What Is Decentralized Social (DeSo)?

Many people have been drawn to the concept of a decentralized social (DeSo) network, which is the next step in the evolution of social networking. No longer must you trust a single entity, corporation, or government with your personal information, interests, and relationships. With DeSo, you are in complete control of your interactions with others on the network. There is no central authority watching over you. Instead, you watch over yourself by being an active member of the network, validating the information you receive.

What Is Decentralized Social?

Decentralized Social (DeSo) is a tool that enables discovery, connection, and collaboration around common interests while maintaining your privacy. By giving users complete control over their social interactions, DeSo has built a system where the people are in charge instead of intermediaries. In this new paradigm, users are the ones who decide what content gets distributed and how it is used.

DeSo is a hybrid P2P network where data is distributed across a wide network of peers instead of being stored in a central database. This means that there’s no centralized server to hack or DDoS as there is no centralized server. The software uses a combination of Trusted Timestamping and BitTorrent protocols to ensure that information is distributed effectively without relying on a single trusted third party.

The goal of DeSo is to become the most widely used social network by empowering people with decentralized tools while maintaining an intuitive user experience.

DeSo is the first social network based on blockchain technology. It is built with IPFS (Interplanetary File System), a distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. IPFS connection makes DeSo resilient against malicious attacks and DDoS. This is possible because data is not stored in a single location, allowing all users to access and contribute to decentralized social networks.

How Does DeSo Work?

DeSo utilizes a token-based system on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. This means that DeSo tokens can be exchanged between peers and used as payment for micro-services within the network, such as posting content, tagging other users, commenting, and liking posts.

DeSo tokens can also serve as a tool to incentivize user behavior that furthers the network or as a way to access special features within the DeSo Network. For example, after a certain number of comments have been made from various network members, those members may then use their DeSo Tokens to unlock the ability to create polls within their posts.

The DeSo Network is built around the principle of Token Curated Registries (TCR). Essentially, TCRs are lists with one key difference from traditional lists. They allow the list members to curate which items are allowed into that list. This means that as a list, you can become more selective as the list members gain influence over time.

DeSo’s TCRs utilize DeSo tokens to allow users to vote on submissions to lists, with each action being a submission to the list itself. This means that if a user wishes to add or remove an item from a list, they must pay the DeSo token fee in order to gain entry into that list.

The entire system is decentralized, meaning there are no servers for a hacker to access or DDoS. The software uses a combination of Trusted Timestamping and BitTorrent protocols to ensure that information is distributed effectively without relying on a single trusted third party.

Every action taken by each user has a cost that must be paid for in DeSo tokens. This applies to actions such as voting, posting content, and receiving notifications. The more times you take action on the network, the higher the token fee required will become due to inflation. In order to incentivize users to continue using the network and further the development of the DeSo community, 25% of all token fees paid will be distributed to holders of DeSo tokens through a smart contract.

Examples of the Decentralized Social Networks

Since Bitcoin (BTC) appeared, we have witnessed a new trend: the decentralized applications (DApps) and their respective networks. Steemit.com was one of the first and one of the largest to gain attention from mainstream media. Steemit is a DApp built on top of Steem’s blockchain, allowing for blogging in its most primitive form. It has many similarities to Reddit in how it enables users to submit text, links, and other types of media, which gets upvoted or downvoted by Steem’s witnesses (block producers) responsible for running the network and verifying transactions. Steemit is just one example of a DApp. Steemdb.com is one of the largest Steemit alternatives that allow users to read Steemit’s blockchain, view Steems (Steem’s currency), and even search for Steemit accounts. Steemdb also allows users to see what DApps are built on top of Steem’s blockchain via steemd.com. Steemdb has even created an online Steem REST API for developers to build Steem DApps on Steem’s blockchain.

It is also worth mentioning Steepshot – a Steemit-like application that allows users to post photos or short videos, similar to Steemit. Steepshot also uses Steem’s blockchain and Steem’s currency to keep it operational. Steepshot has about 2,000 Steem power witnesses who contribute their Steem-powered computer resources to secure Steepshot’s network.

Another decentralized social platform that has gained attention is DTube that allows users to upload text or video Steem-powered videos on Steem’s blockchain. The Steem token rewards the video creator while Steepshot allows Steemit users to earn Steems for uploading photos. DTube is just one example of many decentralized applications built on top of Steem’s decentralized social platform.

Other examples of Steem applications are Steepshot and Steempress. Steepshot uses Steems to reward its users, while Steempress is more of a desktop client that allows users to quickly edit their posts with photos before submitting them on Steemit or Steepshot. Steempress also allows Steepshot and DTube content creators to easily upload their Steemit posts on Steepshot or DTube with just a button click.

A more recent decentralized social platform that has gained attention is LBRY. LBRY is a blockchain-based marketplace for digital goods such as books, movies, and music, where users can charge for digital content via LBRY’s native currency or credit. Steem has Steems as its main currency, allowing users to reward content creators, whereas LBRY has LBC as its main currency that allows users to charge for digital content. Steem and Steepshot have Steem tokens as their reward currency, whereas Steempress has Steems as a way to thank its contributors. DTube only uses Steem’s token to reward video creators because Steem is not specifically designed for videos, unlike Steemit. Steepshot, Steempress, and Steemit are just three Steem DApps that exist today, while Steepshot and Steempress focus mostly on Steepshot and Steemit content creators.

Social networks are becoming more and more popular on the internet. The more social media websites come out, the more competition there is for users to join their networks. Mastodon and Bluesky are also among some of the decentralized social networking platforms that offer a large variety of features, such as Mastodon’s ability to share GIFs or be able to block followers from Bluesky’s minimalistic user interface. Mastodon is decentralized, whereas Bluesky is centralized. The first one offers a timeline within which users can communicate with each other across different Mastodon servers, while the Bluesky has a single server that stores all of its users, and their activity takes place on that one server.

Bottom Line

The goal of DeSo is to become the most widely used social network by empowering people with decentralized tools while maintaining an intuitive user experience. By giving users complete control over their social interactions, DeSo allows users to be the ones who decide what content gets distributed and how it is used.