Decentralised does not equal better

Would you fly on a plane guided by a decentralised air traffic control system, even if the price was cheaper?..

Decentralisation is a term often thrown around when someone talks about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. At a recent TechCrunch event in Zug, Vitalik Buterin infamously quipped that “I definitely hope centralized exchanges go burn in hell as much as possible”.

It’s tempting to disrupt the status quo by getting rid of “legacy”. However, there is a fine line between democracy and anarchy. One shouldn’t confuse distributed independence with decentralised chaos. 

Distributed means that all the parties are on the same page and in agreement, and no single party can change things at will.

Decentralised means that no one is in charge or in control - and, hence, no one can be held responsible.

Blockchain is based, inter alia, on the ability to reach a consensus – yet there seems to be little of it within the crypto community. The joy of decentralisation, if you will...