchain offers tons of decentralization.
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