How decentralizing social media platforms allow content creators to financialize their influence while users enjoy data autonomy
Introduction –
Decentralized social media networks is a topic that has garnered traction recently and is slowly gaining momentum due to the constraints placed on content creators by traditional social platforms and their various predatory practices. In this article, we will explore the potential benefits of using decentralized platforms over existing traditional solutions, including increased privacy and control over personal data, as well as the ability to earn rewards for creating and curating content. We will also discuss the methods of how decentralized social media networks are currently being implemented as well as the risks that could mitigate its adoption.
Social media refers to platforms that allow people to interact, create and exchange information in virtual communities and networks. The first widely popular social media platform was MySpace, which reached its peak user base of 46 million in the early 2000’s. In subsequent years, YouTube and Facebook exploded in its social reach, each surpassing 100 million users within just a few years. Currently, there are 4.59 billion people interacting on social platforms, meaning that nearly every person on Earth has an account on at least one social media network.
The various benefits and use cases of social media continue to attract a large number of users. For example, social media can be an effective tool for professional networking and building relationships with colleagues. LinkedIn is a popular platform for this purpose, allowing people to connect with others in their industry and find job opportunities. From a business perspective, companies can use social media to promote their products, services, and brand, reach new customers, and gather feedback from their audience. These platforms are popular among a wide range of people, however, using them also comes with several tradeoffs that should be considered.
Problem statement
The current social media landscape is dominated by an oligopoly, particularly companies such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and Reddit. These social behemoths collect data from their users and use it to generate profits through commercialization and sometimes even manipulating public opinion (e.g. controversial topics such as fostering polarization in politics).
These data are also often utilized for targeted advertisements to specific groups of users, which can be highly effective in influencing their purchasing decisions. Exploiting data for target advertising and marketing purposes is exceedingly profitable for Big Tech, while users settle for the bare minimum. Another key issue that stands out in traditional social media, especially for content creators and active users, is that they often have limited control over how their content is distributed and monetized. They may be subject to the policies and algorithms used by the platform they are publishing on, which can make it difficult to reach their targeted audience and earn revenue for their work. Since the code for these social networks is closed-source, creators cannot change the way content is delivered to their followers nor can they manipulate or change the algorithm.
In addition, these platforms may claim ownership over users’ content that is posted on their site, which can limit the content creator’s ability to use or distribute their work elsewhere. Lastly, the monolithic approach to data storage can make the platform become a single point of failure and potentially lead to huge amounts of data being compromised. We highlight the shortcomings of the current traditional social media space below:
1. Censorship
The dilemma of whether to prioritize an individual’s freedom of expression over the potential harm is a longstanding discussion in the social media space. Platforms may censor content that they consider inappropriate or in violation of their “terms of service”. For e.g In 2020, Twitter and Facebook took action to remove or label posts containing (according to them) misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. This included posts that promoted false cures or conspiracy theories about the virus. Although the platforms cited their policies against misinformation and harm as the reason for the removal of this content, it caused a large majority of content creators and users feeling that their freedom of expression was being restricted. In some cases, censorship on social media platforms may be motivated by ideological biases, which can further undermine trust in these platforms. Several censorship controversies have resulted in many users being unable to access a platform’s services due to being suspended.
2. Centralization
The current traditional social media landscape is dominated by a few large platforms that hold significant power and influence. One big problem here is that user data is stored in central databases which companies can exploit for monetary benefits such as targeted advertisements.
Additionally, centralized social media platforms are vulnerable to outages caused by technical problems, maintenance, and cyber attacks. These outages can disrupt users’ access to the platform or certain features, potentially leading to user data leakage and costly consequences for the platform. As a result, these centralized entities are at risk of experiencing significant financial losses and user dissatisfaction.
3. Data Leakage
Data leakage is a significant issue for social media companies because personal information is collected and stored on centralized servers on a large scale.
This information can include not just basic demographic information, but also sensitive information such as political views, religious beliefs, and personal relationships.
Should these data be leaked, it can lead to severe reputation ruin of not only the social media companies but the users as well. One example of a famous data leak is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a data company acquired the personal information of millions of Facebook users for political advertising which was used to sway election votes. When data is leaked, it can fall into the wrong hands, and can be used for malicious purposes such as identity theft, or to target individuals with specific types of advertising or propaganda.
