Crytponetwork advocates do not favour decentralization to: - resist government censorship - because of libertarian political views ### How centralized platforms evolve Centralized platforms follow a predictable life cycle. At first, they do everything they can to recruit users and 3rd-party complements like creators, developers, and businesses. ![[Pasted image 20211024131650.png]] They do this to strengthen their network effect. As platforms move up the adoption S-curve, their power over users and 3rd parties steadily grows. When they hit the top of the S-curve, their relationships with network participants change from positive-sum to zero-sum. To continue growing requires extracting data from users and competing with (former) partners. Famous examples of this are Microsoft vs. Netscape, Google vs. Yelp, Facebook vs. Zynga, Twitter vs. its 3rd-party clients, and Epic vs Apple. ### See: [[Cryptonetworks]] ### How decentralization wins Consider centralized vs decentralized as dynamic systems and processes that will change over time. This change is dependent on the effort and incentives to the actors driving progress and innovation. Centralized Systems: Fully baked and company sponsorship based growth Decentralized Systems: Start off half baked, then grow exponentially #### Why do people underestimate the power of decentralization These networks need to go through two phases of product-market fit: 1. product-market fit between the platform and the developers/entrepreneurs who will finish the platform and build out the ecosystem 2. product-market fit between the platform/ecosystem and end users. This two-stage process is what causes many people — including sophisticated technologists — to consistently underestimate the potential of decentralized platforms.