(author here) I was talking about this a few months ago with a well-meaning non-techie, who suggested that Uber - the money-burning minicab firm with an app -

(author here) I was talking about this a few months ago with a well-meaning non-techie, who suggested that Uber - the money-burning minicab firm with an app - was an example of a "decentralised system." More than that - it was a model for how blockchain could succeed. I think they'd never thought about the concept of distributed systems of any sort ever before in their lives. "It's like blockchain, because anyone can sign up to be an Uber driver!" "Uh ... anyone can sign up to be a minicab driver." or the very concept of "open source" only being possible with "blockchain".