The Decentralized Revolution: A Last Chance for Europe?

Let’s face it. Europe is slowly turning into a museum of its own past glory. The nations of our continent have lost their global position of technological and economic leaders after the self-induced implosion they caused by starting two consecutive world wars. Europe has been living under the shadows of other superpowers ever since.

The lack of perspectives today has turned the European political scene into a pathetic and meaningless confrontation between national-populists and blind eurocrats. If the core of the problem is not addressed soon, both of these camps will be on the losing side. Yes, European nations need to cooperate and pool their resources in order to protect their common interests, but the administration of the European Union is very inefficient in achieving this goal and is turning a project with commendable ideas into a bureaucratic mastodon.

What Europe needs is a new wave of optimism and economic opportunities, which can only be unlocked by a breakthrough with the scale of the Industrial Revolution from the late 18th century. American startups fueled the Internet boom in the 90s and 00s. China managed to take advantage of globalization by becoming the world’s manufacturer. If Europe does not manage to find its own breakthrough, it will continue to fade in obscurity.

Today, the biggest opportunity for a new breakthrough in Europe is in decentralized technology. A large portion of the very promising startups in this industry are based in Europe. If Europe manages to tap into these resources, it could position itself as the motor of an upcoming decentralized revolution, which would bring with itself colossal opportunities for economic growth and an overhaul of the existing inefficient and corrupt political system.

Decentralized technology’s biggest asset is its capability of unlocking economic growth. Smart contract technology (see Ethereum) can enable the development of completely new supply chain models with optimized efficiency that can significantly improve the competitiveness of European companies on the global market. Moreover, new decentralized non-blockchain technologies (see IOTA) are being developed to facilitate micropayments in an Internet-of-Things machine economy. If properly implemented, such technologies have the potential to create a paradigm shift in the European economy.

Decentralized technology also has the potential to disrupt the current exhausted political model and provide more efficient and transparent means of governance. Decision-making can be brought closer to the people, who can decide on their own whether to be actively involved in the political process or empower experts of their choice (see Liquid Democracy). The potential for transparent transactions in decentralized technologies can also be used in public procurement, in order to eliminate corruption. It is obvious that the people of Europe demand a change of the current model of governance and decentralized technology seems to be the solution of this growing problem.

Currently, most European public institutions seem hesitant towards the adoption and promotion of decentralized technologies. This is understandable, since the negative reputation of some crypto-currencies and deceitful Initial Coin Offerings have cast doubts on the industry as a whole. However, the main reason is that implementation of decentralized technologies would mean the derogation of powers of established institutions and it is unlikely that they will agree on a large-scale adoption without significant pressure from the public. The key of achieving a technological breakthrough in Europe is, therefore, in the hands of European citizens who can instigate change by demanding decentralization on the local, national and supranational levels.

The Decentralized Europe Movement’s mission is to raise awareness among Europeans about the advantages of decentralized technologies and to exert pressure on European institutions for their public adoption and implementation. If you like what you read, please send us donations on the following addresses, so that we can cover the expenses of our activities:
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