Decentralized social media is not free, get some skin in the game.

My First Hive Post

Those of us who are fans of decentralized alternatives to the very successful centralized platforms like Facebook and YouTube should not lose sight of a few inconvenient facts.

First, centralization has its advantages and disadvantages, the centralized platforms like Facebook and YouTube provide services and fill a niche with millions and billions of people choosing to utilize these platforms for the advantages and services they provide. While these private for profit businesses have the right to operate primarily in their own best interest, end users with little or nothing invested in these companies provide content, but do so under voluntary a Terms of Service which clearly spell out your user rights or as some would characterize, your lack there of....

Second, decentralized alternatives to Facebook and YouTube exist, but the number of users is much smaller then their centralized counterparts right now, the challenge of moving large numbers of subscribers from YouTubers with 100,000 or more followers is a daunting but marvelous problem to have and while there are important technical capability differences between YouTube and entities like Steemit, 3Speak or D-tube, the most important thing, I think, going forward to improve these alternative services is participation and skin in the game. Allow me to explain my point.

Any platform based on distributed proof of stake and distributed consensus requires stake for participation in governance. It is stake which allows you to have a voice and influence. Remember that even a decentralized platform may starts out with a small group of initial supporters, so stake is initially concentrated in the wallets of a small number of people and therefore be relatively centralized, unless efforts are made to invite others and airdrop significant amounts of Tokens to them. I think these efforts are important because otherwise DPOS is centralized at the start.

However with widespread invitations to a previous community and free airdrops to that community, a new community can start out much more decentralized. Then community members can increase the decentralization further by earning or purchasing the Token to distribute the Token widely. And with this widening distribution the power and influence is more widely distributed also. I feel truly Decentralized platforms are not born or made, they are created by a combination of DPOS infrastructure and Community participation.

In short, the community members must earn or buy the Token and participate in governance to realize the goal of a truly decentralized platform.

In order to have power and influence you need to earn and invest, which is commonly called having some skin in the game. Lastly this is a contact sport, like football, downvotes, flag wars and antagonistic commenting occurs, not to mention name calling. When people have invested in the platform, they are passionate about the platform and they want to be heard and to have influence over the distribution of rewards, because with this distribution come Power, influence and a return on their investment. So strong emotions and feelings are not optional, they are part of the package. I think it’s best for individuals of equal power and influence, should they chose to accept this role, to help calm these storms as less powerful individuals can be hurt or destroyed by their involvement. But remember no one is obligated to play martyr, hero or rescuer, it may affect the return on their investment, or jeopardize their businesses they create here. So if they do so they must also be prepared for possible repercussions as there are always bigger fish in the sea.

So I hope all who are hoping for the success of DPOS as a form of decentralization get involved to earn, buy and participate by voting and posting.

Get some more skin in the game, stay informed and participate in this Team Sport.

✍🏼 written by Shortsegments

Read other articles by me.

Please follow my Twitter Feed Here