4. Advertising
Traditional social media companies allow users to access their services in exchange for their personal data. This type of marketing is very important for brands because it allows them to reach a customer base of approximately 5 billion people through these platforms. By using filtered data such as age, occupation, and location, businesses can target potential customers based on their behavior and interests. However, the downside of this approach is that the brands are using users’ data solely for the purpose of generating revenue through ads, while the users and content creators receive little in return.
5. Lack of incentives for content creators
The rise of the creator economy on traditional social media platforms has shifted the way in which the younger and more tech savvy population understand content and income. They are able to monetize content as they understand the power of social media and its psychological aspects on users due to its casino-like effect (refreshing the home page to scour for new posts is akin to a slot machine) and short content to provide dopamine hits. One of the issues with the current traditional social media landscape is that there are limited incentives for content creators as most of the revenue is apportioned to brands and businesses and platforms take a significant cut from revenues generated by the creators. Certain platforms may also have strict monetization policies and regulations which can limit the ways in which creators can monetize their content. Lastly, creators may also be concerned about the lack of control they have over how their content is used and distributed, as well as the limited ownership rights they have over their work.
6. Siloed Platforms
Social media silos are isolated platforms that do not integrate with each other as data is stored on each platforms’ servers. This can have negative consequences for users, brands, and companies that rely on social media for marketing. For users, silos can make it difficult to import and export their social graph, resulting in limited user engagement with the platform. Brands and companies may also be affected by silos if they have separate accounts for each of their brands or subsectors.
It can be challenging for people to access or share information from these different sources, which can limit the reach and effectiveness of content creators’ strategy. Furthermore, social media silos prevent creators from getting a comprehensive view of their online presence. Without the ability to see all of the conversations and interactions happening across multiple accounts, it can be difficult to understand how the public perceives the creator’s content as a whole.
How do blockchains solve the problems associated above
From the above, we have highlighted all the problems surrounding the traditional social platforms. Users are jeopardized by the centralization nature of these big companies and are susceptible to many predatory practices in order to improve more user retention. Just like how decentralized finance was invented to radically change the way payment/ financial activities are carried out, decentralized social media has the potential to be the next big opportunity.
Decentralized social media networks can be viewed as social platforms leveraging blockchain technology which are inherently designed to protect users from censorship restrictions, promote free speech and give users better control over their data. Eliminating censorship restraints is possible as the blockchain rests on decentralized/independent nodes rather than centralized servers that traditional social media companies operate on. Smart contracts power the backend for decentralized applications which are programs that run on a blockchain. These programs consist of a collection of code (functions) and data (state) that resides at a specific address on a blockchain.
More power is granted to users of these decentralized platforms since they actually own their own data which can be seamlessly ported to another platform (provided the same social graph is used). Decentralized social networks usually use tokens and NFTs as incentives for users to monetize their content and this allows content creators to have a more equitable share of their income. We discuss the ways in which blockchains could revolutionize the social media industry below:
1. Content creators enjoy a more direct relationship with their audiences
On traditional platforms, content creators do not outright own their content or audience as they are all stored on centralized servers. Should a creator want to migrate to a different platform, all of the data will be lost. This is solved via decentralized social graphs where creators fully own their content and followers since all data is stored on-chain and tagged to their accounts. Moreover, with NFTs and social tokens content creators are able to offer exclusive memberships/ access to their followers to make the relationship more personal.
2. Permissionless access
Developers from all around the world can permissionlessly build applications on the network since blockchains are decentralized in nature with open-sourced developer toolkits. They can easily create decentralized social media applications such as social graphs and social apps that allow users to own and control their own data, enable interoperability between platforms and enjoy better privacy – all while promoting the decentralization ethos.
Using a social graph, developers are able to leverage on its existing network without having to source for it from scratch. A plug-and-play strategy could be adopted to create applications that can be used by existing users on the social graph from day one. This type of innovation was seen in the decentralized finance (DeFi) world which promotes healthy competition and constant innovation since one single project is unable to capture the entire slice of the cake.
3. Data ownership
Traditional social media platforms collect and store all users’ data, all of which belong to a centralized server which cannot be accessed by the wider public. Data (e.g. followers, content, biographical information) on decentralized social media platforms on the other hand belongs to each user (usually in the form of an NFT that is attached to each unique wallet) and any data/ on-chain activities are open and for all to view. Blockchain technology, with its non-immutable and public data features, makes the collection of user data more transparent and non-editable.
