Photo by Luke Jones on Unsplash
This past week, BlockDown livestreamed a noteworthy fireside discussion between Dr. Gavin Woods and Edward Snowden.
The conversation explored the subject of decentralization and Web3’s plausibility to serve as humanity’s salvation from central, authoritarian control.
This article will explore key points from this discussion and their ties to the technology and vision behind Polkadot by Parity. The recording may be found here.
The blockchain community is not united in the strive of decentralization, as many groups and projects also exist with a more centralized architecture.
One such example is layer-1 Ethereum projects that are centralized in order to optimize their network performance.
What is a Centralized layer-1 Project?
Firstly, layer-1 is indicative of Ethereum’s original chain without any scaling solutions. This is the state of the current Ethereum mainnet, high gas fees and all.
Layer-2 solutions are built on top of layer-1.
Advancements are designed to optimize speed and reduce gas fees for the network. Projects designing these solutions include polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync. More detailed explanations on this subject can be found here and here.
At a high level, centralization in a decentralized network can occur when the validator nodes (which verify the transactions) can be run only by very select individuals or groups. This is due to factors such as cost of the project’s token and the computing power required to run nodes.
In many instances, there is usually a minimum quantity of token required in a user’s wallet balance to qualify as a validator for the network. At high token costs and high computing costs, this creates a barrier to entry for the average person.
One such project with this issue is Solana ($SOL), whose network can easily be overtaken by a select small group of miners. A full deep dive into the specifics may be referenced here.
To quote Edward Snowden, “How can we guard against the natural tendency of centralized gain?”
During the talk, Snowden alluded to the concepts of market effects and the first-mover advantage. At the time of this writing, we may exhibit such behavior in the blockchain space through Facebook’s rebranding to Meta. A term that alludes to their outpouring of research into developing their corporation’s vision of the Metaverse.
For newcomers in this space, this term alludes to a digital world where users may interact as if they were in another virtual reality. The metaverse as a concept, however, is not a term that should belong to a single institution. It is a general term and currently, many developers and projects are crafting their own vision of a digital landscape for users.
Further exploration on this topic can be done through two fellow writers on the HackerNoon platform: @thumbsup and @mashacryptoprlab
Nevertheless, in order to fully address this question, it is first necessary to discuss the Polkadot project by Parity Technologies.
What is the Polkadot Project’s Role?
Polkadot is unparalleled in its approach to serve as a layer-0 protocol.
Following the hub and spoke model as a technology concept, Polkadot is the hub whereby other networks are interoperable via parachains. Polkadot accommodates interoperability between networks as the central hub facilitates communication between chains.
Thus, the core idea is simple.
Polkadot ingrains rules and logic deep into the underlying foundational layer, so that it is not permitted for other projects to behave in a manner that would be central and dominant.
Guaranteed rule enforcement liberates users from fears of sabotage as credibility in the system is assured. Rather than trust authority, individuals can trust logic and precision.
How can This be Achieved in the Technology Stack?
Layer-0 indicates that this will be the base layer for all protocols. All other blockchains communicate with Polkadot and execute their own logic, while adhering to the governance and rules of Polkadot.
Web Assembly and Rust are used as programming languages to provide an unopinionated and unambiguous means to which smart contracts may be scripted. In Gavin’s own words from Consensus 2021, “the best languages compile down to it”.
Now, with this having been presented, it is vital to note that the core protocol is never the source of upgrades. The core protocol is designed in a simple manner with well-defined standards.
“blockchains are not fit for modern use, hard forks tend to thwart their own consensus.”
~Gavin Woods (Consensus 2021**)
In our fast-paced world individuals expect automatic updates. Upgrades and innovations are enacted in the above layers, so that the historic means of forking and the risks entailed are bypassed.
Conclusion
Providing a fair system entails dictating what actors in the network may do at the most fundamental level, while permitting rapid technical innovation on the higher levels of the system.
Gavin Woods conveys that the extent of how much the world cares will become more evident.
The concept of self-sovereignty, self-governance, privacy, and moving away from the trusted authority paradigm may or may not be realized.
The solution and purpose of the Polkadot project is to develop an interoperable system that provides guaranteed enforcement of rules transparent to all users and baked into open-source code. Individuals can trust the system. Bad actors and manipulators cannot go against the protocol.
This will be a social experiment spanning the next decade. Will we rise above our predecessors and experience a world far different from our current reality? Or, rather will we slip back into complacency as creatures of habit?
Only time will tell.
Thanks for your time and I hope this article was useful to you.
~MR
**The author of this piece was privileged to attend Gavin Wood’s talk on the state of Polkadot and Web3 at Consensus 2021. Highlights from this may be found on Coindesk.
As always, all information presented is not to be taken as investment or financial advice. Please do your own research in all matters pertaining to this space. None of my content is to serve as an endorsement of any product, project, or cryptocurrency. All content on this account is strictly for informative purposes.