Difference between revisions of "Decentralization"

Latest revision as of 16:59, 2 September 2025

Full Title or Meme

Decentralization is one half cycle of any organization which is designed to restore invention and resiliency. The other half of the cycle is Centralization which is designed to restore control, typically of costs. The cycle ends with death of the organism.

The wiki page Decentralized describes how Decentralization impacts the pieces of an organization, like Identifiers and Trust.

Context

For Identity Management the cycle of organization has started in the age of the Internet with Decentralization to provide Resilience to the Centralized communications networks which failed when the center failed.

The ages of the Internet have been these:

1. Internet 0 - decentralization was the point. Only the naming systems were centralized which was just for the convenience of the developers as the Internet only understood IP addresses.
2. Web was just static content - still mostly decentralized
3. Web 2 with the advent of active content the big guys were able to seized control of advertising dollars and hence the internet itself. (Now the web and the internet mean one and the same thing.
4. Web 3 as a reaction against centralization several attempts have sprung up to give the "Power to the People". But the guys with excess capital have no intention of ceding their vast control as the following post makes clear.

The venture capitalist was originally just a couple of guys, usually in England, that pooled their money and invented something, like the Steam Engine. Starting in the mid 1900's the VC became its own thing and bankrolled the technology revolutions from Silicon Valley. Now they create Limited Partnerships (LP) that offer tax benefits to fund manager and eligible foreign investors to help stimulate venture capital investment and protect their profits. (Jack is the founder of Twitter and Square, now known as Block. That would make him the blockhead with Square as just one of the block with Tidal and presumably the blockchain endeavors yet to be disclosed. They call this the tbd or web5 division.)

Problems

This section focuses on the problems of decentralization which is the current fad. The problems of centralization are the bogeyman that started the current wave.

Solutions

Enjoy the ride. The alternative appears to be death.

Coalition Emergence

In agentic systems, where alignment is driven not by static roles or top-down mandates, but by dynamic interplay between identity, interest, and trust. This model is designed for decentralized, polycentric environments—like DIDComm networks, civic tech ecosystems, or multi-agent governance protocols.

• Coalition Emergence Model: Identity–Interest–Trust (IIT)

🔹 1. Identity Layer: Who Am I? Agents (human or AI) express identity through:

Verifiable credentials (DIDs, attestations)

Contextual roles (e.g., “health advocate,” “data steward”)

Semantic tags (values, affiliations, capabilities)

This layer enables discoverability and legibility—agents can find each other based on shared traits or complementary roles.

🔹 2. Interest Layer: What Do I Care About? Agents declare:

Goals (e.g., “reduce opioid overdoses,” “increase civic participation”)

Constraints (e.g., “no surveillance,” “must be open-source”)

Preferred modalities (e.g., “data exchange,” “policy drafting,” “resource pooling”)

This layer enables intent signaling and alignment mapping—agents can negotiate shared purpose.

🔹 3. Trust Layer: Who Do I Rely On? Trust is built through:

Interaction history (reputation, reciprocity)

Shared protocols (e.g., DIDComm, mutualist ledgers)

Third-party endorsements (e.g., trust registries, community badges)

This layer enables risk mitigation and coalition resilience—agents can assess reliability and accountability.

• Coalition Formation Flow

mermaid graph TD

   A[Identity Discovery] --> B[Interest Alignment]
   B --> C[Trust Evaluation]
   C --> D[Coalition Proposal]
   D --> E[Protocol Negotiation]
   E --> F[Operational Launch]
   F --> G[Feedback + Recalibration]
   G --> B

This loop supports adaptive coalitions—agents can join, leave, or renegotiate terms based on evolving context.

• Use Case: Civic Health Coalition

Imagine a coalition forming to address urban asthma:

Identity: Agents include public health orgs, air quality sensors, school nurses, and parent advocates.

Interest: Shared goal to reduce asthma triggers in school zones.

Trust: Built via verified data sharing, prior collaboration, and transparent governance.

They negotiate a protocol for real-time alerts, resource allocation, and policy advocacy—without centralized control.

References

• See also wiki Decentralized