Concerns with the Platform

In this blog, I have been predicting the emergence of the future Platform and advocating its benefits. However, to stay balanced, I have to list some of the major concerns liked to the platform.

1. Privacy - the power controlling the Platform will have ultimate access to user information. As the Platform is essentially the Second Brain on the Internet, having access to the Platform gives an unprecedented insight into activities and thoughts of a person.

2. Security - unauthorized access to the Platform by hackers may have a devastating effect on a person and result in financial, reputation damage and even physical danger in case of illegal access by criminals.

3. Monopoly - the increasing returns to scale pattern observed across most historic internet platforms may likely result in emergence of a single Platform controlled by a for-profit corporation. This may result in consumer lock-up and disrupt the competition and innovation of service providers.

4. Governance - it is unclear which mechanisms and safeguards will be put in place to make sure that the stakeholders, including users and service providers, participate in the decision-making on major Platform policies. This is somewhat similar to current Governance challenges that Facebook faces, but on a much bigger scale.


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