Mark Zuckerberg Looks Towards Cryptocurrency For Facebook!

I was intrigued to see a post by Mark Zuckerberg about his plan to do research on cryptocurrency as one of his New Year resolutions. I am not a very frequent user of FB but I stumbled upon an article in the news that I was reading on an online portal. I subsequently clicked through to his post to read more.

Here is his exact post, for those who don't want to go looking for it on Facebook.

"For example, one of the most interesting questions in technology right now is about centralization vs decentralization. A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people's hands. (The first four words of Facebook's mission have always been "give people the power".) Back in the 1990s and 2000s, most people believed technology would be a decentralizing force.

But today, many people have lost faith in that promise. With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it.

There are important counter-trends to this --like encryption and cryptocurrency -- that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services."

As you can see, he is talking about decentralization, but the irony is that it is something that his platform is actually working against. Here are some interesting comments on his post - just a few of them, since I could read only a fraction of them from among 13k plus comments.

"One of the problems with FB is that anyone can complain about someone and that person gets banned without being able to appeal. Facebook needs a fair justice system,or hopefully millions will soon find a alternative for social media."

"Hello sir my account has been disabled I want to back my facebook please."

"I have a one week ban. Did they specify how long your suspension was. I created another profile under a different name. Sadly I have no power to help you. I can't even help myself but I hope to create a group that may help as soon as they lift my suspension. People like you and I have no recourse. Even if "they" are wrong. They probably won't even respond to your messages."

"Facebook needs real competition .Maybe then they will listen."

The last message is an eye opener. With the rising popularity of Steemit as a go-to social network where people from Facebook are flocking to in hordes, the owner of Facebook has finally taken notice. Not that it is a bad thing - healthy competition is always good!

The statement indicates that he is going to do more research on crypto. I think what he really means is that he has put a team in place that must be already exploring ways to incorporate a Steemit-like payment system incorporating a cryptocurrency. The fact that he has announced this in his post, which comes in the news anyway, indicates that he is moving forward with it. He would not have mentioned it if he has no plans whatsoever. I mean he is not going to come back and say sorry I was on the wrong track when I made my previous post about cryptocurrency.

So here is the big question that many will wonder - can Smart Media Tokens be incorporated on Facebook? It is a very good idea, provided the stakeholders behind SMTs agree to it, and also move ahead and collaborate with Facebook for it. After all the best way for Facebook to beat competition is to join it!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. :-)

Wish everyone a Happy New Year and have a great 2018!!

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