rohit khare wrote why am i so passionate about decentralization because i believe some of today s most profound problems with networked applications are caused by centralization generically a centralized political or economic system permits only one answer to a question while decentralization permits many separate agents to hold different opinions of the same matter in the specific context of software centralized variables can only contain one valid value at a time that limits us to only representing information a according to the beliefs of a single agency and b that changes more slowly than it takes to propagate nevertheless centralization is the basis for today s most popular architectural style for developing network applications client server interaction using request response communication protocols i think the ability to maintain an inconsistent database is key to decentralization databases enforce consistenty with every transaction bounded transactions like an atm enforce consistency by have some play with time and value most people keep inconsistent data in their heads it s called congnitive dissonance theory most businesses keep inconsistent data documents tationale and ideas to support their work activities it s called real life i don t think it matters so much where it s located i e decentralization i think that decentralization is the workaround from technical limitations the fallout being that the only way inconsistent information spaces can be maintained is by protecting them through a set of trust barriers and boundaries the local information when combined with the technical troubles of providing just enough forced synchronization to remote information provide workable data consistenty i e enforcing local constraints or ignoring global ones when concerns are more immedidate tolerating temporary irreconcilable deviations is how people cope otherwise you d be like nick gatsby unnecessarily pre occupied with a spot of shaving cream on mckee s neck who thinks that if he can just wipe that spot off that the whole world would be a little more perfect and everything including his pre occupation with daisy would consistently be in its proper place greg 