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Chapter 1 - Revolution and The Two Generals Paradox
One of the earliest instances of a documented revolution is the story of Moses rising up against the Egyptian Pharaoh, leading his people through the desert and out of Egypt. Not long after, Spartacus revolted against the Roman empire in the Third Servile War.
The list is endless; Napoleon Bonaparte, Simon Bolivar, Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, Joan of Arc, Guy Fawkes, history is littered with revolutionary leaders who fought for their political and socioeconomic ideals. Regardless of whether it succeeded, have you noticed the common theme in all of this talk of revolution? I suppose the title of the book gave it away.
Indeed, it is honorable for Man to stand up for his beliefs, to shepherd a people against injustice and tyranny. The world, too often, needs the brave and righteous among us to speak up, to fight. Lead. Too often too are those same ideals betrayed soon after. Where is the governing system that promised egality for all? How about the system that still promises the possibility of upward mobility, that in practice, is too elusive for too many?
There needs to be an ecosystem, where all of us can actively participate in the shaping of our world. A world led by all of us, for we are not cattle to be shepherd. We are more than simple, easily manipulated herds. We need a decentralized system, that is fair, transparent, and incorruptible, where each and every voice is a vote.
Decentralized systems need to be applied to any aspect of life we so desire, from governance, to issuance of currency, to voting, financial markets, social media ownership, and even identity verification, and many more. To any system where for too long, the vital interests of many have been concentrated within the hands of too few.
Now you might be wondering, what on Earth are these distributed and decentralized systems? Why have we, as a people, not been using them since they could be so beneficial to mankind?
The answer to that is simple. They were not at all possible... until now.
The Two Generals Paradox
A computational thought experiment, illustrated by two generals and their armies, explains succinctly why we could not develop decentralized systems in the past.
While an entire library could be filled with the literature that has tackled this concept, your humble author will try, as concisely as possible and in laymen terms, to explain this paradox.
Imagine, if you will, a valley between two mountaintops, and two generals with their armies on the hilltops of both sides. The generals have decided both will attack a city beneath, but have yet to agree on the time of the attack. They must attack the city at the same time, or risk a lone attack where their army will face defeat. Any messages sent between the generals must pass through the city, and that message is therefore vulnerable to being intercepted or even altered by the defenders of the city.
{Positions of the armies. Armies A1 and A2 need
to communicate but their messengers may be
captured by army B (Source: Wikipedia)}
So what can the generals do? How can they solve the dilemna?
What would you do?
Let's say that one general can send a message to the second saying 'Attack at 5 am'. How can he know that the message was received unaltered?. Well then, how about the second general sends a reply saying 'Confirmed. Attack at 5 am', how can he know that the message is not intercepted? And so, there will always be the need for one more message, and no matter how many messages are sent, one general, in the end, will be left unsure if the other general will indeed attack at the same time.
Now you might say, what in the world does that have to do with anything that matters. This is all just a computational trust thought experiment. The truth is, this paradox is the reason we have always had centralized systems of control. Decentralized authoritarian systems of any kind were not possible without first solving this dilemna of trust.
It is the reason certain organizations can charge nearly 10% simply for the mere privilege of using their centralized systems to transfer currency. (Western Union, Money Gram, etc…) We had no possible way in the past to transact directly with one another, we always needed a third entity that both parties can trust. It is also the reason elections can be rigged in a centralized location, where no peering eyes will see. On a public distributed and decentralized system, there can be no stuffing of the ballot box.
Enter, Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Titled Decentralized Revolution, An Introduction to Bitcoin and the Blockchain Technology, this book is intended for mass audience appeal. The target market is not techies or us bitcoin enthusiasts, but the general public that is increasingly hearing about Bitcoin, and yet still don't understand, why all the fuss about this "internet drug money".
I'll be uploading chapters as I complete them with a goal of completing at least, 1 chapter every 2 weeks. I have been researching Bitcoin, the Public Ledger, and various blockchain projects since late 2013, and have been consumed by the technology and its implications. I want to share this exciting development in our history with as many people as I can, and in non-technical terms, for those who are not versed in distributed systems to understand the tech and its potential just the same.
Since, Steemit has its own internal reward system, the entire book will be offered here to Steemit members for free. In the future, if the e-book version succeeds, I plan on a hard copy as well.
I hope you enjoy it and please let me know your thoughts, as I welcome your input, be it both negative or positive.
CHAPTER 2 will be titled 'Bitcoin and the Blockchain - Under the Hood' and will be released soon.
I am genuinely grateful for the instantaneous feedback this platform provides on the quality of my work.
Thank you all for your time,
Kareem
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