Why can't it be explained from the perspective of traffic distribution? Because you have seen that the giants such as BAT have mastered the channels and made a lot of money by distributing traffic and providing information. But I didn't see why these giants can master the channels and get the right to distribute traffic. The layout of BAT on the Internet covers all aspects of our lives-shopping, payment, catering, entertainment, transportation, communication, social interaction, etc ... However, most of them can be summarized in one word-

intermediary.

Intermediary has already penetrated into all aspects of our lives. Almost, as long as there is a certain demand, as long as there is information inequality between the supply and demand sides, or even if it is just a little inconvenient, in the Internet era, there will be intermediaries. Intermediaries used to be expensive and charged according to service, so only some industries have common intermediaries. However, in the Internet age, especially for Internet giants, the income from data and channels can completely make up for the cost of intermediary, which is why several Internet giants are now saying that they are ecological and ready to lay out ...

The reason why Internet giants can distribute traffic and provide information is because they have mastered the channels, which leads to traffic, or information, which can only be distributed through them. In other words, the distribution of traffic has become a centralized process, not because information or traffic itself is centralized, but because BAT has centralized information distribution through layout and providing intermediary services, and then this center is in their hands.

Take any example, such as take-away. No Meituan, Baidu, hungry, haven't we eaten takeout before? No, we can also know the take-away phone numbers of several small shops nearby. This is a decentralized system, and ordering food does not require the participation of a third party. But why is this field completely centralized now? It is because these companies provide intermediaries and a centralized platform, and at the same time, they provide something that the previous decentralized system could not provide, such as information that is convenient to query and use, a (relatively) real evaluation and scoring system, and a convenient payment system (this is another centralized system).

so, after BAT laid out these companies, BAT held this channel in its hand. from then on, ordering information will almost certainly be distributed through their platforms, which seems to give people the illusion that "BAT makes money by distributing ordering information". However, don't forget that the reason why they can master this channel and the right to distribute this information is because they provided this intermediary system, which destroyed the original decentralized system with poor and opaque information exchange, and led to the current situation that all information needs to be distributed through them.

The reason why you think that "changing the underlying system is just changing the traffic center for distributing information" is because you preconceived that "this is a centralized system, so there must be a center". However, I forgot that there was no center in these fields, because someone first provided this centralized system and destroyed the original decentralized system, so this field had a center.

This is also the article, and the reason why people are optimistic about the blockchain-

All the things that these intermediary systems can do, the blockchain can also do (or have the potential to do), and the functions of these Internet intermediary platforms can be achieved through algorithms without using BAT or any Internet giant.

Maybe now, due to the resistance of technology, capital and other aspects, the blockchain is not allowed to destroy these intermediaries as the centralized platform destroys the traditional decentralized market. However, the blockchain provides this possibility, which is why many people say that the blockchain is revolutionary or can change the Internet.

As for reality, I can only say that the current blockchain has almost no ability to kill anything. Don't talk about a centralized system that has been formed like Meituan. Throw the blockchain in an area that has not been touched or disdained by centralized BAT for the time being. The blockchain must first kill the original decentralized system and then talk about something else.

At present, as far as I know, the blockchain has not got a blood yet.