<aside> 💡 “Man is by nature a social animal…” - Aristotle

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Decentralized Social Networks

Decentralized social networks are blockchain-based platforms that allow users to exchange information and publish and distribute content to audiences. Because these applications run on the blockchain, they can be decentralized and resistant to censorship and undue control.

Many decentralized social networks exist as alternatives to established social media services, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Medium. But blockchain-powered social networks have several features that put them ahead of traditional social platforms.

How do Decentralized Social Networks work?

Decentralized social networks are decentralized applications (Dapps) powered by smart contracts deployed on the blockchain. The contract code serves as the backend for these apps and defines their business logic.

Traditional social media platforms rely on databases to store user information, program code, and other forms of data. But this creates single points of failure and introduces significant risk. For instance, Facebook's servers infamously went offline for hours last year, cutting off users from the platform.

Decentralized social networks exist on a peer-to-peer network comprising thousands of nodes around the globe. Even if some nodes fail, the network will run uninterrupted, making applications resistant to failures and outages.

Using decentralized storage systems like the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), social networks built on Ethereum can protect user information from exploitation and malicious use. As a result, no one will sell your personal information to advertisers, and neither will hackers be able to steal your confidential details.

Many blockchain-based social platforms have native tokens that power monetization in the absence of advertising revenue. Users can buy these tokens to access certain features, complete in-app purchases, or tip their favorite content creators.

Benefits of Decentralized Social Networks

  1. Decentralized social networks are censorship-resistant and open to everyone. This means users cannot be banned, deplatformed, or restricted arbitrarily.
  2. Decentralized social networks are built on open-source ideals and make source code for applications available for public inspection. By eliminating the implementation of opaque algorithms common in traditional social media, blockchain-based social networks can align the interests of users and platform creators.
  3. Decentralized social networks eliminate the "middle-man." Content creators have direct ownership over their content, and they engage directly with followers, fans, buyers, and other parties, with nothing but a smart contract in between.
  4. As dapps running on the Ethereum network, which is sustained by a global, peer-to-peer network of nodes, decentralized social networks are less susceptible to server downtime and outages.
  5. Decentralized social platforms offer an improved monetization framework for content creators via non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in-app crypto payments, and more.
  6. Decentralized social networks afford users a high level of privacy and anonymity. For instance, an individual can sign in to an Ethereum-based social network using an ENS profile or wallet—without having to share personally identifiable information (PII), such as names, email addresses, etc.
  7. Decentralized social networks rely on decentralized storage, not centralized databases, which are considerably better for safeguarding user data.