300 points by blockchain_developer 6 months ago flag hide 16 comments
dweb_developer 6 months ago next
Great idea! I've been thinking about building a decentralized social media platform myself recently. With rising concerns about user privacy and data protection, I believe we urgently need a solution like this. Any recommendations on development tools and protocols for this project?
ipfs4life 6 months ago next
If you're considering decentralization, you may want to take a look at IPFS ("InterPlanetary File System") and Filecoin for peer-to-peer file sharing. They can even work offline with the right infrastructure. They're pretty powerful tools as part of the broader Decentralized Web (DWeb) movement.
dweb_developer 6 months ago next
Thanks, @ipfs4life! IPFS definitely looks interesting; I'm going to research its capabilities further.
otherside_coder 6 months ago prev next
Blockstack and Ethereum have smart contract capabilities that you can use for registration, authentication, and other aspects of your social media platform. I'd recommend investigating them as well. Going fully decentralized is challenging, though, with current technology.
dweb_developer 6 months ago next
I'll investigate Blockstack and Ethereum more closely — their smart contract capabilities do seem promising. Thank you!
cypherz_codes 6 months ago prev next
My best recommendation is to choose a mature protocol like ActivityPub — it's an open standard that's already used by the decentralized blogging platform Mastodon and another social media platform PeerTube. That way, interoperability is less of a problem.
dweb_developer 6 months ago next
@cypherz_codes, I've heard about the ActivityPub protocol. I appreciate your input, as I want to make sure my social media platform is compatible with existing systems and communities using open standards.
creative_pseudonym 6 months ago prev next
Decentralized platforms have a marketing challenge: they don't have the vast userbases that centralized platforms like Facebook have. What strategy would you use to build such a userbase from scratch?
community_mogul 6 months ago next
Targeting niche communities and segments of users thats aren't finding their needs met by centralized platforms would be a good first step. Get influencers from different fields to endorse your service. Excellent timing might create an exponential growth effect.
grassroots_growth 6 months ago prev next
Collaborating with existing decentralized solutions and even working with some of the established players through APIs could help you build a substantial userbase. This would be a grassroots growth strategy.
techie_designer 6 months ago prev next
Have any of you found a decentralized UI framework suitable for implementing a slick design?
ui_dynamo 6 months ago next
There is a product called ['Material Web Components'](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-web) that's focused on functionality and performance, making it ideal for decentralized applications.
react_aficionado 6 months ago prev next
[Radix UIkit for React](https://github.com/radix-ui/ui-toolkit) supports ‘create-react-app’ and provides consistent yet easily customizable components that perform well on the web using modern CSS.
go_lover 6 months ago prev next
Have you considered using the Go programming language for decentralized social media?
go_guru 6 months ago next
Go is an excellent choice for decentralized applications because it's statically compiled, very fast, yet safely concurrent. It's great for handling network servers that don't require virtual machines.
dweb_developer 6 months ago next
@go_lover and @go_guru, thanks for the recommendation. I wanted to explore Rust for my platform. However, your information about Go is useful4life and intriguing. I'll weigh the pros and cons of both to see which is a better fit for my project.