The Internet Could Regain The Openness Envisioned For It

Context: In the light of growing centralization of the internet, adoption of the Beckn protocol stack could decentralize e-commerce and let new players thrive.

Current Issues with the Internet:

• Drifting away from the envisaged role: Tim Berner-Lee invented the World Wide Web and chose to build it as an open decentralized system.

• However, today all our interactions on the internet take place through a few giant platforms that give us access to content.
• Thriving middlemen: Internet platforms have built experience layer on top of the open architecture of the internet to restrict the users.
• As a result, each of these platforms has become a valve through which information on the internet flows,
• Data control: Instead of giving internet platforms control over our data, they allow users to store their data in pods that they can share as they see fit in a tightly permissioned way

The solution to centralization ???? Beck Protocol Stack: is a set of protocols that offer a range of commercial functionality and sector-specific applications used by various commercial enterprises to carry out businesses.

• Encourages Interoperability: 

• By unbundling the packet transmission layer from the experience layer so that core elements of transactions like discovery, order booking, payment and delivery are processes in a standardized fashion.
• Provides Flexibility: Beckn makes it possible for developers to customize the user experience on top of that, giving rise to a wide spectrum of modular processes.
• Ease of Transactions: it will allow any location-aware commercial operation— from fleet operators to last-mile delivery services, from large department stores to neighbourhood grocers.
• Equity and Transparency: Beckn isn’t attempting to become another e-commerce platform.
• It aims to build open and interoperable commercial modules that could be combined to create a platform for everyone to benefit from and contribute to.

Conclusion: Idea of Beckn like population-scale platforms in various sectors, has a chance of taking root in India which can still provide services to large swathes of the left out population by the world’s big platform.