Hacker News with Generative AI: Decentralization

'Social media should be built on protocols, not platforms' says Mastodon CEO (techcrunch.com)
“Social media should be built on protocols, not platforms,” Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko said in an interview for TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. “And people should be able to choose freely between different platforms and also be able to move between them.”  
Social Media, Decentralization, Open Source, Technology, Platforms
30 points by MRPockets 2 days ago | 5 comments
Billionaire-Proofing the Internet (pluralistic.net)
Billionaire-proofing the internet: Scolding people for choosing popular services is no way to build a popular movement.
Internet, Technology, Social Justice, Censorship, Decentralization
26 points by rbanffy 3 days ago | 6 comments
Mastodon's founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg (arstechnica.com)
Mastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—
Social Media, Decentralization, Non-profit Organizations
8 points by gpi 4 days ago | 2 comments
Meta admits it deleted links to decentralized Instagram competitor Pixelfed (engadget.com)
Meta appeared to be blocking links to Pixelfed, a decentralized photo-sharing platform, on Facebook, according to both users on Bluesky and 404 Media.
Social Media, Decentralization, Meta, Instagram
22 points by shakna 4 days ago | 3 comments
An Attmept to Billionaire-proof social media wih Bluesky's protocol (fortune.com)
Hollywood stars and top technologists want to billionaire-proof social media using Bluesky’s protocol
Social Media, Technology, Protocol, Elon Musk, Decentralization
5 points by laurex 4 days ago | 0 comments
Mastodon's CEO and creator is handing control to a new nonprofit organization (theverge.com)
Decentralized social network Mastodon has announced plans to transfer its ownership to a new nonprofit entity.
Social Media, Decentralization, Nonprofits, Mastodon
23 points by ossusermivami 5 days ago | 3 comments
Facebook blocks links to Pixelfed, a federated Instagram alternative (bsky.app)
Social Media, Privacy, Decentralization
178 points by boramalper 5 days ago | 66 comments
Defederation from Threads (hachyderm.io)
Hello Hachyderm! In alignment with our prior posts about inter-instance federation, and Threads in particular, Hachyderm has defederated with Threads due to their changes in moderation policy as of the publication of this post.
Social Media, Decentralization, Moderation Policy
26 points by healsdata 7 days ago | 3 comments
Decentralized Syndication – The Missing Internet Protocol (tautvilas.lt)
The Internet is decentralized by design. It came into being not at once, but in parts. New protocols were added on top of previous ones, with each new protocol extending and improving functionality of the global network. TCP and IP protocols were built in the 1970s, then came SMTP and DNS in the 1980s. 1990s gave us probably the best known HTTP protocol that delivers the visual experience of the web.
Internet, Technology, Protocols, Decentralization
138 points by brisky 8 days ago | 93 comments
Why Bluesky Is Not Ready for Marketing (ghost.io)
BlueSky has been a growing platform, particularly as turbulence continues at X (formerly Twitter). X’s implementation of charging for its API, the requirement of a Blue Mark subscription for basic functionality, and the controversial political stances taken by the company’s leadership have not worked in X’s favor, resulting in nearly an 80% loss in value. Enter BlueSky.
Social Media, Twitter, Decentralization, Technology, Business
9 points by bingewave 14 days ago | 1 comments
Digital Homeownership (muni.town)
You deserve a home on the World Wide Web that’s built to keep you safe; a magical place for virtual living that‘s yours for life, existing in a sociable web.
Web3, Decentralization, Digital Ownership, Community
15 points by erlend_sh 15 days ago | 3 comments
BlogScroll – An open directory of personal sites and blogs (blogscroll.com)
This project was created by Den Delimarsky in an effort to bring attention to little 🌱 digital gardens and ✨ personal corners of the internet that people maintain outside the "Big Tech" walled gardens. We're all better off maintaining homegrown corners of the Internet.
Web Development, Blogging, Digital Gardens, Decentralization
276 points by mahirsaid 15 days ago | 81 comments
Be a property owner and not a renter on the internet (den.dev)
The year is 2025. The internet in the shape that we’ve known it in the early 2000s is no longer there. Or, not quite in the shape that we’ve seen it before. This is not just plain nostalgia talking - the vibrant ecosystem of blogs, feeds, personal sites, and forums has been usurped by a few mega-concentrated players.
Web Development, Internet Culture, Decentralization
330 points by dend 15 days ago | 257 comments
Show HN: Decentralized Email and Storage (privacyeverywhere.net)
Decentralization, Email, Storage, Privacy
10 points by userisatester 18 days ago | 6 comments
Bluesky and Enshittification (pluralistic.net)
I would like to use Bluesky. They've done a bunch of seriously interesting technical work on moderation and ranking that I truly admire, and I've got lots of friends there who really enjoy it.
