The Future of Facebook is in the Hands of Blockchain
As the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has stated he has a potential interest in making the Facebook login a part of the blockchain. This occurred during a public interview with Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg believes the blockchain can provide users with unique powers when data access is granted for third-party apps. Facebook has beenmaking investments in their blockchain team since their formation this past May. David Marcus is leading the team and previously served as the VP of Messenger. The goal of the team is figuring out the best way to leverage Facebook with Blockchain. The firm Chainspace was acquired by the company earlier this month. Chainspace specializes in developing and researching smart contracts.
In May, a report from Cheddar stated Facebook was considering making their own cryptocurrency to be used for payments. This is the first time it was revealed Facebook may integrate blockchain technology for their data sharing system and login. During the interview, Mark Zuckerberg said he was interested in using blockchain for authentication. He also stated he had not found the way to make it work yet. Facebook Connect would be replaced with the proposed system because it is fully distributed. This would enable people to limit the amount of data they want to share and which apps they will allow
According to Mark Zuckerberg, information is stored using a decentralized system. The user can decide which places to login without the need for an intermediary. He believes this idea is extremely attractive for a wide variety of reasons. One of the most troubling aspects for the developers regarding working with the Google or Facebook system is the need to use the App Store from Apple to deliver services. This is because he does not want an intermediary between the service and the people using it to be necessary. He wants the developers to be able to say they know they must follow the company policy and understand their access to the people they are servicing can be cut off if they do not. Mark Zuckerberg said this was a troubling and difficult position to be in.
The potential move would prevent Facebook from cutting off access for the third party apps. This would be good news for the app developers. Mark Zuckerberg has also admitted if access were decentralized by Facebook, it could impact a massive data breach such as Cambridge Analytica. If privacy was violated by the third party apps, the would still have the ability to run freely. In recent years, Facebook has encountered substantial issues with data sharing and apps. Facebook explained last October that the data of fourteen million users was accessed by hackers. This occurred July 17th to September of 2018 and resulted from the Chrome browsers unexpected behavior.
Reports surfaced in December that Facebook allowed numerous companies to access private data when it should have been prevented or stopped. This included Netflix, Amazon and Spotify. One of the key reasons Facebook is concerned about implementing this change is the risk of data sharing scandals. If the system was fully distributed, there would be no way to eliminate their access. A fully distributed system grants individuals power, but also makes the stakes higher. Mark Zuckerberg feels it is much easier to hold large companies such as Google or Facebook accountable than it is the third party apps. He believes more cases of abuse would surface with recourse becoming a lot more difficult.
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