Blockchain And Bitcoin Can 'Point To A World Where Content Exists Forever'

Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and CEO of Twitter, and the Founder and CEO of Square

Bitcoin and blockchain technologies have made "decentralize" a more popular term than ever. The two technologies have helped shaped the platform, where no one has the control of the system.

The technologies come with the concept of keeping data and transactions away from any controlling body, entity, person or company. What this means, once a data is recorded, it will stay there, or as long as the network of computers that make the blockchain, exists.

Data, once sent to a blockchain network, cannot be deleted or removed from all the systems.

In other words, the data will remain online, forever.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, is known to be an advocate of the two technologies.

He once said that Bitcoin has the potential that can even outshine its future developments. He also said that the cryptocurrency is still the most viable internet-native currency.

And speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum, Dorsey again advocates the technology, saying that Bitcoin and blockchain technology will usher in a movement that will transform the modern internet, into what it was originally intended to be.

Jack Dorsey

Originally, the internet was meant to be controlled by no one.

The devices that are linked together in an open network, are meant to make the internet that no person can own, control or switch off. This was very much a part of the design: the inventors of the World Wide Web wished that the invention can allow people to create and access information equally and without boundaries nor restrictions.

While the internet is the biggest decentralized communication system humanity has ever seen, pretty much of it is already centralized.

In the modern web, people are accustomed to use some of their favorite apps and services. While those people are concentrating on only a few of those apps and services, the activity simply narrows the experience of the web, to a point that those people are only shown the content of the web that appeals them the most.

Using trackers, cookies and all sorts of data collecting methods, search engines, social media giants, and others are capable of filtering the vast web, to just reveal what users want the most.

In other words, while the internet at large remains decentralized, the things people do on it everyday, are pretty much controlled by just a handful of technology giants.

In the early days, the internet was more decentralized, said Dorsey. But in that case, decentralization meant that content discovery was more difficult.

"But [what’s] difficult about decentralization was actually discovery- finding content, finding people that would be like-minded. And that is what Google represents: it’s centralizing the discovery problem. It’s what Facebook represents: centralizing a discovery problem. It’s what Twitter represents, as well:centralizing the discovery problem.”

With the blockchain technology, Dorsey sees a potential in creating a decentralized web, but with a better discovery and financial tools that share that decentralized approach.

“A lot of our value in the past was around content hosting. So we would host the tweets, we’d host the images, we’d host the videos. Blockchain and Bitcoin point to a future and point to a world where content exists forever, where it’s permanent, where it doesn’t go away, where it exists forever on every single node that’s connected to it.”

According to its slogan, Twitter is where things are "happening". For it to embrace decentralization, it needs to pivot in order to work in a world that no longer engage in content-hosting activities.

“We’re in the discovery business and we’re going to have a particular approach on discovery, which is healthy conversation. A healthy public conversation that seeks to help people understand what’s happening in the world, to have conversations about what’s happening and hopefully to solve problems together."

"What that means ultimately is we need to become a client of something much bigger than us. We need to enable people to contribute to a public blockchain and we need to be able to enable people to be able to pull and see from that public blockchain as well."

If Twitter, or anything else can do that, Dorsey believes that at that moment, the internet would turn back to its original intent, where anyone in the world can access any information.

At that time, anyone in the world will be able to make decisions around in terms of their engagement, in terms of what they own, in terms of what they see, and in terms of what they share, Dorsey said.