Is it possible to one day replace the privacy nightmare of Amazon with a decentralized merchant network? All I really use Amazon for these day is aggregate customer reviews by query, then buy the items as direct as possible. Why can’t respectable tools to this instead? I understand the cost, but could the tech be adopted?
I don’t know about “decentralized” as centralization is a driving influence in cost of marketing. Amazon is efficient because of every step of the way is centralized, from store front to the warehousing to the shipping. Sure there are some products that don’t ship by Amazon, but they’re usually at a cost disadvantage unless they’re unique. Plus payment processing is centralized and allows for consumer protections which wouldn’t be possible with something like crypto.
Amazon could be dethroned, but it would require very specific circumstances and unlikely wouldn’t be by a privacy minded entity.
Amazon is cheap because personal data subsidizes a lot. If they couldn’t sell targeted sponsor ads to you, they’d make that revenue up elsewhere.