Cryptosocial

How Cryptocurrencies Are Changing Social Media

Allen Taylor

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781637421840
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Marketing digital

Cryptocurrency & Social Media Have Married and This is What It Looks Like

Social media is a multi-billion-dollar industry where the platforms profit from user-generated content. Cryptocurrencies have arrived to end the exploitation.

Cryptosocial: How Cryptocurrencies Are Changing Social Media surveys the history of social media and cryptocurrencies to show how these two unrelated technologies had a chance meeting that is changing the world. If you're one of the millions of people growing tired of legacy social media and how they take advantage of their own users, this book will open your eyes to the alternatives offering greater happiness, more freedom, and better personal and financial security. Read this book and you'll learn:

• What cryptosocial is all about.
• Which platforms and protocols you should pay attention to.
• Why cryptosocial media is the best alternative for Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.
• How to start using cryptosocial media.
• What you need to participate in decentralized social media platforms.
• And how you can profit from your own content, gain more control over your identity, and maintain security over your online data and personal assets.

CHAPTER 1

Practical Applications of Blockchain Technology

When primitive man wanted to travel from Argos to the banks of the Yellow River, he invented a circular object and called it a wheel. In those days, traveling farther and faster meant more cash in the war treasure and greater leverage for trade. The invention proved to be a huge advancement for civilization.

Throughout history, enterprising individuals have identified problems and addressed them with creative solutions. This has often led to future innovations and improvements.

In the 1440s, an enterprising German named Johann Gutenberg ushered in the age of mass communications with advancements in printing.¹ That led to the publication of daily newspapers, monthly magazines, and countless books. Many of the font types that have been developed since then are now used in Web publishing.

New technologies often do more than solve old problems. Sometimes they address challenges people weren’t aware they had. That might be the case with decentralized social media.

Blockchain developers make bold promises. One of those is that blockchains and distributed ledgers can and will return the Internet to its decentralized roots. Another is that the technology will provide a greater sense of security for anyone sharing personal data on the Web. Just as important, the persons to whom that data belongs can have more control over how it is shared and profit from it, as opposed to third parties selling it for a profit and not sharing that profit with anyone else. These benefits are wrapped up in the nature of the technology itself, but are they what Web citizens want? If so, does the average Internet user know they want these benefits?

Crypto enthusiasts don’t need to be sold. The rest of the world might. If you’ve wondered what the fuss over bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is all about, or you’re at least a little bit concerned about the power that rests in the hands of a few at the top of the social media pyramid, then keep reading to learn how a new emerging technology could solve some of the biggest problems facing the planet at the beginning of the third millennium.

Twenty-First Century Problems and Their Solutions

Technology is a double-edged sword, often solving one problem while creating another. When that happens, someone comes along later and solves the new problem. That process may take years. The cell phone, for instance, didn’t see the light of day until almost a century after Alexander Graham Bell’s immortal words, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.”

As with any new technology, the problems blockchain technology promises to solve are related to its features. In that light then, let’s dive into the river of problems and solutions concerning blockchains.

The Problem of Centralization

Today’s young people are put off by the centralized institutions of the past. That’s why many of them find decentralization attractive. When you examine the modern world, it’s not hard to see why there is a strong distrust of authority.

The first Millennials were born in 1981.² In their lifetimes, they’ve witnessed an S&L crisis, the Y2K scare, the World Trade Center attacks, the 2008–2009 financial crisis, and more than one global pandemic. In each case, centralized authority was either the heart of the problem, a part of the problem, or failed to see the problem and ineffective in addressing it.

From financial corruption to police brutality, centralized authority has run amok. Centralized social media platforms, which were supposed to “democratize” media, have proven to be another organizational nightmare where power rests in the hands of a few. With decentralization, there is no platform to control.

An article in Inc. magazine lists three clear benefits of decentralization:³

1. Trust in centralized authority is replaced with technology where trust is not a factor;

2. Systemic failure is reduced exponentially by the number of nodes that make up the system;

3. There is no Twitter-like authority to banish or censor someone.

Humans are fallible. There is no class of individual immune from the misuse or abuse of authority. To quote Lord Acton, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Decentralization de-powers the powerful by empowering everyone else.

The Problem of Data Ownership

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal put data security on everyone’s radar. Many people who’ve flocked to Facebook and Twitter have assumed or taken it for granted that the platforms would protect their personal information. The truth is, they can’t.

