Hive as a decentralized database is crucial.
We are looking at a world where "decentralization" needs to move from a catchphrase. This according to Vitalik Buterin who has some stern warnings for the industry.
In a speech, Buterin laid out what he sees as the major problem confronting the industry. It was occurring around the same time as a major move by Cloudflare altered the course of data forever.
All of this stresses the importance of a database like Hive. We are seeing the idea of decentralization being hijacked, being applied to projects that are really corporate operated. This starts with layer 2 solutions and extends to front ends.
In this article we will look into what is taking place and some of the warnings Vitalik issued.
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Vitalik Talks Decentralization And The Importance Of Hive
Corporations are now starting to enter the world of crypto. More importantly, they are turning to blockchain as a solution.
The challenge here is these entities, from the start, are centralized. Hence, whatever they are involved in becomes the same. This is counter to the ethos of crypto, which stresses distribution and decentralization.
A major challenge is this ethos might be just a catchphrase. Developers are not adhering to this. Instead, the quest for gold is leading many to form as centralized entities, simply opting to be replacements for what went before.
For example, what is the difference between Coinbase and JPMorgan? In terms of the structure, there is nothing.
It is something that Buterin latched onto.
Speaking in front of a packed room at the Ethereum Community Conference, in Cannes, France, Buterin used his keynote to deliver a clear-eyed reality check: Decentralization, he argued, must evolve from a catchphrase to a concrete set of user guarantees — or risk becoming another hollow promise.
Unfortunately, he assessment is accurate. Most of crypto is focused upon green candles. Few care about decentralization as long as they can profit from it. If the token flow is into their wallet, along with an increasing USD price, this is what makes them happy. Decentralization is a problem for someone else.
Buterin then shares a litmus test he believes should be applied.
In his typical jeans and relaxed dark T-shirt uniform, Buterin laid out practical “tests” that he said every crypto project should pass. These include 1) the walk-away test. If the company behind an application disappears, do users keep their assets? And 2) the insider attack test: How much damage can rogue insiders or compromised front-ends cause? And 3) whether it has a trusted computing base: How many lines of code must be trusted to protect users’ funds or data?
He then adds:
Even identity and privacy solutions came under his critical eye. Zero-knowledge proofs, he noted, can backfire if users still reveal their entire transaction history when they sign in with centralized providers. Privacy, he added, must flip from being treated as an optional feature to something that reduces data leaks by default.
All of this could spell trouble for an evolving AI and financial industry. With the advancement of ever more powerful technology, surveillance and complete tracking are something to be leery of. Privacy becomes an even greater concern when looking at the corporate entities that are vacuuming up data as quickly as possible.
Of course, this is all fed into the models they are building, integrating private data into what will eventually become the product.
Cloudflare Kills AI Crawlers And The Importance Of Hive
Cloudflare has just make life even more difficult for AI crawlers.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince just made it official: Starting today, Cloudflare will block by default known AI bots from scraping sites unless given explicit permission—or unless they pay.
It’s not just a technical tweak. Cloudflare’s “Content Independence Day” marks a collective escalation. More than a million websites had already opted into blocking since last fall, but now it’s the default for every new Cloudflare domain. Furthermore, a roster of media heavyweights—from the Associated Press, Time, The Atlantic, and BuzzFeed to Reddit, Quora, and Universal Music Group—have signed on.
This is going to have a tremendous impact upon those who are building models.
More than 1 million Cloudflare clients and 35% of top 1,000 global websites have joined the movement, with a coalition of major publishers, platforms, and media groups in support.
The result is a larger portion of the Internet is going to be locked down. This might seem like a good thing, protecting publishers works. Unfortunately, it likely creates a situation where the "rich get richer".
Sites can now incorporate a "pay per crawl" method which charges companies seeking data. This is coupled with the idea of cutting a deal with a publisher for direct access. The point is both cost money.
Here is where a glaring problem arises. In an effort to protect publishers (sites), we simply are handing the data race over to those with means. Since startups cannot access the data, they will have to pay for it. Since funds tend to be lacking, since there are a host of other expenditures required, this gives the edge to those that can afford to pay.
Big Tech, once again, benefits. When a company can raise billions at a clip, mush like X and OpenAI do, they can afford a couple hundred million to acquire data. What does the company do that raised $50 million for their entire start up?
They are out of luck.
Here is where a blockchain like Hive enters. With open text, anyone has access. It is true democratization of data. Anything that is posted to the blockchain can be downloaded and added to a training model. This has significant impact as models get more efficient with the data that is used.
What we have is the forming of a true commons. This is not anyone's data. The client-server architecture is not in play. Instead, we have a network where the data is mirrored on a different servers, operated and controlled by different entities. This is a radical difference when compared to a network where all servers are from a single company (Meta, Google, and X).
Obviously, Vitalik was looking things from a much higher perspective. However, in the age of Ai, data is crucial. For this reason, I still feel it is one of the starting points. Without decentralized data which anyone can access, open development is going to stall.
Cloudflare took a major step towards making that a reality.
The industry, i.e. crypto population, has to fight back.