Imagine a world where accessing financial services is a daily struggle. Censorship prevents free expression. Corruption and fraud erode trust in institutions. For many, this is not just a possibility but a reality. If you're from a privileged country, these issues may seem distant. But, they're closer than you think. In times of crisis, even the most stable systems can falter, leaving critical apps and services vulnerable. Why are the tools we rely on often centralized and controlled by a single, trusted actor? There is no guarantee they will be resilient in tough times.
On top of that, did you know that big tech companies hold massive amounts of data about us - far more than any government? They collect it, own it, and monetize it. We've grown so used to these imbalances on the internet that we accept a reality where we lack control over what should be ours. Assets, data, identity, even our voice - there is no true ownership, only a reliance that is all too often exploited by those in power.
In this article I'm going to provide some food for thought of how these challenges are addressed in the future using blockchain technology. I focus on two aspects: resilient applications and digital liberation.
1 Resilient Applications
At its core, blockchains serve as a platform for resilient applications. To provide an intended service no matter if there are adversaries.
As Gavin Wood puts it:
What we're actually striving to create are resilient systems that can genuinely benefit society. In a world facing potentially disruptive challenges, these systems are designed to hold up and continue supporting the freedoms we've come to value over the years.
This resiliency is essentially a shift from “Won’t do evil” to “Can’t do evil”.
The difference between promising they won't freeze your assets and they can't freeze your assets. The difference between controlling how you spend your money and not being able to tell you how to spend it. That’s resilience.
Resilience contains several critical aspects:
- Censorship resistance: Ensuring no one can suppress or filter interactions
- Elimination of single points of failure
- Protection against regulatory overreach
- Corruption prevention
- Robust security against breaches
- No downtime
- Protection against data manipulation
- Clear ownership resolution
These properties seem nice to have in every app. But resilience is totally undervalued today. But there will be times when there’s a need for resilient systems. Look at history with its wars and conflicts. Centralized systems can be taken down fairly easily by attackers. Wait until there’s blood on the streets to judge the importance of resilience.
→ When Do We Need Resilience?
Not every application requires the same level of resilience. Your food tracker or productivity apps might work perfectly fine without it. Here, it's not worth paying the price of resilience. It means higher costs, lower speed, and more complexity than non-resilient, centralised systems. If something is screwed up, nothing too bad is going to happen.
However, resilience becomes crucial when there is something significant at stake! – money, assets, reputation, identity, or sensitive data.
Take money as an example; it’s an application that relies heavily on resilience.
Do you want a man in the middle saying yes or no to your transactions? Do you want power over it to be concentrated to one jurisdiction that has the capability to exploit it? Do you want to tolerate downtimes or compromises? Do you want the ownership to be managed by a third party in a non-transparent way?
The Bitcoin protocol is a remarkably resilient implementation with money as the primary application.
It is the largest computational network in the world. It is protected by a massive hash rate of 800 exahashes per second.
A sustained attack on the bitcoin network would cost billions of dollars annually. This includes spamming the network to raise transaction fees or censoring it. This is a cost that would be difficult for any entity, even governments, to justify.
Besides money, arbitrary code on a blockchain can gain resilience as well. Here, the blockchain acts as an unstoppable compute resource. This is what smart contract capable blockchains are doing.
It lets scripts move money, like in money markets. They can borrow, lend, and use exchanges, prediction markets, or DAOs. This will expand into many more areas that require high integrity. These include advanced identity, reputation, and voting apps, and even nation states.
2 Taking Back Digital Freedom
Besides resilience, there is the opportunity of actually owning what belongs to us.
We got used to accepting that we must use an incorporated entity to exchange money or move data. Although they control, monitor and surveil people. If you violate the terms and conditions, you will feel that.
Consider our current situation:
- Digital Money: It's controlled by central banks, governments, and firms. They can freeze, monitor, and surveil our transactions.
- Identity: Managed by governments and private companies who can block access at will.
- Data: Big tech companies hold our digital identities. They monetize them but often fail to secure them. You get punished if they screw up.
- Voice: Social media platforms have the power to silence or manipulate our expression.
- Privacy: We trust service providers with our sensitive data, while creating attractive targets for hackers.
But blockchains will offer an alternative. They will give us full control over our money, identity, data, voice, and privacy. Having true ownership and more freedom.
→ The CBDC Challenge
Another scary challenge we must face is Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Countries like China have a Digital Yuan. The US and Europe are still researching and developing it. Disintermediating commercial banks to give central banks full control of the monetary system risks serious government overreach.
As Edward Snowden warns:
We are getting to a point now where it is not enough to have money to spend money. You also have to belong to the right group of individuals.
Imagine driving your Lamborghini, but you can't fuel it. You've had enough for today. Blocking your payment and censoring your spending habits.
Imagine getting a different interest rate than your colleague. It's because you spent your money in a way they didn't like.
Both are possible scenarios. It's a form of a social credit system. You behave, and you are allowed to spend your money. You don't behave, and you will feel it.
Blockchain platforms represent our best defence against the surveillance potential of CBDCs.
→ Blockchain as the Operating System for Human Rights
Moreover, blockchains could become a regulating layer in the world. They could be a digital law that ensures equal rights for all. Instead of a pyramid with concentrated power at the top, we can make a circular system. In it, protocols, not individuals or groups, provide the rules.
The protocol can code rules to force everyone to follow the same standards to use the system. They would be unbreakable, like the laws of physics. These could be rules about fiscal or monetary policy, governance, or limits on financial control.
For example, instead of governments and central banks funding the next war through hyperinflation, protocols could enforce a law against reckless monetary expansion. These unchangeable rules would ensure decisions serve the people, not the agendas of a few at the top.
This becomes increasingly important as exponential technologies advance. Those that will control these technologies gain unbelievable power. Who owns AI at the moment? Those holding the largest amounts of data! So big tech. A decentralized regulating layer becomes crucial to prevent the further concentration of power in the hands of a few. Or do we want the already large power of big tech to increase exponentially? It’s all to ensure organizations, governments, religions, individuals cannot change the rules for their own advantage and exploit the vulnerable at the bottom.
Conclusion
In conclusion, those who dismiss blockchain as useless are ignorant. They undervalue resilience, control over personal assets, and individual freedom. They are likely in a favourable position in the pyramid and remain comfortable within existing structures.
Blockchain technology offers a way to shape a better future. It can make resilience and liberation core features of our digital infrastructure. It’s a solution for those who see the world's challenges.
So remember what we fight for: to bring resilience to apps we depend on; and to protect human freedom. (And to have meme coins 💥)