The Future of the Internet: Is the Dark Web the Last Hope for Decentralization? By DailyCoin - Investing.com

Cryptocurrency 29 minutes agone (Nov 25, 2022 02:30PM ET)

© Reuters. The Future of the Internet: Is the Dark Web the Last Hope for Decentralization?

The Internet inactive remains the biggest decentralized connection strategy humanity has ever seen. However, the inclination of centralization stirs a fierce statement among users, authorities, and tech innovators astir the aboriginal of the Internet.

Apart from governments’ attempts to enforce regularisation connected the centralization of the Internet, blockchain exertion mightiness suggest a antithetic future. A decentralized future.

Decentralized networks, specified arsenic the Dark Web, are inactive chiefly associated with obscure, transgression activities. Is determination a mode to rebrand the so-much-needed anonymity and equality connected the World Wide Web? The newest developments successful the blockchain space, with projects similar TomiNet, mightiness beryllium a measurement forward.

The Internet is Constantly Evolving

Since its inception, the Internet has intensively developed. During the archetypal era, from the 1980s done the aboriginal 2000s, net networks were babelike connected assemblage governance and unfastened protocols. The Web’s inventors envisioned it arsenic a abstraction wherever everyone could make and entree information, promoting equality.

From the mid-2000s, the governance of the Internet started to displacement into the hands of large tech companies. The astir notable are Google (NASDAQ:), Facebook (NASDAQ:), Amazon (NASDAQ:), and Apple (NASDAQ:). The services provided by unfastened protocols could nary longer drawback up with the services built by tech behemoths.

Users yet moved toward much centralized services. Even erstwhile consumers accessed unfastened protocols similar the Web, they did it done bundle provided by large tech companies. This inclination was accelerated adjacent much by the maturation of smartphone usage. Mobile apps and mobile interfaces became the superior mode to entree online content.

Why Does Decentralization Matter?

A cardinal premise of the Internet is that each online worldly should beryllium treated equally, referred to arsenic “net neutrality.” However, by providing centralized entree to net services, tech companies became gatekeepers. They power and make profits from altering entree to definite information.

The algorithms of societal media platforms, arsenic good arsenic the information flow, is simply a achromatic container governed by large tech companies. Most net users’ online enactment is concentrated connected conscionable a fewer societal networks and messaging apps, which gives a batch of powerfulness to the tech companies owning the apps. Following the Snowden revelations and the Cambridge Analytica incident, nationalist anxiousness astir surveillance and privateness has increased.

Just 2 companies, Google (Android) and Apple (iOS), predominate the smartphone market. Since purchasing WhatsApp and Instagram, successful summation to Facebook Messenger, Facebook present owns astir of the messaging manufacture successful astir each federation but China.

More than 90% of mobile Internet users successful ample cities successful China usage WeChat for texting. The app is besides utilized for dating, banking, cab ordering, shopping, and different purposes. Google made it to headlines successful 2018 aft collaborating with Chinese authorities to instrumentality a censored mentation of its hunt motor successful the country.

Decentralization has a antithetic proposition. A decentralized web is unfastened and controlled by everyone. Nobody tin own, govern, oregon crook it disconnected for everyone. The users and the online assemblage negociate the decentralized networks by utilizing blockchain exertion arsenic a instrumentality for governance.

The exertion besides enables users to ain their data, allowing radical to determination their idiosyncratic information freely from 1 online level to another. Of course, decentralized networks are not a metallic bullet. Still, it solves the problems of governance and transparency of information usage.

Dark Net: The Hope For Decentralized Internet?

The Internet has ne'er existed without its decentralized competitors. One of the astir notorious players has been the ill-reputed Dark Web. Developed successful the 2000s, astir simultaneously with the Internet, the Dark Web became a peer-to-peer web that allows users to browse and interact anonymously.

Paradoxically, criminals are not the lone ones utilizing the Dark Web. Whistleblowers, journalists, activists, quality agencies, instrumentality enforcement, and dissidents from oppressive regimes trust connected the web for their work, arsenic it often requires precocious levels of confidentiality.

However, the uncontrolled depths of the Dark Net are a hotspot for atrocious actors. They woody successful amerciable products, specified arsenic drugs, guns, amerciable pornography, stolen idiosyncratic data, hitmen services, and more.

So, is determination a mediate ground? Could blockchain exertion laic the way to a web that would supply the champion from some Web 2.0 and Web3?

Searching For Decentralized Alternative Networks

While the Dark Web continues with its villain reputation, blockchain enthusiasts are searching for ways to make decentralized networks that would unrecorded up to the thought of the Internet per se.

One of the biggest challenges the decentralized Internet faces is illicit activities. If determination is nary censorship and nary watchdog is surveilling the network, it becomes a spot to spell for shady actors. It mightiness not look precise casual to lick this puzzle. However, advancements successful blockchain exertion governing the decentralized web mightiness marque it possible.

One of the examples precocious introduced into the manufacture is TomiNet. Using community-led DAO, the TomiNet web claims to unafraid it from illicit activities but sphere privateness and anonymity. Users tin entree the Web done TomiNet’s browser and surf with a built-in VPN. This allows them to entree uncensored accusation successful countries that censor and fell IP addresses.

One of the important roles of the tomiDAO is to modulate oregon artifact sites that interruption assemblage guidelines. Community votes connected decisions via “Pioneer” NFTs and Tomi tokens. Terrorism, kid pornography, and different forms of unit are among the categories connected the blacklist to beryllium voted down by the DAO.

Another contented successful the existent Internet is the powerfulness disbalance successful the governance of Web 2.0. The Tomi squad claims to clasp value adjacent to mean users successful voting connected assemblage guidelines and censorship. However, it volition clasp capable tokens to person a much decisive power implicit the method absorption of the task successful the archetypal stages.

However, the web is intentionally structured successful a mode that creates a way for the caller Web users to out-vote the halfway developers and technological enactment wrong 3 years. The nonstop developer of the web is unknown, but immoderate accusation claims that 8 well-known crypto companies are down it. The developers similar to enactment anonymous.

The aboriginal of the Internet is inactive unknown. Will the alternate networks beryllium capable to instrumentality the lead? One happening is clear: blockchain is opening caller doors to however networks could beryllium governed by empowering users.

On the Flipside

• Even though blockchain exertion has the imaginable to empower users and adjacent the spread successful governance power, the aboriginal is inactive being determined. Once WWW was developed, the creators were enthusiastic astir however it would facilitate ideology and equality. However, implicit the years, its power was solidified successful the hands of large tech companies. History tin repetition itself.

Why You Should Care

Web 2.0 receives backlash for information privateness issues and manipulating information to make profits. While the Dark Web is inactive chiefly utilized for transgression activities, net users searching for anonymity and privateness request alternatives.

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