At RepuX, we believe that data is the engine driving the digital economy and growth for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In fact, collaborative innovation, in the form of peer-driven and mobile-first business models, has transformed enterprise data into the business world’s most valuable resource.

With RepuX’s Blockchain-based protocol, SMEs can now share encrypted data directly with developers, who can then apply their expertise to create bespoke and decentralised applications (dApps) for enterprise data providers.

A secure and efficient ecosystem of SME-to-developer data sharing embodies RepuX’s vision for the future of industry. Enriched by open-source innovation and secure collaboration between trusted users, this emerging digital biosphere will create an agile business intelligence feedback loop that stimulates economic growth for SMEs and developers alike.

The beauty of Blockchain-backed dApps is that they empower user networks with democratic and transparent verification mechanisms, enabling peers to engage directly, while bypassing central intermediaries like Internet Service Providers (ISPs), for example.

However, the promise of distributed ledger disruption has been made more uncertain by the Federal Communications Commission’s recent ruling to repeal Net Neutrality. In fact, this reversal will transfer unjust power to monolithic ISP corporations, undermining web access, which the United Nations has deemed a basic human right, while empowering laissez-faire cartels of market manipulation.

Blockchain technology is built on the belief that the world needs more peer-to-peer (P2P) mechanisms of exchange, as opposed to the centralized entities that have traditionally controlled the link between supply and demand.

But Blockchain innovation, as it pertains to dApps, is a data-intensive endeavor. Thus, the FCC ruling, which empowers ISPs with unprecedented latitudes to set prices and determine levels of online access, places the dApp economy at the mercy of Wall Street shareholder interests. Higher data prices could make the costs of dApp innovation unsustainable for many developer-entrepreneurs.

If deregulated, the web is at risk of becoming a quasi-oligopoly, where Internet Service ISPs have free reign to restrict access to certain websites, determine Internet speeds and introduce punitive fee schedules for digital services.

SMEs are particularly vulnerable to this regulatory disruption. Repealing net neutrality would inherently favor large businesses that can leverage economies and balance sheets of scale to outbid SME operators for better Internet speeds and data storage features.

The FCC’s ruling threatens to deprive SMEs of a utility that has become business ecosystem’s most vital resource. SMEs use the Internet for everything, from marketing and e-commerce, to logistics, communications and, ultimately, the most basic operations.

Dismantling Net Neutrality will particularly crush small e-commerce operators, along with the growth aspirations of the estimated quarter of small business, which aim to expand their online sales offerings in 2017, according to National Small Business Association numbers.

Analysing the problem at its most basic level, the FCC decision epitomizes cognitive dissonance, addressing the unique landscape of the 21st Century economy with a solution that favours entities that are, by design, least qualified to innovate collaboratively.

Indeed, in the digital age, it hasn’t been the large and static corporations that have led growth, but intrepid startups that have quickly adapted to technological trends, deploying solutions on-demand, without layers of bureaucracy stifling progress. Evidence of this is the estimated $250- billion market capitalization of sharing economy ventures in 2017, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

If there’s a silver lining to the FCC ruling, it’s that this ill-advised reform has raised awareness and sparked a crucial debate, illustrating the fallibility of centralised entities, which are designed to grow shareholder value at the cost of the collective.

The upshot — this world needs more dApps and other peer-driven platforms to meet the innovation needs of an on-demand, collaborative and perpetually evolving economy. To this end, RepuX aims to be the premier data-exchange platform for SMEs and developers, where companies can securely share business intelligence with programmers to build customised dApps that address the specific needs of the enterprise.

Fortunately, Internet freedom advocacy groups in Silicon Valley and beyond are holding the line and fighting the FCC decision tooth and nail. At RepuX, we proudly support net neutrality and believe it is vital to health of America’s SME ecosystem. To help save net neutrality, you can petition Congress here.