Say Goodbye to Centralized Social Media with DeSo
💬 Social media has changed the way we communicate, but not everyone thinks these changes are always positive. Many social media platforms have faced criticism for not moderating content properly, leading to the spread of false information.
🙅♀️ People are frustrated with the way social media handles censorship, privacy, user control, data theft, and sharing. Facebook and Instagram, for example, have faced legal action for damaging the trust of their users.
- Over 4 billion people or more than half of the world’s population use social media. On average, internet users spend 2.5 hours a day on social media.
- Data leakages are a common concern on social media. Your personal information can end up on an illicit website in no time. The 2021 Facebook leak is just one example – over 533 million users had their information exposed. LinkedIn faced a similar issue.
- While big tech policy is still being updated, the decentralization of social media may offer a solution.
DSoto, the first blockchain specifically designed to power decentralized social applications, may bring a new level of security and privacy to social media. 🔐
DeSo – Decentralized Social 💬
DeSo is a decentralized social network that not only gives users access to the majority of Web 2.0 social media platforms’ functionality but also improves it by giving users control over and monetization options for their content.
The Decentralized Social blockchain’s native cryptocurrency is $DESO. This distinct Layer 1 blockchain, which is open-source, was created to support and scale social media applications that demand a lot of data.
The beginning of DeSo ✨
Former Google software engineer 🧑💻 Nader Al-Naji started Decentralized Social. His commitment to decentralized social media has earned him the nickname “The Facebook Killer.” In May 2019, BitClout began work on the Decentralized Social blockchain. Additionally, he established the DeSo Foundation to aid in the decentralization of social media and blockchain development.
Several early investors 💸 supported the idea behind BitClout. A16z, Coinbase Ventures, Hack VC, Pantera Capital, Sequoia, and other investors contributed $200 million to the development of the DeSo platform.
In December 2021, just a few months after the DeSo platform was launched, DESO was listed on Coinbase. With its standards and requirements, DeSo was among the quickest Layer 1 blockchain to be listed on the exchange.
Salil Shah joined the DeSo team in November 2022 to help the company grow. His current objectives are to develop the creator economy further and increase the web3 capabilities of the decentralized social media platform.
DeSo’s Goals 🌠
People with similar interests will be brought together by the DeSo platform, giving users more control over their social media interactions. Thanks to the platform’s blockchain foundation, users will be able to maintain a sense of privacy and an additional layer of security when interacting with one another.
DeSo offers users a decentralized environment where they can manage every element of their social network. You will have access to all of your social media content on a single platform and own your data as a result.
Scaling social media applications is also made more straightforward by DeSo. To accommodate billions of users, Web 2.0 social media platforms need a lot of digital storage. Compared to DeSo, the cost of uploading “likes,” images, and status updates onto a blockchain like Ethereum would be millions of dollars. On-chain storage for 200 characters costs $0.000017, versus $78.75 for Ethereum, claims their website. The storage costs of the platform are not exceeded by even more affordable choices like Cardano or Avalanche.
According to the information on their site, the best part is that anyone who runs a node to curate their feed also contributes data back to the public pool of profiles, posts, follow, etc., stored on the public blockchain.
- A post or a like on ESPN’s node can be surfaced on Politico’s feed. A post made in China can be appeared on a feed running on a node in America and vice versa. With every node that runs, more content gets contributed back to the global data pool stored on the blockchain, making every other node on the network more powerful and more engaging to users.
- In some sense, DeSo can solve a collective action problem among independent publishers: Instead of being forced to contribute to a privately-owned data pool controlled by a megacorp that’s not aligned with them, publishers can now contribute to a public data pool that nobody owns and that they’ll never be dis-intermediated from.
- Thus we can move from a world in which data is a heavily guarded, privately-owned resource to one in which it is more like a globally accessible utility that anyone can build on.
How to Earn as a Creator on DeSo – Social tokens, social NFTs, and social tipping 💰
Three product categories pioneered by DeSoare already revolutionizing how creators monetize their work online, but they’re just the beginning.
- Social tokens
- Social NFTs
- Social tipping
Anyone in the world can experiment with new ways for creators to monetize by building an app on top of DeSo because it is open-source and money-native.
🤔 Imagine, for instance, that a well-known creator wants to start providing premium content in exchange for a monthly subscription.
- The entire ecosystem of DeSo applications can instantly access this feature if just one person on the internet builds it.
- The same holds for other features, such as an inbox where creators can be compensated for reposting content or responding to their followers’ messages.
- The best machine learning researchers in the world can develop solutions, with unrestricted access to the full firehose of data, wherever they are, for other problems like identifying offensive content or eliminating spam.
Fundamentally, the DeSo blockchain is an open protocol that anyone in the world can contribute to, which will eventually lead to the creation of even more ways to unleash the true potential of creators and to the return of competition and innovation to social media.
6 Key Features of DeSo 📜
Social media has several requirements that differ from typical DeFi applications, particularly regarding interaction and storage.
Here are just a few features that make DeSo unique:
1️⃣ Hybrid Proof-of-Work Consensus
At the moment, the DeSo platform runs on a hybrid consensus mechanism. The blockchain can maintain high levels of security while using significantly less energy than other significant blockchains by utilizing a PoW model. The model is constantly being improved, and a PoS protocol transition is planned in the future by the development team.
