Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently made an announcement to encrypt end-to-end users’ data in lieu of the recent privacy policy or the GDPR that mandates social media platforms to protect its customer’s data. In a separate interview, Zuckerberg further said that he would soon be adopting the blockchain model to enable decentralized logins without using its own servers as the checkpoints. This news came at a time when it was rumored that FB is coming up with its own digital currency, which its users can trade among each other.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey said that bitcoin would be the native currency of the Internet. Admitting complete adoption of the blockchain technology, he said that he has invested in lightening labs, which is developing a separate payment channel for bitcoin using the lightening technology. Another company that Dorsey handles, the Square is likely to hire more crypto engineers who will be paid in Bitcoin.
It, however still remains to be seen how these social media platforms which have been using the centralized platform will adopt the decentralized method to function. A few skeptics, however, believe that these are just publicity stunts to stay highlighted. For instance, Cryptocurrency pioneer such as David Chaum is believed to have said that FB will not be able to change its business model and that the message sent out by it is just a PR stunt. However, the rumored departure of a few senior executives who were the mind behind the centralization of the platform puts the negative speculations to rest.
On second thoughts, there is some amount of truth in what FB or Twitter says. These platforms strive on their viewerships, and if that is jeopardized, there is no business to live by. So, in all likelihood, these platforms are likely to keep their promises of filtering the privacy settings and policies through blockchain technology. Certainly, these companies are planning to change their outlook of their users whom they have been considering products till date, but will now consider them as customers.
This model could very well fail for these social media platforms, but there are cent percent chances that they still might thrive as the peer-to-peer exchange will continue to add value- both morally and financially.
Space and the times have changed and either way, everything is coming down to the centralized system of the Internet. Amid speculations of these platforms, surviving the change or not, it is pertinent that the future would be brighter and safer for sure.