Social Media, Technology, Decentralization
12 points by mozarella 19 days ago | 14 comments
Permissionless. A Manifesto for the Future of Everything (permissionlessbook.com)
A Manifesto for the Future of Everything
Permissionless, Manifesto, Future, Technology, Decentralization
35 points by MrVandemar 21 days ago | 16 comments
Re: Re: Bluesky and Decentralization (dustycloud.org)
A few weeks ago I wrote How decentralized is Bluesky really?, a blogpost which received far more attention than I expected on the fediverse and Bluesky both.
Social Media, Decentralization, Bluesky
11 points by davexunit 32 days ago | 0 comments
The open social web is the future of the internet. Here's why I'm excited (werd.io)
The open social web puts control back in your hands. Unlike big social media platforms, it’s not run by a single company — it’s made up of independent, connected communities where you decide how and with whom you interact. It respects your privacy, avoids intrusive ads, and gives you the freedom to truly own your online experience. It’s like the internet used to be: open, personal, and community-focused.
Privacy, Social Media, Decentralization, Web3, Open Source
11 points by benwerd 36 days ago | 2 comments
Mastodon vs. Bluesky is a new standards war (neelc.org)
With Bluesky’s apparent rise after the elections, I’ve heard a lot of criticism about Bluesky on the Fediverse. I’m starting to feel the Mastodon vs Bluesky war is a new standards war, one that is analogous to the cellular standards war.
Social Media, Standards, Technology, Decentralization
7 points by neelc 42 days ago | 0 comments
FBI Seizure of Mastodon Server Data Is a Wakeup Call (2023) (eff.org)
We’re in an exciting time for users who want to take back control from major platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, this new environment comes with challenges and risks for user privacy, so we need to get it right and make sure networks like the Fediverse and Bluesky are mindful of past lessons.
Privacy, Social Media, Law Enforcement, Decentralization
7 points by busymom0 45 days ago | 0 comments
Reply on Bluesky and Decentralization (whtwnd.com)
This is a reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber's thoughtful (and widely read) "How decentralized is Bluesky really?" blog post.
Social Media, Decentralization, Bluesky
43 points by Kye 52 days ago | 36 comments
Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter (mashable.com)
Bluesky, the formerly Jack Dorsey-affiliated, decentralized answer to Elon Musk's X is closing the gap with Threads at breakneck speed.
Social Media, Twitter, Decentralization, Meta
301 points by gnabgib 54 days ago | 336 comments
Build network societies, not network states (combinationsmag.com)
Balaji Srinivasan aspires to be the John Locke of the Digital Age. His book, The Network State (TNS), puts forth a new social contract enabled by “Web3 technology,” centered on blockchains. In a sentence, he defines the network state (NS) as a startup country—“a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.”
Politics, Technology, Decentralization, Social Contracts, Web3
62 points by laurex 54 days ago | 33 comments
Petnames: A humane approach to secure, decentralized naming (spritely.institute)
Names must be human-readable in order to be widely used. Unfortunately, while DIDs and Tor .onion addresses are decentralized and globally unique, they are not human readable. How can we build user interfaces that real users might actually use? In this paper we provide an overview of petname systems, a way of mapping human readable names to cryptographically secure names, and describe changes to two user interface designs that we believe that are compatible with intuitive user expectations.
Decentralization, Cryptography, Security
142 points by todsacerdoti 55 days ago | 48 comments
How decentralized is Bluesky really? (dustycloud.org)
Recently due to various events (namely a lot of people getting off of X-Twitter), Bluesky has become a lot more popular, and excitement for its underlying protocol, ATProto, is growing.
Decentralization, Social Media, Bluesky, ATProto
87 points by todsacerdoti 57 days ago | 16 comments
AI and the Last Mile 2: Subsidiarity (hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com)
In AI and the Last Mile, I focused on what algorithms can't capture, local expertise and human knowledge. Long before ChatGPT began striving to understand local context, the Catholic Church’s principle of subsidiarity offered a rule that was simple but profound: push decisions to the lowest effective level. Let local experts take responsibility.
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy, Local Governance, Decentralization
42 points by HR01 57 days ago | 6 comments
Bluesky and Enshittification (pluralistic.net)
I would like to use Bluesky. They've done a bunch of seriously interesting technical work on moderation and ranking that I truly admire, and I've got lots of friends there who really enjoy it.
Social Media, Decentralization, Technology
16 points by nabla9 60 days ago | 4 comments
The rise of Bluesky, and the splintering of social (technologyreview.com)
You may have read that it was a big week for Bluesky.
Social Media, Decentralization, Technology, Twitter Alternatives
15 points by billybuckwheat 60 days ago | 2 comments
Bluesky's success is a rejection of big tech's operating system (bloodinthemachine.com)
Social Media, Technology, Decentralization
6 points by mooreds 60 days ago | 0 comments
Thoughts on Bluesky (canolcer.com)
Let’s talk about Bluesky, the decentralized microblogging application that’s currently eating Twitter and Mastodon’s lunch. Or so some say.
Social Media, Twitter, Decentralization, Mastodon
39 points by shafyy 60 days ago | 49 comments