With Elon Musk's Twitter seeing a backlash, users are flocking to Web3 alternatives like Lens, Minds and Mastodon. Will the trend last? Several apps, notably the non-blockchain-based platform Mastodon, and a few crypto-powered alternatives are seeing a jump in usage. While it is still unknown what will happen to Twitter, a more diverse social media landscape should benefit users.
We offer an understanding of what decentralized social media is.
What is Decentralized Social Media?
Decentralized social media is an open-source, blockchain-based alternative to traditional social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
By utilizing blockchain technology, decentralized social media platforms are available as decentralized apps (DApps), inherently resistant to attackers, censorship and undue control.
How Does Decentralized Social Media Work?
Decentralized social media networks are DApps powered by smart contracts distributed on a blockchain. The smart contract code functions as the backend of these DApps and defines their logic.
While traditional social media platforms use databases to store program code, user information, and other types of data, decentralized social media networks exist on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks comprising thousands of nodes spread across the globe.
Unlike traditional networks, which have single points of failure and can go offline for hours at times (i.e., Facebook in October 2021), the nodal model of decentralized social networks allows them to run uninterrupted, even if some of the nodes fail.
Therefore, the most important aspect of decentralized social media is that it doesn't run on a single server. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other big-name social media networks are all controlled by some central authority.
This can be dangerous, increasing the risk of hacks, leaks, and takeovers.
Is it Ideal to Use Decentralized Social Media?
Decentralized social media networks allow you to interact without fear of censorship. Rather than dictating everything, developers provide guiding rules. The rest is up to the distributed community of users to decide.
Decentralized social media platforms are an excellent option if you are worried about controlling your data, security and privacy. They may also be appealing if you're interested in owning your content, monetizing it and remaining anonymous online.
Examples of Decentralized Social Media
Minds: an alternative to Facebook and Youtube
Aether
Lens Protocol
Pixelfed: Alternative to Instagram
Peertube
Pros of Decentralized Social Media
Increased Security
Increased User Control
Monetization
No Censorship
Cons of Decentralized Social Media
Not so user-friendly
New security threats
It has some growth challenges
Bottomline
Social media networks are incredibly fine-tuned machines that take years, not months, to dial in and become mainstream. It takes some time before decentralized social media platforms grow their user bases large enough to gain relevance.
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