Hey! They are calling Blockchain the new internet. What does that even mean?

Too Long; Didn't Read

The internet ushered in a new era of entrepreneurs and industries. Although some feel, it failed to fulfill it’s promise of being democratic, of providing equal opportunity to all stakeholders. Much like the era before, the internet has turned into a monopoly with a handful of companies controlling majority of the traffic and thereby majority of the wealth. All this at the expense of privacy of the people these companies generate wealth from. Jaron Lanier argues in his book “Who owns the future” that the middle class is increasingly disenfranchised from online economies. By convincing users to give away valuable information about themselves in exchange for free services, firms can accrue large amounts of data at virtually no cost. Many feel that Blockchain might become a way for these firms to start being accountable. It’s a long shot, but one that we need to get right.