Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 4:Blockchain, Decentralization, Block explorer

Designed on canva by author @hazmat

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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)

Define Decentralization

Decentralization can simply be understood as not being centralized, meaning there is dispersal of something.

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As opposed to the familiar systems which our financial institutions are being run, where authority is centralized to a single authority which have the right to make decisions or modifications to the system.

Decentralized systems do not confirm to a single authority, every user on the network is able to access the network and the rights and decision to perform any transaction is the same for all users.

Decentralization is unique that the system is like a Blockchain. Every user serves as link to the network and as such no user has higher authority to another user data making them not susceptible to change unlike in centralization where a user can be limited from access to his data by the authority in control.

In a centralized system system like our banking sector, where you need verification from bank A in country A before you can send funds to a party in bank B of country B.

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Decentralization removes all of that authority from the third party being the bank, in that way only the parties involved are needed to facilitate the transaction. Party A only needs party B wallet address to send funds into his wallet making it a much more faster process.

In decentralized systems ability to make transactions without involving real life details makes it favourable as every user is responsible for their transaction and no third party has authority to use their data for malicious purposes.

In essence, decentralized systems are the opposite of centralized ones.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION

Major difference between centralized systems and Decentralized systems include

Centralized	Decentralized
Authority
One single authority is in control	There is no single authority in control
Transaction time
Takes longer time to complete a transaction	Lesser time compared to centralized systems
Data accessibility
User data can be accessed and used as deem fit by authority	User data is secure and can't be tampered with
Freedom
Policies can be made that limits the user	User enjoys a sense of freedom

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system?

Some of the advantages of a decentralized system include

ADVANTAGES

•RESISTANCE TO AUTHORITY
Decentralized system are not run by any government, and such no state authority controls them.

•TRUSTWORTHY
Due to the fact there is no single authority in charge of them, no user is afraid that their data can be mismanaged for any malicious purposes.

•GROWTH
On decentralized systems, users can determine long term projects that is beneficial to their growth as decision making is in your hands. Powering up steem on steemit is an initiative taken by a user that is beneficial to the user as well as the platform, the decision simply lies with the user.

•DECISIONS
Functions can be decentralized here, meaning it can be dispersed to many other users. As compared to centralized system where high hierarchy has to perform some functions or else system cannot be run.

•ATTACKS
Attacks are common with the network of centralized systems, but because decentralized systems due to use of cryptography makes them secure and the data cannot be tampered with.

DISADVANTAGES

Some of the disadvantages of decentralized systems include

•COORDINATION OF AUTHORITY
Decentralization of authority makes it difficult for changes to be made on occasions where something goes wrong.

•FINANCING EXPERIENCED PERSONNEL
Although decentralized in authority, financing trained individuals can be quite tasking as building a decentralized system is very complex in nature.

•INTERFACE DIFFICULTY
The navigation of some decentralized systems are not easy who users who are not familiar with the system.

•FREEDOM
I know some users might wonder how freedom can be a disadvantage, but freedom brings about different intent and policy from different user making it impossible to any form of standardization.

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

A decentralized Blockchain can be helpful in our every day life in a number of important ways, some of them are

•BANKING
One of the most significant and which is quite familiar to everyone is the banking financial institution.

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Ordinarily sending funds from one individual to another requires verification from the banks, but a decentralized system can reduce this as such a transaction in executed in a timely frame.

•FARMING
For a country like Nigeria where I come from, development in farming technology or techniques is at a developing stage and most times the government is needed to aid with funds or other essential things.

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A lot of times cases of misappropriation make the news, a decentralized system being open can make such an exercise credible as the data involved cannot be tampered with.

•Security
Many countries are facing security challenges currently and one major setback is data sharing amongst it's security agencies.

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In a decentralized system it is easy for data to be accessed by everyone since it is on the sms network, by creating a database amongst all of the agencies Information affecting security challenges can easily be verified and acted upon faster than it currently is.

CONCLUSION

Decentralized systems are the way forward, and I believe technology is fast supporting them.

This lecture has further improved my knowledge of them and i look forward to your review professor @yousafharoonkhan.