ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you professor @yousafharoonkhan for this wonderful lecture I read it with much enthusiasm and I enjoyed every aspect of the teaching. One aspect that I loved so much is the way you kept connecting with your students by addressing them as my dear students, this got me engaged.
However sir, I'm @iykewatch your student on #steemit-cryptoacademy and I am attempting question 2 of the home work task.

INTRODUCTION

Steemit is a a gift to humanity. Steemit is a social media blockchain having the sole purpose of giving humanity a betterlife. This purpose is achieved through reward based projects- publishing and curating contents and return rewards her users with crypto coins such as Steem coins, Steem Dollars (SBD) , Steem Power (SP) and Tron coin. It operates under the decentralised system. Decentralisation, its advantages , disadvantages and other life areas where decentralised blockchain could be helpful shall be the focus of this work.

Question 2

● Define decentralisation.

● Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralised system.

● In what areas of life can a decentralised blockchain be helpful.

(Write in your own words)

What is Decentralisation.

It will be of great importance that I do a recap on the Blockchain since it's a common term one comes across most frequently on steemit and in the world of cryptocurrencies. A blockchain is a system of storing information in the manner that makes it immutable and safe from hacking and falsification.
Blockchain is decentralised meaning it has no middle man and its operations is through a system known as peer-2-peer. Having this cleared up, lets move on with what DECENTRALISATION and its meaning.

The word decentralisation is a combination of two words "de" + "centralisation". Centralisation is the process of bringing activities together in one place.

The prefix de means to remove or to reduce.
When de + centralisation is joined together it simply means to remove or to reduce centralised activities, talking off activities from one central place to many places or to individualized places.
From the above, Decentralisation is the transfer of control and decision making from a centralised authority to a distributed network.

The sole purpose of decentralisation is to work to reduce the level of trust placed in one another, and discharge their ability to exert authority or control over one another in ways that demeans the functionality of the network.

Decentralisation empowers individuals to have control over their descions and to be able to totally take charge of their own acts and actions. Decentralisation encourages freedom. Making sure that your security and your future is in your hands.

The only way to control chaos and complexity is to give up some of that control.

Advantages of Decentralisation System.

As stated above the decentralisation is a system which empowers free decision making by individuals, giving everyone the freedom of full expression and trust reduced your security assured.
With this in mind, lets x-ray the merits of decentralisation system.

1. In business, decentralisation encourages diversification. In a centralised system, it would be difficult to diversify activities. Since too many protocols would be followed. But in decentralisation, protocols are reduced and people air their views without fear.

2. Decentralisation promotes motivation. Since everyone is free in decision making ,individuals would put in more effort to ensure he/she comes up with great ideas and this quest leads to self motivation. Whereas if it were to be in centralised system, the individual will sit and end becoming a consumer of ideas rather than been innovative.

3. Decentralisation leads to quick and sound decision making. A manager rolling his chair in his office and a field worker at site looking at a problem stands a better chance of making quick decision rather than waiting for order from the central unite. Hierarchy is removed and better and smarter decision is made and better result achieved.

4. Decentralisation leads to the satisfaction of human needs. Every individual feels he/she has the the best solution to matters. Decentralisation makes him/her achieve that independence, prestige and power.

5. Decentralisation enables people to directly and actively take part in decision making.

6. Decentralisation helps to resolve trust issues by empowering many hands to handle a network. No need to trust a central authority. This in its way assures safety of a user. Your details are safe since the user is the only one whose is incharge of his keys.

7. Decentralisation encourages reduced censorship. As it's seen in recent events where government shutdown citizens access to certain platforms that operates on centralisation. This is not very possible for them to censor the peer-2-peer network. Presently, Twitter is banned in Nigeria.

From the above, decentralisation it's expedient to understand that.

Decentralisation isn't solely a technological approach. It is a mindest and culture that doesn't seek one's way, but it seeks the best way for an entire ecsystem.

