Decentralized Concepts Allow Users To Own Social Profiles
Data from Statista reveals that during Q2 of 2024, YouTube removed over 3.26 million channels from its platform, highlighting the increasing prevalence of centralized control over user content on social media. This growing trend of censorship has extended across major platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, with both being known for frequently banning user accounts.
The issue of centralized control became even more prominent when, on August 24, 2024, French authorities arrested telegram’s billionaire founder Pavel Durov. Authorities allege that Durov enabled criminal activities on telegram, raising concerns about the future of user autonomy on centralized platforms.
In response to these developments, decentralized alternatives like Friendster and Nostr are gaining momentum, demonstrating how social media can transform through decentralization.
Friendster, a social networking service launched in 2002, once allowed users to connect, network, and interact. However, the platform shut down in 2015 due to difficulties in maintaining its user base. Now, Mike Carson, CEO of Friendster and Founder of Spaces Protocol, is planning to relaunch the platform using decentralized domain names.
Carson explained that Spaces Protocol would allow users to create and own domain names on the bitcoin blockchain, presenting a new model compared to traditional centralized registration systems.
“The goal behind Spaces Protocol is to remove registries and ICANN registration across social media,” Carson said. “Spaces Protocol allows users to create names on bitcoin in a similar way as traditional domains, only this time users own those names.”
For example, users can register a top-level name, such as “@bitcoin,” and then sell or distribute second-level names beneath it. Carson emphasized that with decentralized ownership, “no centralized entity can take this away,” ensuring user control over digital identities.
Friendster’s relaunch, planned for this year, will also include crypto payment integration, allowing users to use these decentralized names for crypto transactions and online domains.
While Friendster works toward its decentralized relaunch, Nostr, an open-source decentralized social network, has already gained traction. Chris Castiglione, Founder of web3 community app Console, explained that Nostr allows users full ownership of their content, differentiating it from traditional social media platforms.
“When you set up your first Nostr account, you generate a username and password that only you control,” Castiglione said. “From day one you own access to your account, and no one else can claim it. All the content you create can be copied and stored multiple times on ‘relays,’ which are small Nostr servers that anyone can run.”
Castiglione added that Nostr has also been gaining popularity as a social layer for bitcoin (BTC), with features such as micropayments and digital identity management. Users can send tips and rewards in the form of Zaps, small BTC payments, via the Lightning Network, directly supporting content creators. Carson noted that a similar feature will be integrated into the new version of Friendster, further expanding decentralized payment options.
Nostr’s ability to host user-owned content without interference underscores the potential of decentralized social networks in building trustless systems. “A trustless system requires less private information and has fewer points of failure,” Castiglione said. “As a result, apps that adopt trustless principles demonstrate a greater commitment to users’ freedom, autonomy, and digital rights.”
Beyond Friendster and Nostr, other platforms are also embracing decentralization to give users control over their social identities. Matthew Kaye, Head of Operations and Strategy at Intuition Systems, told Cryptonews that Intuition allows users to create self-sovereign identities on a blockchain, providing them control over their profiles and reputations across various platforms.
Diego Alvarez, Chief Strategy Officer at Cyber, echoed this sentiment, explaining how decentralized networks ensure that users retain ownership of their data and content. Since Cyber’s launch, over 40 applications have integrated the CyberConnect protocol, a decentralized network that allows developers to build social applications where users own their identities and data.
While decentralized networks like Friendster, Nostr, and Cyber offer promising alternatives, mainstream adoption may take time. Castiglione remarked that decentralized social platforms struggle to compete with established networks due to a lack of user interest and the network effects of centralized platforms.
“The network effects just aren’t there yet,” he said. Additionally, Alvarez pointed to challenges such as scalability, user experience, and data storage. “The user interfaces for decentralized networks are often complex, which can deter mass adoption,” he explained. Additionally, slower transaction speeds and the complexity of distributed data storage further hinder scalability.
Despite these challenges, industry experts remain optimistic. As centralized platforms face growing scrutiny over issues like censorship and data breaches, decentralized networks may gradually gain traction. Castiglione believes that widespread adoption of decentralized social media could take five to ten years or require a major shakeup similar to what we saw in 2018 when platforms like Facebook and Twitter faced regulatory scrutiny.
As platforms like Friendster, Nostr, and Cyber continue to explore decentralized models, the future of social media may move toward user-owned identities and data, offering more freedom and control to individuals online.