4. Distribution of incentives
Traditional social platforms are extremely profitable due to the number of companies using their platforms for advertisements. These platforms benefit from high traffic and user engagement since they rely on the sale of such data to brands and businesses who will pay to have their messaging put in front of users. Users do not have a share in the profits and they can only benefit from using the platform.
Decentralized social networking has the potential to add DeFi elements to the social economy since issuers benefit from a direct connection to participants through social tokens and NFTs. At the same time, creators benefit from the financialization of their social influence, without the problem of centralized companies taking a cut from their earnings.
5. User authorization (privacy/security)
In traditional social networks, each account registration typically requires user information such as cell phone number, email address and date of birth, all of which are stored centrally in the server systems of these platforms. This centralization of user data can make it vulnerable to data breaches and cyber-attacks, as well as making it easier for these companies to collect and use user data for targeted advertising and other purposes.
Decentralizing the authentication helps to protect the privacy and security of user information by eliminating the need to store data on centralized servers, and instead, sharing and transferring content across multiple social networking platforms. In a decentralized system, each user has full control over their data and can choose which platforms to share it with, and can also easily move their data to other platforms if they wish to. Additionally, the distributed nature of the system makes it harder for hackers to access user data, as there is no single point of failure.
Landscape of decentralized social media
Social Graph
A social graph describes a diagram that illustrates the relationships and connections of an individual in a social network. It is a visual representation of the connections and interactions between people, groups, or organizations. These connections can include things like friendship, professional relationships, or shared interests.
For example, Lens Protocol is a decentralized platform that empowers users to own and monetize their social connections by allowing them to earn rewards for creating and curating valuable content, as well as for building and maintaining strong social connections, also known as the “social graph.” Lens Protocol’s social graph is established through a graph database (GDB). Such databases utilize graph structures that contain individual nodes, edges as connection points between them, places, things and other properties to store data. These graphs show network members the relationships between them and other interactors within the social media landscape.
Authentication
Authentication refers to the process of verifying the identity of a user or a system, before allowing access to resources or interactions with such networks or applications. This can be done by the use of digital signatures, private keys or other forms of cryptographic techniques. The core purpose of authentication is to ensure that only authorized entities and consumers are able to access a network, perform transactions and view sensitive information. This is critical to maintain the security and integrity of a blockchain and ensure that only legitimate users are able to interact with it.
Spruce ID is a project that provides an identity preserving protocol, which enables users to control their identity and data across all interactions within a decentralized network. It is an open-source software provider that is aiming to bring self-sovereign identity on a cross-chain basis via its variety of developer tools, which include an ecosystem of existing products designed to decentralize user identities when using web services. Popular privacy preserving tools in the ecosystem include products such as “DIDKit” and “Rebase“, where both assist users in managing online identities and individual data across various platforms, aiming to evolve identity ownership and self sovereignty.
Applications
Applications refer to the primary means through which users interact and engage with the platform. They form the top layer of the technology stack and are the most visible and user-friendly aspect of the network. These applications provide the interface through which users can publish content, interact with others and engage in active discussions.
Phaver is a decentralized social media platform designed for mobile devices and built on the Lens social graph. It offers a user-friendly interface, including a unique gamification feature to increase engagement and reward users and content creators. The platform features a staking mechanism, allowing users to stake tokens on content they appreciate, earning more tokens as the post gains popularity. Additionally, it offers a premium channel option for content creators to pay points to publish posts, but still have the opportunity to earn back those points and more if the post receives attention and users stake on it. This creates a system to incentivize and reward both the top content creators and the top curators. Additionally, it helps to reduce spam since premium-earning posts have a cost associated with them. At the time of writing, Phaver has a current active user base of 100k, an average of 25K weekly posts and around 3k mirrorings weekly.
Tooling
Tooling encompasses the various software tools used to build social media applications such as smart contract frameworks, SDKs and front-end developer tools. They play a vital role in enabling developers to create user-friendly and efficient front-end interfaces, thereby improving the overall user experience.
Mem Protocol is an example of this where it provides tools for decentralized identity management and an interoperable social graph, allowing for more expressive representations and efficient coordination. It creates a universal framework for users and apps to exchange data, with standardized data specifications and a common set of operators to give individuals control over their private information. Developers can embed Mem into their applications to provide a more personalized experience across the web, as a user-driven alternative to web tracking.