Beyond data breaches, there lies another issue. What happens when your data is used for purposes you don’t support or endorse?

For instance, any platform that collects personal information can sell it. And it’s likely that such information will be sold multiple times. Buyers can range from anyone who might have a product you’d be interested in to a political party you’d never support. The rule of thumb is: If the product or service is free, you are the product.

E-mail is like last century’s postal mailbox. Full of junk. One day, you land on a website, fill out a form providing your e-mail address, and receive a download. Before dinner, you’ve received a confirmation e-mail, an introduction e-mail, and a follow-up promising untold benefits delivered conveniently to your digital mailbox. You now have a lifelong relationship you have to actively request to be removed from—if you have the energy to pursue it. We’ve been trained to join lists.

Think about the websites you visit. Do you conduct business with your doctor, your dentist, your state government, the federal government, your bank, your credit card company, your church, and charitable nonprofits through the Web? All of that data you share about yourself is sitting on somebody’s server. Actually, multiple servers all around the world.

Blockchain technology makes it possible to wrap all of your important data into a single file or data source that only you control, keep it secure with end-to-end encryption, and prevent it from being shared with anyone you do not explicitly assign consent to. It’s possible you can make money from that data instead of Facebook and Google cashing in on it.

The Problem of Data Security

There is no platform anywhere in the world that cannot be hacked. Some servers may be more secure than others, but passwords can be guessed, two-factor authentication (2FA) can be hijacked, and virtually every form of data security currently in use has weaknesses. Blockchain technology takes a different approach to data security by using public and private keys, which must be matched, to keep data secure.

Data security experts suggest passwords should be long (at least eight characters) and contain at least one lower case letter, at least one upper case letter, and at least one special character. The reason for these stipulations is because such passwords are harder to guess or hack, which makes your data more secure. Cryptographic security is even better.

Cryptographic security, the security protocol for blockchain technology, takes sage advice and puts it on steroids. Bitcoin public and private keys contain a string of 30 to 65 characters using 256-bit encryption.⁴ (Figure 1.1) On top of that, decentralized blockchain solutions often use a base-16 numbering system as opposed to a base-10 numbering system. These complexities, usually randomized, increase the level of security for stored data. The more complicated a password or key is, the more difficult it is to hack or guess.

Figure 1.1 Two hundred fifty-six-bit encryption is very difficult to crack. To succeed, even the strongest and fastest computing system would need to test a massive number of possible numerical combinations. In fact, the number of combinations are equal to 10 multiplied by itself 77 times and the result multiplied by 1.1

Credit: Taylored Content. Based on data from xmapsystems.com.

Blockchain technology increases complexity to ensure security.

The Problem of Transparency

Centralization allows those in control to put up shields. Secret board meetings hide facts that others might use to make critical decisions. While this provides some benefits, there is also the side effect of centralized authority tilting the scales in favor of a few—and many times “the few” have self-serving interests.

Google has long kept its search engine algorithms secret. They tell the world to feed their robots with valuable content but don’t give explicit instructions on what that means. Search engine optimizers and website copywriters must guess at how content is indexed and ranked at the world’s largest and most successful search engine. While this opaqueness is effective in combating spam and discouraging people from gaming the search results, there is a hard truth that must be explored: If search algorithms are so great, then why do they need to be tweaked hundreds of times a day in order to manipulate the end result?

Facebook’s algorithms determine what content users see on their news feeds. Why? Doesn’t Mark Zuckerberg trust that his platform’s users know what they want to see?

Most of us can appreciate that it would be against Facebook’s interests to publicly declare how their algorithms work. Nevertheless, centralization has a built-in opaqueness that often leads to abuse or unfair advantage for a few. Virtually every country in the world has a central authority that “manages” the economy. This is often defended by arguing that it keeps economies stable and benefits everyone, but the economy still moves in waves, with recessions and depressions, with unemployment and instability, and there is still inflation and deflation despite all the tinkering. Who do central banks really protect?

Blockchain technology is capable of delivering greater transparency. Each transaction is recorded on a public ledger that anyone can audit at any time.

The Problem of Accessibility

Block explorers record every transaction on a blockchain. Bitcoin has operated seamlessly since 2009 and every single transa...