Steemit Crypto Academy Season4 Beginners' Course-Homework post for Task 4: Blockchain, Decentralization, Block explorer by @acbaby

Source This photo was edited by @acbaby

QUESTION 2
(2) Define decentralization. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system. In what areas of life can a decentralized blockchain be helpful? (write in own words)

INTRODUCTION
Warm greetings fellow users of the Steemit platform. I am happy to take part in doing this homework given by professor @yousafharoonkhan in which he gave three questions and I have chosen the second question to answer. I will be talking about the decentralized system, it’s advantages and disadvantages, how helpful it can be to us if applied in our daily activities. Before I go on, I will like to let us keep in mind that blockchain technology is a belt in a decentralized system and all of this is a means to an end. The end deal here is that we should be able to understand everything about blockchain technology as a decentralized system. I have broken down this question into smaller factions to make it easier for your understanding. Fasten you’re seatbelts let’s take off.

QUESTION 2a:

Define decentralization.

Decentralization as opposed to centralization is a system based on reducing or avoiding power concentration on a particular authority within a community. This word is common with the government and the ways of governing its population. In a centralized way of governance for example, Power is centered on a particular authority all through the regions, states, Divisions, Districts and communities. On the other hand, a decentralized form of governance will have power distributed to the different authorities involved. A typical example of a decentralized government can be the federal system of governance.

Let’s dive deep into the word centralization in order to easily understand decentralization.

A centralized system has a single authority that is in control of every detail of the activities of that system. A good example is Apple, where every phone, laptop, or iPad made by the company is regulated by a single authority. This means most of the decisions making responsibilities are on the CEO. Apple has a well centralized management structure which regulates its market and brand production. The photo below clearly shows a centralized system with a main authority in the middle, distributing power to every other sector making it accountable for every decision on the system. The center authority (main and only authority) has the ability to record every detail of its discharge into communities. This just acts like the real life banking system whereby the bank authority knows everything about its customers and can regularly control their funds if need be.
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I think the above explanation can get us through the understanding of a centralized system. Now let’s look at the main thing: the decentralized system.

The decentralized system is simply just the opposite of what we discussed above. In this case, every authority has the same power, that is, power is equally distributed to all communities to manage their own affairs without interference from any major or main authority because in this system (decentralized system) there’s no main authority.
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So in simple terms decentralization occurs when every entity of a system has control over itself and is answerable to none. Therefore planning, decision making and every other activity is delegated to individual entities of the system, away from a central authority.
To make this easier to understand, I have put together some reasonable features of a decentralized system against that of a centralized system on the table below.

Decentralized System	Centralized System
Distributed power (no main authority)	Centers power (single authority)
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Easy means of decision making	Decision making becomes difficult
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Security of members information	Members information is controlled by the main authority
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Management is done by the different members	central authority is in charge of management

We can not talk about decentralization without mentioning the decentralization that has to do with cryptocurrency. We should note that the blockchain technology is based on a decentralized system. With that said, we can move into discussing Decentralized Exchange (DEx)

Source Some common DEx and their respective blockchains

What is DEx all about
DEx is simply the transfer of entities in a decentralized manner such that the is no central authority to issue go ahead or observe proposals before a transfer or transaction is done. This is the common system of exchange used in the crypto space. Cryptocurrencies are belt on a foundation called blockchain which supports their transactions in a decentralized format whereby transaction details are recorded in a ledger without personal information of end members made exposed. The blockchain technology is in a manner whereby users are responsible for their activities carried out on this platform. This platform operates on high level encryption making it safe for each user since personal information is hidden but encrypted addresses made public in the ledger record. The blockchain technology enables users to sell, buy, and swap their assets for other “commodities” without an intermediary.
Looking at the Steemit platform for example, a newbie is given certain keys (addresses) which the user will be using in carrying out activities that involve their Steemit accounts. Everything on the blockchain is based on encrypted codes, hash and addresses. It is possible for a Steemit user to transfer TRX rewards into a TronLink account and swap (exchange) it into another Cryptocurrency without getting through any authority, that’s a typical means of carrying out DEx.

QUESTION 2b:

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system.

The table below contains some advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system.

