If we look back into the history of businesses and economics, back in the days of our grand grand parents, the economic system was decentralized. Before the industrial revolution and the advent of motor vehicles, mobility was very restricted. and on top of that there was no internet infrastructure that we currently enjoy.

The old times - decentralized

With mobility restricted to walking and non-motorized 2-wheeler, which we call bicycle, we could find the same business every 50 miles. There were many people with the same skills which could co-habit at such a distance. Time has always been the most important factor when deciding where to go to do a business. We all prefer to go to the closest shop, store or post office so as to save time and do the maximum stuffs in a day.

While businesses where decentralized, payment systems and payment options would vary a lot. People will exchange goods for other goods of equivalent value or services of equivalent value. When a plumber comes to your place for repairs, you could pay him by giving him vegetables if you are a farmer or groceries if you are a store. Most people were entrepreneurs as it was more convenient than working for another person. In this way, everyone was satisfied till time started changing.

The transition

With the population growing at exponential rates and resources becoming scarce, not all people could afford a piece of land for doing a business. Hence more people gathered together to start doing business together, which eventually required a standard form of payment. Once they all agreed on the payment form and value, they could work together to cater for the growing community. Soon people realized that it was easier to work together as work could be done more quickly and one does not have to be specialized in all the aspects of the production.

More small businesses started coming together at strategic locations since having many stores at remote places is difficult to maintain and communication systems were not very reliable. But while promoting their brand name and level of service, more people were attracted to use the service. This is done by showing more value in one product as compared to another in the same category, such that taking the extra time to go to the store was worth it.

With the advent of the electric motor and the first industrial revolution, small and medium enterprises started coming together to become big corporations. Since people could afford motor vehicles, travelling the long distances to go to the store location felt enjoyable and quicker. People again got more time back which they can invest to make more money. The industrial growth was exploding as more people started working together and payment systems have been standardized worldwide by now.

The current time - centralized

Before the industrial age, boats were used to travel across the globe and since they were row boats, mostly non-perishable goods were traded. The time taken to reach another country meant that most perishable goods would rot by the time it reached its destination. Trading between countries were limited and each country had to optimize their inland resources for building most structures.

That is why countries with the most natural resources thrived even if they could not trade outside for foreign technologies. When trading among countries became mainstream after the industrial age, international payment methods and forms had to be agreed upon. 

With payments methods and forms already standardized within most countries, the focus was on capturing international trades. Central banks and world banks were created to maintain those payment systems and values. This has allowed other businesses, like Forex trading, to take birth. New ventures and new inventions were made possible as people from various countries could team up to produce new and better commodities.

At this point in time, there is mostly centralized businesses in existence which make the majority of the profit. For sure there are still small and medium enterprises but with the limited funding and opportunities, survival is becoming less evident. On top of that, since businesses have concentrated together, there is less need for a huge workforce. 

The decline

Systems have been designed to optimize the office space and automation hastened many people out of the doors. Low skill jobs started becoming scarce and those people forced to re-skill themselves which is sometimes difficult. Earlier, there were less people looking for jobs and hence businesses could not afford to be picky about the person. They hired the maximum they could to grow and the task force is strong.

With the next coming generations, which included the baby boomers, people looking for jobs have increased exponentially. At the same time, with automation and optimization of profits, people are loosing their job. For the first time, companies now have so many people to choose from and started being picky.

The next transition

With job scarcity, people had to find new ways of making money to survive in the world. With the advent of the internet and with the growing popularity, people started showcasing their talents online to the whole world and started to take up freelance jobs and selling of goods online. This has allowed for people to thrive for a period of time till we started finding the tax system eating most of our profit. Even though you have a decent business, governments have imposed so many taxes to pay off the national debt that it increases the frustration and unhappiness of the population. This current centralized system has allowed governments and big corporations to sit on all the data from all the people around the globe. It has become so easy to track someone that bots can do it. We no more require people here also.

The new time - decentralized

With the white paper of Satoshi Nakamoto, a decentralized market place has opened its doors. We are at the start of a journey to make the world decentralized again. Having seen all the advantages and disadvantages of a previous decentralized system and having seen all of the same in the current centralized system. The world is again converging towards a decentralized system.

This time, we have learnt some lessons from the past to try and take the advantages of the 2 previous systems to create a better one. So many people across the globe are uniting their efforts, pushing for cryptocurrencies to gain popularity. This will allow decentralized but self validating payments across the world and hence people can have a new business venture away from the prying eyes of the media, governments and spy agents.

The cryptocurrency revolution is still in its infancy an its growth has been commendable. Bitcoin has been fighting against many odds for the past 5 years and is still going strong. Bitcoin is the cornerstone of this technology and it will go down in history will all the deserved honors. New and better ways of contracting business on the blockchain is emerging, like smart contracts in Ethereum. Advancements will continue till we are fully again in a decentralized system where people can do the same business across the globe and still have people buying from everyone.

Conclusion

Merry has gone round one time as we are moving back to a decentralized system. There are many more challenges and innovations coming in this era of the new internet. The internet on top of the internet. Will the current internet infrastructure die die to make way for the blockchain internet, nobody knows.

The evolution of the world can be seen as a pendulum going back and forth between the different trading systems. It is like a Sine wave, where every era has a start, a peak and an end to make way for a new beginning. We are living during exciting times to be able to see the birth of a new form of technology which will be the stepping stone towards a new internet.

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