Princeton prof thinks decentralization is overrated... for now



Princeton Professor Arvind Narayanan posted a series of clear-headed Tweets about the failure of decentralized projects. His Tweetstorm, based on this post on The Register, looks at the promise of decentralization vs. the reality.
Blockchain proponents have a vision of _society_ in which centralized entities are weakened/eliminated. But blockchain tech is a way to build _software_ without centralized servers. Why would the latter enable the former? It’s a leap of logic that’s left unexplained.
— Arvind Narayanan (@random_walker) December 31, 2018
"There’s a widespread belief in the blockchain world that centralization results from government regulation and/or monopolistic rent-seeking. The truth is more mundane: centralization emerges naturally in a free market due to economies of scale and other efficiencies," he wrote.
A neat illustration of how centralization arises naturally due to economies of scale is the fact that the evolution of cryptocurrency mining closely parallels gold mining more than a century ago! [By @josephboneau, from our book. https://t.co/FIbyZnzfzn] pic.twitter.com/mTUOsDORb4
— Arvind Narayanan (@random_walker) December 31, 2018