Messaging
Messaging refers to the ability for users to communicate with each other in a decentralized manner, without relying on centralized servers. Messages are stored on a decentralized network of computers and enable more privacy and security as they are not stored in a single location. Another use case which messages enable are crucial to social media, such as micropayments from one user to another as a way to incentivize content creation and engagement.
Extensible message transport protocol (XMTP) is a communication protocol integrated into XMTP network, that aims for progressive decentralization and seamless and secure messaging.
Some of the ways that developers can enhance their applications using the XMTP SDK include allowing more user-to-user direct messages, app-to-user notifications and creator-to-community announcements. The project’s objective is to eliminate the central ownership of user profiles and content when using the internet to communicate. Users can utilize their wallet addresses on various applications to communicate with their peers.
Risks associated with decentralized social media
We have highlighted the ways blockchains help to create ways for users to have more security over their data and for content creators to monetize their content via direct ownership. While we are excited by the new window of opportunity that blockchain unlocks for social, there are certainly also limitations which could hamper the adoption growth.
1. Network effects
Social media platforms reach the masses through network effects. Traditional social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram thrive off of each incremental increase in users as the more the platform is able to reach broader ends of a social network, the greater the network and platform gets. This also causes higher user retention since people are already connected on the network and switching platforms incurs high costs.
For decentralized social media platforms to succeed, they must offer something new and exciting that will entice people to want to try the platform and tell their friends about it. Only then will they be able to garner mass users that go beyond just cryptocurrency enthusiasts or people on Crypto Twitter (often referred to as CT).
Question: Why will people leave Twitter/ Instagram to use your new platform?
2. Strength and flexibility of the incumbents
Crypto native developers are not the only ones trying to incorporate blockchain technology into their social media platform. Many centralized and traditional platforms seem to be agile enough to integrate blockchain technology into their infrastructure.
Take Twitter for example, in 2021 they rolled out support for NFTs, allowing users to connect their wallets and display NFTs as profile pictures (PFP). This was differentiated by using a hexagonal shape upon clicking the PFP more information about the NFT could be brought up. Twitter also announced plans to create a decentralized social network in the future under project Bluesky. Similarly, Instagram announced support for NFTs on their platform where users can post NFTs directly to Instagram by connecting their on-chain wallet.
The nimbleness of these traditional platforms, coupled with the massive user base pose a serious threat to the up and coming decentralized social media platforms. These incumbents already have current users whom they can port over easily to any new platform that is built by them.
Question: How will newer social media platforms compete against incumbents with strong moats?
3. Product-market fit
Product-market fit refers to the method where teams find a good market with a product/ service capable of satisfying an undeserved need in said market. Before teams decide to build a project, they should do a comprehensive market research to understand if enough people are willing to use/ switch over from existing solutions. This is to determine if the project has enough of a market to sustain itself and generate revenue. As the age old saying goes: “not everything that can be decentralized, must be decentralized”.
With regards to decentralizing social media platforms, these projects need to answer hard pressing questions such as: Do users really want to own their data? How much do users care about the predatory practices of traditional social media companies? Are the concerns of current social media platforms significant enough to cause users to look for alternatives? There is a tradeoff between convenience/usability and decentralization. Some users may opine that as long as the data shared to the social platforms is not too intrusive (e.g. social identity number, bank accounts, credit card numbers, residency address), they are okay with revealing trivial information about themselves.
Question: What is the increment benefit of decentralized social media platforms that is significant enough for people to switch over from incumbents?
4. Scalability issues
Scalability issues exist on two frontiers. While decentralized social media networks promise security (through blockchain technology), user experience is harmed if they operate on a blockchain with low transaction speed and throughput. This is particularly true if the application is built on Ethereum mainnet at its current state where it has notoriously been known to have slow transactions during peak seasons. Imagine users having to wait 5-10 minutes for their posts to go live on the blockchain, or waiting 20 minutes to upload a video just because the network is congested.
Social media platforms require larger data storage due to the large amount of data generated by users daily through posts, uploading images and streaming videos. Current iterations of decentralized storage servers such as Filecoin, Arweave or IPFS are not able to beat the likes of Amazon Web Services which is more efficient. Using AWS for decentralized social media platforms does not make sense since there will be no differentiation to the traditional incumbents. Thus, it will require a significant effort to ensure these decentralized networks are secure and reliable.
Question: Can decentralized servers scale sufficiently to support the data needs of decentralized social media networks?