Disadvantages of Decentralisation System.

Counting the cost of running a decentralised system, one would notice that there are lots of merits. However, the following could be considered as disadvantages of decentralisation :

▪ Hight cost

To comfortably operates a decentralised system a qualified personnel is needed. And to get these highly qualified and skilled personnels are difficult. If they are found, to maintain them is very expensive.

▪ It create conflicts:

Decentralisation has been seen to cause or create conflicts among the mangers as they pressure or mount force on divisional heads to increase profits at any possible cost.

▪ Decentralisation is limited in a way.

Decentralisation is in a way limited as specialised services may not adopt it fully- examples , Surgery, Engineering, Human Resource and Emergency Situations.

▪ Decentralisation relate to the profit- centre concept.

The freedom of action that comes with decentralisation may lead to multiple decisions and this may lead to wrong decision making. Also decentralisation requires training and re-training programmes this may be time taking and expensive.
Looking from what has been listed as of decentralisation, one would come to the conclusion that the benefits of decentralisation out weighs its demerits.

In what areas of life can a decentralised blockchain be helpful.

Speaking on life areas where decentralised blockchain can be useful would be better understood when we come to the light that blockchain is not just concerned or only connected to crypto or to finance alone . The promises of blockchain technology goes beyond finance and crypto it aims at storming the world.

However, what it means is that blockchain technology has vital roles also in our everyday life.
Again, the following areas and more of our daily lives are places where blockchain technology has also impacted tremendously.

▪ Blockchain in media and entertainment.

Blockchain has lots sweet promises, it has solved many life problems and it's a work in progress. It has not arrived yet.
However, it's doing marvellously in the media and entertainment sectors.
Before now music and movies were on hard copy and not released on the internet only a few of the artists followed digitization - The few that followed dominated the streaming market and taking almost all the profit out of the artists. But with the wave of decentralisation, artists have a better profit.

▪ Personal identity security.

With the help of blockchain technology, the personal identity of individuals are secured.
Personal information if allowed to br handled by one central body certainly will make the very easy for hackers to hack in this era of high cyber attacks. Decentralisation mediates and a better personal identity security reached through allowing personal identities to be private and secured.

▪ Decentralised blockchain in health care.

In some cases it's lawful that health records of patients be kept secured and blockchain 's ability to keep incorruptible decentralised and transparent log of patients data makes it a technology rife for security appreciations. Transparent as its, blockchain is also private wheb dealing with identity of any individual with secured codes that can protect the sensitivity of medical data. This technology allows patients, doctors and health care providers to share the same information quickly and safely.

▪ Smart contracts and blockchain technology.

According to IBM , smart contracts are digital contracts stored on a blockchain that are automatically executed when predetermined terms and conditions are met.
They are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome without any middle man or time loss. It comes with benefits such as; speed, efficiency,accuracy, trust and transparency and security.

Smart contracts sample/Source

▪ Decentralisation blockchain and logistics.

We have seen the growth of successful deals while at the comfort of your home irrespective of the insecurity people still place orders and their order is delivered this is achieved through decentralised blockchain. Blockchain technology offers a decentralised networking where individuals can communicate and transact without a centralised authority. The decentralised nature makes it secured, transparent and immutable and proving to be a perfect tool for logistics and transportation sector.

CONCLUSION

Decentralisation is the transfer of control and decision making from a centralised system to a distributed network. This network works to ensuing a redirection of trust level placed on one another and cut low their ability to exercise high level of hegemony.

It's very obvious that true blockchain led transformation of business and government. I still believe that blockchain decentralisation has not fully arrived, a foundational technology it's which will birth new foundation for economic and social systems.

Decentralisation though with promising advantages still have its weak zones as decentralised blockchain technology can not be applied in some other vital areas of life such as surgery,human resource, engineering and emergency situations. Aside these, the merits of decentralised blockchain system defeats it demerits.

Thank you all for reading through my post.