Advantages	Disadvantages
High level of security	Funds lost cannot be gotten since end members can not be identified
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Equal Power is given to all members	No insurance
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No malicious activity due to transparency	Anyone with the keys of an account becomes the sole owner of an account irrespective of how they got the keys
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Individuals are responsible for their actions	Mistakes can cost you to lost your funds
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Easy decision making	Lack of competence as users are required to carry out all activities on their own

Conclusive we can say that there’s delegation of power between users; easy decision making since it is dependent on account ownership; high level security based on the use of unique keys to every account. Notwithstanding, money lost can hardly be retrieved; mistakes are common especially for new users; if the keys to an account are stolen, so is the account.

QUESTION 2c:

In what areas of life can a decentralized blockchain be helpful?

Decentralization is the future and most of our daily activities will adopt the decentralization system of doing things. To avoid things being centered to an authority whereby the mistakes of that authority suffers all the members of that system is only by making the system decentralized. This will enable end members to be responsible for their actions and their actions will not affect others. We can find decentralized blockchain technology helpful in the following areas of life.

1. Banking
It is quite common for delays upon withdrawals from a bank, hacking of bank accounts, and at some points closure of banks. All of these are as a result of the centralized system used in banking. This allows easy access of bank details of a client to the third party and into the hands of hackers which leads to bank account hacks. Due to non-transparent transactions, the payment of so many workers, some banks find it difficult to continue operating and end up closing with people’s money. Because the people working in banks are humans and are bound to make mistakes as well as not being able to multitask, bank transactions delay people a lot. Even the ATM system still has a challenge of queue. All of this will be cleared with the introduction of a blockchain decentralized system. Transactions are done in seconds, no closure, and a high security system.

2. Government
Centralized governments are prone to corruption and kleptocracy due to power handed to a few individuals over all. With such centered power, the government of a state will not understand the immediate wants of the local communities since officials are mostly in the capital city where everything is managed. Bringing the decentralized form of governance is the best thing that can happen to any country. A typical example is the federal system of government whereby each state manages it’s affairs and this has seen much progress in maintaining national peace in such decentralized countries.

3. Companies
Companies like the state face almost the same malicious activities with the centralized system they practice. A centralized management structure of a company will lead to lack of competency in newly employed workers since most at times the employees in charge of employment will readily employ people of their choice not knowing the circumstances surrounding the job area. It is also easy to embezzle in such companies since power is centered and funds can be manipulated without easily being noticed. Introducing a decentralized management structure will enable internal growth competition between different sectors and branches of the company bringing overall growth. Since most activities will be made transparent, it will be quite difficult to manipulate funds without being noticed.

4. Schools
In the educational sector where a centralized management system is applied, there are more shortcomings compared to those which have a decentralized management system. Looking at a centralized management system of education, exams are prepared from a main authority irrespective of the learning conditions of different schools, teaching facilities, learning environment and course coverage. Such exams will only properly test learners who have completed the syllabus and had the proper facilities for the program and this will end up failing the others which will make the test system very poor for evaluating the different learners based on what they have learned. Secondly, embezzlement of funds is seen to appear more commonly in this type of educational system since authority is given to a few individuals over thousands of teachers. Incompetent teachers will be employed due to the relationship they have with the authorities. Transfer of teachers from one school to the other is done just based on timeframe not teaching improvement or need for academic support. Bringing in the decentralized system of managing the educational sector will fix all these at least to a level that is better for both the staff and the learning community.

The above few sectors can be better managed with a decentralized management structure compared to the current centralized management system. This will improve a lot in the economy, proficiency, loss of time and work efficiency.

CONCLUSION
Applying the decentralized blockchain technology to different activities will save the world with a lot of stress currently being experienced due to the practice of the centralized system of managing activities. Since activities will be made transparent and public with the decentralized system, malicious activities such as hacking of bank accounts, recruiting incompetent workers, and the practice of kleptocracy will be greatly reduced. Blockchain technology is the future; cryptocurrency is the future; decentralized system of management is the future.

Thanks to professor @yousafharoonkhan for this lesson, it was quite simple and easy to understand. This led me into researching more about decentralized systems and centralized systems, something I never really looked into while in school.

It should be noted that all photos on this write-up were downloaded and their sources have been cited beneath them, some modifications have been made on some by @acbaby