5. Censorship resistant can be a double-edged sword
On traditional social media platforms, posts or videos that violate the guidelines set by the platform and deemed offensive will be removed from the site. Repeated offenders may also be deplatformed and banned entirely. Although this means that the platform has full reigns over what can and cannot be posted, it significantly reduces explicit/ hateful content that may be harmful/ offensive to some users. Additionally, a post or video is easily deletable with a single click of a button that erases the content from the site forever. This cannot be done on decentralized platforms if they want to be censorship resistant to ensure total freedom of expression.
Moreover, since content posted on decentralized social media sites are on the blockchain which is immutable in nature, users’ ability to control your online activity is curtailed and erasing their digital footprint becomes extremely difficult. This has the potential to harm people’s reputation in the future should they post controversial content on a whim.
Question: How will projects balance the need for censorship resistance to maintain free speech while policing dangerous content?
6. Loss of competitive advantage
The idea of establishing a moat can be found by taking reference to the seminal research by Eric Steven Raymond in his research “The Cathedral and The Bazaar” which distinguishes between two distinct styles of development:
- Cathedral: software is carefully and quietly crafted by individuals within an isolated and centralized team
- Bazaar: similar to how a bazaar is in real life, development is open-sourced in a miraculously chaotic manner which describes many decentralized projects
The reasons why traditional social media companies can grow into what they are today is because each platform guards users’ data without sharing it with other platforms. If one had the same data (for example: friends, content, data) across all platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, each company would not have any advantage over the other due to the cross pollination of information. They are what Eric termed as Cathedrals where development is behind a high walled garden that is not observable from the outside.
On the other hand, blockchain projects are mainly open sourced for the public to view the code behind all the smart contracts deployed. Take projects built on Lens Protocol for example, where it is an open and decentralized social graph that any application can build on top of. Because applications use the same social graph, data is allowed to be ported to each other in a seamless manner allowing users and developers more collaborative opportunities. Eric terms this as the Bazaar due to the open development method where a myriad of contributors are able to tinker with the source code without central control.
In Bazaars, establishing a strong competitive advantage over other open source projects is extremely difficult as the same code can be used to spin off a similar project. Moreover, since social identities can be ported between different applications (built on the same social graph), decentralized social media platforms may run into the predicament of non-sticky users and low retention rates.
Question: How do decentralized social media platforms form strong competitive advantages over their peers and attract loyal users at the same time?
7. Tokens and NFTs can potentially alter user behavior
The misalignment of incentives between users and an application that integrates tokens and NFTs can be easily seen in the blockchain gaming ecosystem as it changes the psychological aspects of users. Tokens and NFTs are monetary incentives that attract speculators and mercenary capital who are motivated to extract value from the system and often do not care about the success of the game/ project. This was evident when the whole play-2-earn (P2E) bubble burst as people realized that P2E was just yield farming disguised as gaming – inflationary tokens of games experienced a death spiral after a short price pump when holders started to dump the tokens.
Similarly, decentralized social media networks that integrate monetary incentives from inception will potentially face the same problem if they decide to adopt the same strategy. This is especially true if the token has poor utility and no proper economics are built within the token design. Instead of focusing on tokens/ NFTs from the get-go, these projects should strive to optimize for a loyal community and strong following before deciding to introduce financial incentives.
Question: How can decentralized social media platforms balance between providing an avenue for content creators to monetize their content while preventing value extraction out of the system?
8. Onboarding hurdles – poor UI/UX
Current iterations of decentralized apps are not fine tuned enough for the average retail user to understand and be willing to use on a daily basis. It will not bode well with users if they have to navigate clunky wallets to use decentralized applications or navigate the complicated world of tokens/ NFTs. To onboard the next billion users onto decentralized social media, projects need to simplify and eliminate complicated processes.
Question: What is the appropriate balance between decentralization concerns and ease of use?
What will help speed up decentralized social media adoption
Thus far, we have discussed the potential advantages that cryptocurrency and blockchain can bring to decentralized social media such as better data security and a more equitable distribution of earnings for content creators.
However, we are also conscious of the factors that could potentially hinder the growth rate of these applications due to scalability and competitive advantage issues. What matters next is how to onboard the next generation of users onto these decentralized social platforms and below are the factors we think will help expedite that.
