What makes decentralization important?

In the web 2.0 world, we’re used to have a main account on platforms like Google and Facebook which we use to log into other services. All of our data is hosted inside of centralized databases and our private information is used in advertising software to sell us products. In exchange for our data, we get free services. These big centralized entities have a lot of power and control over our daily lives through the products we use each and every day. This is the business model which has worked for the past few decades.

When you decentralize the services and become a sovereign user, you can’t be de-platformed, censored, or exploited. As long as you have access to a computer and to the internet you can use any application running on a permissionless and decentralized blockchain. Nobody can block access to them fundamentally, because you can always run a node and submit a call a smart contract and submit a transaction in the blockchain network. Decentralized applications are still in their infancy and many technologies are still not mature enough to support mainstream adoption, however, there is a huge demand for these applications and the industry is evolving rapidly.

In a web3 world, users own their assets, their money, their identity, and their data. This allows for a better user experience fundamentally, and even practically once these technologies become mature enough to support the masses. You can eventually have applications like decentralized social networks where users own their content, artists and musicians can produce their artwork and sell it as NFTs and get revenue from royalties and better engaging with their audiences, you can have virtual worlds where people own their digital identity, their virtual items, and their land, etc. The possibilities in web3 are growing day by day and I think it is one of the most exciting technologies that humankind has ever devised. It unlocks so much potential.