Platform Power and the Dangers of Centralized Government Platforms

John Beezer argues that “platform power” – the ability of digital platforms to leverage network effects, data collection, and algorithms to shape markets and discourse – represents a potent and potentially dangerous form of control. As governments digitize services (e.g., Estonia’s e-Estonia and IndiaStack), they risk adopting similar centralized platform architectures that could enable unprecedented surveillance and manipulation, threatening democratic norms. Because platform power depends on centralization, Beezer proposes an alternative: decentralized government platforms enabled by agentic AI and blockchain-based identity. By allowing locally controlled AI agents to interface with public systems, governments can preserve digital efficiency while protecting democratic freedoms.

Introduction to the DRC Grants Program

Over the last few years, the DRC has gained a reputation for creating full stack responses to the decentralization issues of the day. We’re still working on that. That central concept, to create a throughline from concept to advocacy, is an approach that we would like to foster across the community. And so we started the DRC Grant, currently in its inaugural year. This blog post is to give some background on us and what we do, why we think this grants program is the natural next step, and some examples of projects that align with what we’re looking for. Hopefully, this will be helpful to applicants and other organizations considering the same issues.