1. Ease of onboarding
A no brainer. Current iterations of decentralized applications are not user friendly and unintuitive for new (and old) users which mitigates adoption drastically. Compared to an email/ phone number sign-up on traditional social media, crypto applications often require users to have an on-chain wallet that is clunky with seed phrases and private keys and a good understanding of crypto (blockchain, tokens and NFTs).
Gamified features and sleek UI/UX with easy to use features are definitely integral to the success of social platforms. A good case study would be to reference TikTok, the short-form video sharing platform that took the world by storm in 2019 with its easy to use interface and fun platform. TikTok is very different from the likes of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram where trends are more prevalent on TikTok compared to other platforms. Additionally, the platform allows for more creative expression where sometimes the most ludicrous videos become a sensation overnight.
2. Proper crypto education
The term “crypto” and everything related to it (blockchain, tokens, NFTs) are often associated with scams and rugpulls due to the myriad of bad actors in the ecosystem which often is highlighted by traditional news portals. This makes potential users shun the space entirely as they are constantly bombarded with these news before even learning about the space.
Proper education is therefore integral to newcomers to ensure they have the proper grasp on the cryptocurrency landscape so that they understand the purpose behind blockchains, tokens and the need for decentralization. We see projects such as RabbitHole trying to educate the masses to be crypto native enough to navigate the various decentralized applications.
Dumbed-down terms also should be used whenever possible to prevent overcomplication. For example using the term ‘digital collectibles’ instead of NFTs which was what Reddit did when they launched their genesis NFTs.
3. Privacy
Since blockchains are transparent and available for the public to view, ensuring the safety of users’ data is paramount to ensure better anonymity and privacy protection. This is where two innovations come into play:
- Decentralized identity (DID) allows each user to be identifiable with a distinct identifier that has a cryptographic element to authenticate and verify user credentials on-chain. It aims to give people official proof of identity and complete ownership and control over their identities in a secure and user-friendly way.
- Zero-Knowledge identity Proof (ZKP) refers to the authentication process where a user proves to the other that they own a specific piece of data that establishes ownership of an identity. The prover is able to verify the required data through ZK technology without providing any other sensitive or personal data.
By using both solutions, projects can help to ensure users retain full control over their personal information.
4. Safety and security
Linking on-chain wallets to social platforms to feature NFTs or social profiles can be a double edged sword; while it opens up new opportunities for collaboration, there are also security risks such as hacks and scams. And as discussed, current iteration of on-chain wallets are also very complicated and do not provide users seamless access to decentralized applications.
Improving the issue of wallet integration is the first step to tackle one of the highest barriers of entry to decentralized applications. Next is the linkage between social accounts and on-chain assets/ profiles which needs to be done in a trustless and secure manner. Only when wallets are free from risks such as hacks and scams will people be willing enough to use decentralized applications.
Conclusion
While we are optimistic about the opportunity of decentralizing social media networks, we remain level headed and cautious about its trajectory due to the concerns presented above. It is without a doubt that blockchain technology opens up new opportunities for content creators to monetise their data through financialisation of their influence while users enjoy better autonomy of their data. However, finding a product market fit will take some time due to the stickiness of users on current social platforms and crypto applications at its current iteration are not user friendly compared to its traditional counterparts.
Ecosystems grow because of network effects where people start talking to their friends about it and the subsequent increase in the number of participants improves the value of the service as a whole. With blockchains being open sourced and permissionless, anyone is free to fork the codebase of an existing project and make improvements to it to lure users to the new platform. Moreover, social graphs like Lens Protocol allow users to seamlessly migrate from one social platform to another since their data (followers, posts, personal information) is transferable if they are on the same graph. These two aspects make it harder for projects to gain strong network effects and a competitive moat against one another, instead providing users more autonomy to decide on the application of their choice since the cost of exit is miniscule.
Decentralized social media platforms thus echo the sentiments of crypto/ blockchains of being accessible by anyone and anywhere with no discrimination or censorship. This is the true value that these platforms have over their traditional counterparts – giving the freedom of choice to its users.
This article was written by Nikos and Ash, both of whom sit on the investment team and constantly look at new projects in the decentralized social media network ecosystem. We are currently still deploying capital into projects we find interesting, so please reach out to us at @nketh7 or @ahboyash on Telegram if you are building something cool! Special thanks to Justin (UOB Venture Management), Alice (Foresight Ventures), and Joonatan and Tomi (Phaver) for their input.