The world of social media is changing. Decentralized new paradigm Decentralized Social Media, or DeSoc, is coming into focus. Emily Tran explores how DeSoc platforms are addressing the pitfalls of mainstream social media and crypto platforms. She especially imagines their promise to empower users and creators with decentralized governance and content monetization.

Understanding DeSoc: Core Features

DeSoc is not just a movement, but a new path forward in the way we interact with one another online. Unlike traditional social media platforms controlled by centralized entities, DeSoc leverages blockchain technology to distribute power and control among its users. This decentralized, user-owned approach seeks to remedy much of what’s wrong with traditional, harmful social media.

Decentralized Data Management and Storage

DeSoc platforms address the need to keep data persistent and accessible from any node. They provide a smart solution to content redundancy without relying on dastardly central servers. User data is spread out in dozens of different places. This architecture model allows it to be largely censorship-resistant and avoids centralized single points of failure. The beauty of decentralization is that this content will live on, even if every node is not online.

Data Ownership and Portability

In the DeSoc universe, users fund and control their digital identities. They are not limited to just one platform. Today, they are able to have any front end of their choosing connect to their network. Data portability allows users to take their social graph, content, and social experience with them wherever they go. This amendment creates a more diverse, transparent, and competitive social media ecosystem.

Interoperability and Open Development

DeSoc’s open architecture means no one company owns the applications on top of the social graph. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, each of these applications features a user’s posts and friends’ posts. This design encourages a far more interconnected and multifaceted social media layout. This encourages experimentation and creates an environment conducive to innovative, niche social applications that might serve unique communities or interests.

Privacy and Security

Decentralization offers a multitude of benefits. DeSoc platforms need to be on the offensive defending against threats like data breaches, Sybil attack, and abuse, with user privacy as a priority. Advanced technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and encryption are key to keeping users private and secure in a decentralized world.

Effective Revenue-Sharing Models

DeSoc opens up opportunities for creators to monetize their content in new ways and have more control over how they engage with users. These platforms seek to address the asymmetry in which centralized platforms are able to capture most of the value from decentralized and pseudonymous networks.

Decentralized Decision-Making

DeSoc networks take advantage of the efficiency of consensus algorithms and dynamism of smart contracts. They create accountability and increase trust, transparency, and accountability without being beholden to any one government body. This means that users have a say in the platform's policies and direction, fostering a more democratic and community-driven environment.

How DeSoc Empowers Users and Creators

DeSoc platforms offer a robust set of tools that enable users and creators to thrive. Together, they open up avenues for a more equitable, engaging and rewarding social media experience.

Control Over Social Graph

Where centralized platforms take control away from users, businesses, and creators, decentralized platforms like DeSoc restore that control by decentralizing your social graph. This ensures that consumers have real control over who can access their data and for what purposes.

Autonomous Agents and zkDID

With tools such as autonomous agents and zkDID, developers are better equipped to create decentralized applications that help give users control and agency. These technologies, including zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized identifiers, enable users to connect with the platform in a more private and secure way.

Decentralized Identities (DIDs) and Soulbound Tokens (SBTs)

DeSoc uses advanced technologies like DIDs and SBTs to enable users to forge their own identities and foster a multitude of applications born from personal sovereignty. DIDs enable users to have a verifiable digital identity with no central issuer. Conversely, SBTs are non-transferable tokens that represent a user’s reputation, talents, or membership in an organization.

Community Enablement

On-chain activity, zero-knowledge proofs, and token/NFT ownership facilitate the emergence of vibrant and distinctive communities, empowering users to connect in innovative ways. These discoveries allow users to create communities that foster connection through unique interests, values, or aspirations. Consequently, they cultivate a deep spirit of community and partnership.

Content Monetization

DeSoc platforms are revolutionizing content monetization, offering creators more control over their revenue streams and a fairer share of the profits:

  • Higher revenue share: DeSoc platforms offer a far higher percentage of revenue to creators compared to centralized social media platforms.
  • Creator tipping via tokens and stablecoins: DeSoc platforms enable creators to receive tips from their audience in the form of tokens and stablecoins.
  • NFT sales: Creators can earn revenue by creating and selling NFTs on DeSoc platforms.
  • Audience subscriptions: DeSoc platforms allow creators to offer premium content to their audience in exchange for a subscription fee.
  • Transaction fees: DeSoc platforms can charge transaction fees for content monetization, providing an additional revenue stream for creators.

DeSoc vs. Traditional Social Media: A Stark Contrast

DeSoc stands in stark contrast to traditional social media in several key areas:

Communication Channels

Unlike traditional media, which typically uses one-way communication. In this model, audiences are treated as passive content consumers with little opportunity to engage directly.

Feedback Mechanism

Old media has much crudelier, one-dimensional feedback loop.

Broadcast Model

Traditional media is all based on this one-to-many broadcast model where there’s this mammoth-sized microphone of one person talking to millions.

Content Creation

In traditional media, developers or content creators traditionally go through degree programs and years of industry experience. They are selected through intense vetting processes, which often limits the breadth of voices and perspectives.

Misinformation

Evidenced by the fact that false news spreads on social media sites, such as Twitter, at a rate six times that of real news. This brings to light the imperative for stronger, more effective mechanisms to prevent the spread of misleading information at an unprecedented scale in today’s digital world.

DeSoc vs. Other Crypto Platforms: A Unique Approach

Other crypto platforms such as XRP and Solana are making progress in their decentralization. Unlike these efforts, DeSoc is innovative in its focus on social interactions and content creation as the primary vector. Unlike platforms such as these, DeSoc is explicitly built to facilitate community and to allow users to own their digital identity and content themselves.

Conclusion

For all its faults, DeSoc embodies a powerful vision for what social media can become. DeSoc platforms can free us from distracting and divisive social media. They do this by decentralizing data management, empowering users and creators and facilitating community-driven governance. As you might guess, the DeSoc landscape is changing quickly. It will be thrilling to see how these platforms address challenges such as scalability, security, and user adoption to realize their full potential and lead the way in the DeFi revolution.