Blockchain Decentralization simply explained using Netflix original series, Stranger Things.

Stranger Things season 3 is now up on NetFlix, and if there is anything we have learned from Season 2, it's that a virus thrives once it finds the right host.

I'll try to explain this in a way that those who have not seen the show, may be able to understand.

Centralization

When you think of centralization, think of the Mind Flayer (Pictured Below) in Season 2.

Why? Because of its hive mentality

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If you haven't seen Stranger Things, the Mind Flayer or otherwise known as the shadow monster, is an alien virus from another dimension known as The Upside Down. It made it through to our dimension through a portal opened up by, well simply put, a military experiment.

For those of you that have seen Stranger Things, bear with me, I know that it was opened up by El when she touched the Demogorgon on a "military mission", but it's a lot easier to explain with "military experiment".

Once it made its way through, it infected its host, Will, and used him as a super spy to help him kill whoever got in his way. The way it would kill people would be with its demodogs.

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Once these demodogs killed, it would bring them to the hive in which the virus would use the dead body as a host for the demogorgon.

Think Flies and Maggots

Picture of a new "maggot" demogorgon feeding off of its host.

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The Demogorgons (Demodogs) acted as worker ants and did whatever the Mind Flayer told them to do. Additionally, for anyone affected by the virus, they were also prone to whatever the Mind Flayer wanted (spoiler alert Season 3).

This is centralization. Everyone has one specific job and everything works from the top down. If the top fails, everything fails. In Season 2 of Stranger Things, once the Mind Flayer was shut out of the dimension by El, the Demodogs died, and everything went back to the way it was.

In today's world, the most relatable industries that are centralized are unionized staff in higher education, manufacturing facilities, assembly lines and the military. If your work depends on someone else completing their task first, that is centralization.

Decentralization

Decentralization is best shown with the below picture.

Centralization is the picture on the left (A), and decentralization is the picture on the right (B).

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For those that have seen Stranger things, this may remind you a little bit of the tunnel system the Mind Flayer made, as there was a central hub with branches spreading out.

These branches/vines seemed to have a mind of their own. Going anywhere around Hawkins, except for over water.

Think of these branches as nodes.

Basically, in decentralization, there is a central hub in which all the groups that have branched out have acquired their general guidelines and rules. These subgroups can make their own committees, ideas, and rules. They serve as independent groups or organizations but report to the central hub.

Another way to look at decentralization is by looking at organizations that use a matrix structure.

In the example below, all the marketing employees report up to the marketing manager, however, they all work in different projects. The managers of these projects serve as the second hub and can assign any work they would like to the employees assigned to their project. However, every employee regardless of project or department knows the organizations' policies.

So how does blockchain come into play?

Well, every node in the system has a copy of the blockchain.

Don't know what I mean by blockchain? Check out my Blockchain simply explained using the Terminator article.

This means that when a new block in the chain is made, the hash and all its data isn't only stored in the central hub. It's spread out and stored amongst all the nodes!

If someone were to try and hack the system, they would need to change every copy that every node has in the system. That would require a lot of work, time, energy, and also consensus from every peer-to-peer network in the system to change the block.

Simply put, it would not happen.

This allows for data integrity and data security.

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I hope this short explanation helped, and if you would like to check out my other articles, please do!

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Want to learn more about how cryptocurrency or blockchain works? Check out my other articles here:

• Blockchain simply explained using the Terminator
• Cryptocurrency and its transactions simply explained using your credit card
• Cryptocurrency value simply explained using gamification and the internet