Unrestricted Internet and Decentralization Are the Future of the Internet
Before I jump into the main topic of this context, I'm grateful to @upmewhale for holding this contest on Restricted & Unrestricted Internet - Freedom World and allowing me to share my thoughts on internet restrictions.
Let's take a first look at this word, Internet, meaning that the interconnection of computer networks working remotely throughout the globe without recognizing the end-users, a computer works and communicate through IP. In this 21st century, the internet has been the highest priority of all tech boundaries, in any case, it may be, mostly everyone is participating in the internet, either sending or receiving data.
When the internet was developed by ARPARNET in the 1960s, no one knew it would be this massive. At the rate the internet is growing so is censorship growing along with it by greedy governments and platforms.
Should the internet be restricted? To me is NO! I'm totally against it but we all know it's being restricted because governments want to have total control of everything we have which is not supposed to be. In a country that's claimed to be independent, why should governments be interested in depending on users' data? People are wising up daily and want to be totally free from censorship, that's why Bitcoin has surged higher than any fiat currency.
The issue with restriction and non-restriction brought up centralization and decentralization. Centralized is like being caged in a cave while decentralization is being free in the universe.
The disadvantage of centralized platforms is that they have total control of your data, they can do and undo. Facebook sold millions of users data without informing the owners to another company for internet marketing. You keep getting unwanted spam inboxes in your mail, it’s high chance that your email has been sold out too. Centralized platforms are full of censorship and the lack of trust is growing exponentially. This is getting worse and people needed to fight it off, that's the reason Nick Szabo coined the word "smart contracts" in 1996 with the plan to launch trustless contracts between users which Ethereum now taking the lead.
After Bitcoin surfaced in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, people didn't participate, they were skeptical at the start but when they saw how good it is to be free from intermediaries, people started harnessing the great technology of this era "blockchain", which has led to the development of many awesome blockchain projects with some examples being Ethereum, EOS, Steem, etc. The result shows that more people want to be their own banks and have total control of their data.
To continue the fight against censorship, we can see the development of new platforms on blockchain, one of them is Steem blockchain; a decentralized social media and an app-based platform to solve problems people are facing with censorship on social media like Facebook, and Twitter. DTube and 3speak are created on Steem to give people freedom of speech and solve the censorship on a platform like YouTube. How many people do we know that censorship has drained off? I have seen a couple of users lamenting on Twitter about how the original video that's fetching them money per views which got deleted by YouTube without a warning.
Another censorship growing country is China, when I researched it, it was mentioned that it's because of trust and they are doing this to protect their people. This is a lie because I have read about traditional banks packing up with people's investment and without government retaliating to fight for the people. In my country Nigeria, people don't see jobs so they have to struggle in their own parts to survive, now imagine this, the government should stop people from accessing Steem blockchain from the ISPs, which will be the worst scenario.
Life is limitless so is internet, although the internet cannot be restricted to nerds because they actually know how to bypass the firewall. Only the novices are being affected and they are the larger population. To conclude my part, I'm in for decentralization any time any day. The Internet should not be restricted to anyone.
Freedom of Speech and Word is a great good, something we shall be very careful with to limit; However I think 100% unrestricted internet is something we do not desire. Sure, a complete cut off of the internet like they do in North Korea is something very unwanted. But what about restricting some specific content that is simply there to miss lead and deliberately miss inform the mass. I personally believe in total and absolute freedom, under the condition that the individuals have respect for one another. When respect is the foundation of an individuals action, miss use and abuse of freedom will not happen. The reality is somewhat different though.
BTW, Steem blockchain is not entirely censor free. Many UI's to the Steem blockchain hides articles and comments that gained a negative vote value. Interestingly, the first ever and dominant UI to the Steem blockchain Steemit has this feature of hiding which cannot be personalised. This hiding of content is a form of censorship. Sure, after an additional one or two clicks the hidden content can be read, but still, I'm pretty sure many users do not even try to make some hidden message or comment visible.
Interestingly, decentralisation doesn't mean a truly censor resistant environment. First of all, the majority decides leaving the minority to be overruled. Secondly, the power in decentralised networks is in the hands of a very few, resulting in a kinda centralised networks again. Bitcoin is a good example. It is my believe that Bitcoin doesn't have the value it has today because so many people believe in it; I think it has the value of today since so many early miners and subsequently large traders are playing the trading and manipulation game. In the end, hardly any money is in Bitcoin when comparing with the fiat world. Just a few 100 billion dollars and as can be seen in history, its pumped and dumped many times.
Thanks for taking time to read this and comment.
So true, but those content hidden from UIs can still be seen from the blockchain database, it is not deleted. You can see hidden/deleted content through steemd.com. I think this feature must be use to prevent spams on users profile/blogs.
The major demerit of cryptos is fluctuation in prices, probably if cryptos gain mass adoption this will stop.
Thanks for taking the time to create great content on steemit!