2️⃣ Social Graphs
Every post you like, friend request you accept, and status update you make shapes your social graph.
A social network’s connections between users, groups, and organizations are shown in a social graph. All user data on decentralized social media is accessible. As a result, social platforms and outside parties cannot use your connections against you. Users can store all of their posts and social graphs directly on-chain.
3️⃣ Hypersync x DeSo
For efficiency, most blockchains are made only to store small amounts of data. Social applications need an infinite amount of data, whereas DeFi protocols typically only require a few bytes of storage. This problem is solved by Hypersync, which also permits greater scalability.
Block downloads are the typical method used to sync blockchain activities. The block’s transactions are downloaded one by one. Although it can happen quickly, each transaction requires a lot of data. By giving users a snapshot of block activity, Hypersync helps users use less data. The records are condensed, making them more compact and practical.
4️⃣ Infinite State Applications
Even when using bridges to storage-focused blockchains like Arweave or Filecoin, most web 2.0 applications cannot be implemented on today’s general-purpose blockchains due to the high on-chain storage costs. Even storing a single link to Arweave or Filecoin on any of the chains displayed above would cost between $0.10 and $1.00+ at the current exchange rates, which is unaffordable.
Most blockchains were developed to power finite-state applications with a fixed amount of storage requirements; the costs will likely increase even further as these chains gain popularity. On the other hand, social media apps are infinite-state programs that can expand indefinitely. The DeSo platform uses a sophisticated, specially created indexing system to increase scaling.
5️⃣ DSo Identity Service
A DeSo Identity Service development tool enables users to quickly store critical pairs, or credentials, in DeSo platform-based applications. Developers are not required to create complex forms or input validations to confirm users’ identities. This is instead seamlessly incorporated into the app.
6️⃣ Decentralized Social Applications
There are hundreds of Decentralized Social applications accessible on the DeSo platform. With several development tools readily available, new applications are popping up regularly.
Among the most popular are:
Diamond: This decentralized version of Twitter encourages engagement while giving content creators a new way to earn.
Stori: A decentralized application comparable to TikTok, focusing on video content.
NFTz: Like OpenSea, this decentralized NFT marketplace adds more social and community elements.
DeSocialWorld: Connect with users around the world in multiple languages.
DAODAO: Take your social fundraising to the next level with this unique web3 platform.
Vibehut:Meet new people based on shared interests or video chat with your friends.
What Benefits does it Offer ? ✅
Decentralized Social may appear complicated, but the DeSo platform is simple and requires little education. Additionally, using the DeSo platform has several unique advantages you won’t find on other Web 2.0 social platforms.
- Possession of Your Content
Even though most widely used platforms let you keep your intellectual property, you might have little control over who sees it. Your content is always under your authority on the DeSo platform.
- Get Your Content Paid
The DeSo platform makes monetization much more straightforward, as was already mentioned. There are several ways for content producers to make additional money. All you have to do to make money on DeSo, whether you want to do it by persuading people to buy your creator coins or through social tipping, is to start creating exciting content and a community. Your potential earnings increase as more people interact with your content.
- Simple to Build Apps
The DeSo platform makes it simple to build new applications, and many resources are available. The DeSo Developer Hub is a great resource to use as a starting point for your project-related research. Additionally, you’ll be able to use any programming languages you already know, like Python or JavaScript. The DeSo platform is open-source, so there are countless options for utilizing the web3 social layer and creating new applications.
- Increased Privacy
Using blockchain technology makes it simpler to maintain your privacy on social media. Your data is securely stored on the DeSo platform rather than kept by private companies. Like blockchains for financial applications, they cannot be accessed without your permission.
- Spam and fake news reduction
Although the network’s content is not subject to regulation, it does employ a reputation system. The accuracy of the content you see can be rated using this decentralized system. Users are less likely to encounter individuals with multiple accounts because they are required to pay for all activities. Users can more precisely customize the content they see, thanks to the absence of an algorithm.
The roadmap to decentralizing social 🗺️
Phase 1 is still in progress – The Social Layer of Web3, while Phase 2 – The Internet of DeSo is coming soon, and the most exciting Phase 3, or the so-called Revolution, is coming soon as well:
DESO Tokenomics 📊
Since its initial release in June 2021, DESO’s price has undergone a significant range. The token was valued at over $178 at the release time.
The token’s price briefly increased after it was listed on Coinbase in December 2021. Its price rose dramatically, reaching a high of $438.10, an astounding 151% increase.
The blockchain is open-source, but a sizable sum of money is currently set aside for further development. The blockchain may experience price fluctuations in the future and gain more individual users due to additional investments.
Final Thoughts
Integrations with other blockchain technology could make the blockchain more widely used as the year progresses. For example, the MetaMask integration allows users to interact with various social applications cross-chain.
Decentralized Social appears to apply the benefits of using a blockchain with social media using cutting-edge web3 technology. Investors may still need to figure out the future. Still, the Decentralized Social platform offers several benefits, such as low storage costs, improved privacy, and a selection of decentralized social applications. It will be fascinating to observe how this developing technology will influence social media in the future.