### Reading has been my primary way of killing time when I am not busy. By reading I have come to understand aspects of various technologies in the horizon. By reading I have come to understand how a technology works and how it is being handled by people involved in it.

## Before blockchain there was the invention of the Internet
Blockchain is the latest technological marvel ever created since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (WWW) most commonly known to most people as the “Internet”. Technically, internet is not World Wide Web, they are two different things. The invention of internet involves the creation of TCP, Ethernet, Modem, TCP/IP, and DNS.

Internet is actually a global connection of various computer networks. Within those computers are TCP, Ethernet, Modem, TCP/IP and DNS. Internet allows any two computers to communicate on the planet. The term internet came from the word “inter-network” originally used by Bob Kahn. Bob Kahn along with Vinton Cerf developed TCP. They are considered by most people to have invented the internet.

The World Wide Web is a collection of billions of web pages or web sites linked to each other. Web pages can contain text, graphics, and multimedia files. Facebook is a webpage, so as Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube and many other. Word Wide Web is built on top of the internet. World Wide Web uses web browsers to display information from web pages it receives from the internet.

# The blockchain
Blockchain is a “chain/list” of “data/records” called blocks, hence block chain. Sometimes people like to call a public blockchain as public ledger. In a blockchain, blocks are linked and secured by utilizing the technology of cryptography. By design, blockchain is immutable or resistant to modification or alteration. If you want to alter or modify a block you have to alter all the blocks that come after it.

The first blockchain database was devised by Satoshi Nakamoto to be used by the first decentralized digital currency or cryptocurrency called bitcoin created also by Satoshi Nakamoto. Most people today considered Satoshi Nakamoto as a pseudonym used by a person or a group of people involved in the creation of bitcoin.


<div class="pull-right"> https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2017/03/landing_pages__image-1-e1489089004344.png</div>

# Decentralized
<p>Blockchain achieves decentralization by storing data across its network of computers commonly called node. A node stores the data of a whole blockchain. In Bitcoin if you are running bitcoin core then you are running a node (whole blockchain). The photos at the right (photos are from Coindesk) differentiates a centralized database and a decentralized database. First photo illustrates a centralized database and the second is a decentralized illustration. A centralized database commonly confined in a single computer server.</p>

<div class="pull-right"> https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2017/03/landing_pages_image_2_horizontal-image_2-e1489089150298.png</div>

Now comes the tricky part. With decentralized in mind people are generalizing that if a platform is using a decentralized blockchain they also tend to think that there’s no central owner, developer, or corporation controlling the road map, development and future of the platform and the blockchain it uses. Purist claims that decentralization only applies to the platform and to the blockchain it uses.

If you are going to visit a website of a decentralized platform you are going to see that there’s a table of organization in it. You will normally see a CEO, a President, a Vice-President, a founder, a director, a manager, a developer or programmer. These entities are elements of a centralized organization or company. You may say, okay, they are the owner of the platform.

You may argue, if a platform’s source code is open source does it make the platform decentralized? The answer is NO. Open source means you are free to take the code and use it at will. In my opinion, a “decentralized platform” means there is no central entity that is controlling the creation, transmission and storing of data in its blockchain. A decentralized platform doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a central organization involved.

Again, purist will argue that “decentralized” only applies to the blockchain together with the creation, transmission, and storing of data into the blockchain itself. A platform with a decentralized platform and blockchain does not necessarily mean that there is no single entity controlling the road map, development, and future of the platform.

In the Bitcoin ecosystem “decentralized” is achieved by making the blockchain distributed across its network. Every node in the ecosystem have a copy of the bitcoin blockchain. Every miner in the ecosystem need a node to mine bitcoin. Mining in Bitcoin is the process of verifying other bitcoin transactions.

After a transaction is validated by a miner a bitcoin will be rewarded to the miner who verified and saved or added the transaction (block) to the blockchain then broadcast it to the network. I see some people saying that if the platform and the blockchain it uses is decentralized then there is also no single entity or single team or single group that owns the decentralized platform and blockchain.

What is the purpose of those CEO, President, Director, Programmer we are seeing in a website of a decentralized platform then? For me they are the owner of a decentralized platform and blockchain making the owner centralized. Decentralized in platform and blockchain only applies to the database (blockchain), to the creation, transmission and saving of transaction (data) in a blockchain.

A good example is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a decentralized form of electronic cash system. Bitcoin’s data is stored in a decentralized blockchain distributed everywhere. Bitcoin’s transactions are not done by a central entity they are done by miners distributed everywhere but if you are following the news about Bitcoin in the internet you can notice that there’s only the “Bitcoin Core Team”, this team maintains the code of Bitcoin, this team is a large open source developer community contributing to the codebase. And this team does not sound centralized to you? Again, open source means you can freely take the code and do anything you wish. Open source means anyone is free to contribute code but It has to be validated by lead developers inside the team which make it centralized.

Image source: [Coindesk (decentralized)](https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2017/03/landing_pages_image_2_horizontal-image_2-e1489089150298.png)
Image source: [Coindesk (centralized)](https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2017/03/landing_pages__image-1-e1489089004344.png)