DDOS Attack: Lesson In Decentralization

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Steemit.com is experiencing difficulties. The site is under attack meaning that it is fluctuating between being up and down.

A DDOS attack is when a site is hit with massive traffic in a short period of time. This is automated with the intention of bringing the site down. It is similar to how website get overloaded when a new product is released or something on it goes viral and the traffic is more than the servers can handle.

The difference is DDOS is done with the conscious intention of disrupting service.

Steemit.com is only one point of access for the Steem blockchain. As we regularly cite on here, it is one of many interfaces. At present, the other DApps are working just fine. This is something that is exclusive to Steemit.

We must state that anything that is posted to the blockchain is unaffected. This is the power of decentralization. The blockchain is running on individuals computers all over the world. There is no single point of access if an attack wanted to take down the ecosystem.

At the same time, the different interfaces are also developed by people from different areas. Each application decides what servers they house their product exclusive of anything else.

If we compare this to a centralized organization, we see how much more powerful this is. If a centralized system comes under DDOS attack, there is nothing that is operating. Facebook, as an example, is one system and a DDOS takes it down. Steem, on the other hand, is still operating, Yes, the one interface is affected but the others are operational.

Moving to another level, we can see the same thing pan out with hacks. Data breaches are common these days since the data is housed by a company that is on a centralized system. Once the hacker gets in, the entire network, for the most part, is available. All the servers are tied together.

Again, we see a major difference. If one of the witnesses gets hacked, there is no access to the other ones. They are not tied together. Instead, they run independently. This is a key point and a reason why decentralization is going to become more important going forward as the data situation grows. In short, the centralized entities cannot be trusted to protect it.

Going to a third level, what we are witnessing shows how blockchain is immune from government entities. If, instead of DDOS, we were witnessing an action by a government, the same principles apply. For example, let us say the United States went after Steemit.com for something. and shut it down. What would be the result?

We would see the blockchain running without a hitch. The witness servers would be unaffected. Even if the U.S. went after those in its jurisdiction, most of the servers are outside the country. At the same time, the different interfaces are all over the world so some would still be accessing the blockchain.

This does bring up a point that more is needed. At present, we have about 10 different applications that allow "blogging" type posting. This number needs to grow significantly. The strength is in the numbers.

Most of the population is not aware of this. How often have we mentioned cryptocurrency or blockchain to someone and he or she mentioned how the government would not allow it? The point is the governments can do nothing to stop it. A truly decentralized organization spread across the world is something that cannot be taken down without global coordinated effect (and even then, it probably would not be successful).

Over the last few weeks I wrote a great deal about decentralization. This is a wonderful example of it in action. It is a great defense against hacks, DDOS, and government intervention.

It is something that all of us need to embrace and promote.

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