Blockstack wants to develop software to create a sort of universe parallel to the web where users have complete control of their data
Blockstack has a vision, perhaps utopian, but contagious of the digital world. In fact, Albert Wenger, an investor of Union Square Ventures, who already believed in Etsy and Tumblr projects, has been impressed by it and has already funded this new startup with 4 million dollars, followed by others from new investors.
Blockstack’s goal is to live the web without having to compromise with one’s privacy. The startup will release its software by the end of the year to use sites and applications created specifically for this new domain through the browser of your choice. But it’s not a world apart. People will still be able to browse the web, click on links and even chat or shop, but instead of having to create an account for each site, as is done for Google or Facebook, users of sites created in the Blockstack system will have complete control over their own, or their own, digital identities. When visiting a site that requires personal information, it is up to the user to decide whether to grant it. To stop a service, simply revoke access to your data and profile.
Rethinking the Web
(Taken from YouTube)
Blockstack’s vision is made possible by an identity system built to be independent of any company, even the startup itself. It uses, in fact, a digital ledger, or blockchain, at the heart of the Bitcoin monetary system to keep track of usernames and the access keys associated with them that allow a person to control their data and identity. A series of thousands of computers around the world host the blockchain, and no single entity controls it. Blockstack’s system uses the blockchain to register domain names which, translated into other terms, there is no need for an equivalent of ICANN, which is the entity that currently assigns IP addresses and manages the generic top-level domain name system.
Power to the users
The operation of the system devised by Blockstack seems complicated at first glance but Ryan Shea, one of the developers, argues that low-level features in web design, such as the lack of a built-in identity system, are at the root of many problems such as, for example, the overwhelming power of large corporations. Shea believes that companies will still be able to generate profit on the new platform, but the power will tend to shift more and more in the direction of users. Microsoft is already working with Blockstack to figure out how to use this system for its platforms.
Decentralizing the web
Tim Berners-Lee, the person who created the web, recently said something similar: we need to return to a decentralization of the web that can better serve users and society. Berners-Lee recently registered on the Blockstack platform as timblee.id and is working on his own project to decentralize the web at MIT Boston called SOLID. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, hosted the first major conference on Web decentralization last summer and is optimistic that the challenges posed by the project will eventually be overcome. More and more users are asking questions about privacy, and Kahle responds, “A lot of us depend on the Web today, but it’s a 20-year-old technology that’s showing its age.”
Some of the videos in this section were taken from the Internet, so they are rated in the public domain. If the subjects present in these videos or the authors have something against the publication, just make a request for removal by sending an email to: [email protected]. We will provide to the cancellation of the video in the shortest time possible.