Hacker News with Generative AI: Decentralization

UK Online Safety Act template for Fediverse instances (onlinesafetyact.co.uk)
Again, a major change: I am not confident a conclusion that my own, personal, self-hosted, Mastodon instance is out of scope of the OSA.

Online Safety, Legislation, Social Media, Decentralization

4 points by pmlnr 15 days ago | 0 comments

Iroh – P2P that just works (iroh.computer)
Iroh is a library for building on direct connections between devices, putting more control in the hands of your users.

Peer-to-Peer, Decentralization, Networking, User Control, Privacy

40 points by mudkipdev 23 days ago | 6 comments

The Fediverse Isn't the Future. It's the Present We've Been Denied (joanwestenberg.com)
For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” every creative work—locked behind closed doors, and you don’t have the keys.

Social Media, Decentralization, Internet, Ownership, Technology

7 points by doener 26 days ago | 0 comments

Bluesky: Network topology, polarization, and algorithmic curation (plos.org)
Bluesky is a novel and decentralized social media site that opened up in an invite-only beta release in February 2023.

Social Media, Decentralization, Algorithms, Network Analysis

4 points by doener 29 days ago | 1 comments

The web was always about redistribution of power. Let's bring that back (werd.io)

Web Development, Decentralization, Internet History

45 points by benwerd 31 days ago | 14 comments

Decentralized Naming and Certificate Authority (handshake.org)
Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root DNS naming zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems.

Decentralization, Blockchain, DNS, Certificate Authorities, Security

17 points by nkjoep 44 days ago | 1 comments

Tumblr to join the Fediverse after WordPress migration completes (techcrunch.com)
Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen.

Social Media, Decentralization, Open Source, Blogging Platforms

118 points by Fitik 50 days ago | 83 comments

We need network societies, not network states (2024) (cip.org)
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.”

Blockchain, Social Contract, Political Philosophy, Technology, Decentralization

87 points by tomrod 56 days ago | 59 comments

Push Notifications for Decentralized Services (unifiedpush.org)
How mobile push notifications currently bring centralization to decentralized services, and how we can avoid it, even for mainstream configurations.

Decentralization, Mobile Development, Push Notifications

164 points by notmine1337 60 days ago | 52 comments

First Look: Loops, by Pixelfed – Decentralised TikTok Competitor (2024) (wedistribute.org)
Over the past few weeks, Loops has opened up its public beta to early adopters and enthusiasts looking to put the platform through its paces.

Social Media, Decentralization, TikTok, Beta Testing

186 points by evolve2k 67 days ago | 138 comments

Vision of a New World – Design Issues (2024) (w3.org)
This article envisions a transformative world enabled by the Solid protocol, a decentralized system for personal data storage and sharing.

Decentralization, Web3, Design, Personal Data

11 points by todsacerdoti 71 days ago | 5 comments

Powering your Hugo blog with Bluesky Comments (kau.sh)
Twitter’s change in ownership triggered a cascade of events birthing various social media clones. It’s been tricky to decide which network to invest time and energy in. I’m not an influencer, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought having a presence on social media wasn’t important.

Social Media, Blogging, Open Source, Decentralization, Hugo

7 points by wmat 71 days ago | 1 comments

Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook? (ycombinator.com)
I want to move our local communities off Facebook and onto our own platform.

Social Media, Local Communities, Decentralization

407 points by recvonline 71 days ago | 384 comments

We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky (technologyreview.com)
If we don’t act soon, our online world will continue to be run at the whim of capricious billionaires.

Social Media, Censorship, Online Privacy, Decentralization

262 points by srameshc 73 days ago | 306 comments

Skylight on Bluesky an atproto alternative to TikTok (bsky.app)

Social Media, Alternative Platforms, Decentralization

4 points by momeara 74 days ago | 0 comments

ATProto and the ownership of identity (anirudh.fi)
atproto is very exciting to me as it’s the perfect abstraction between the identity and user data layer, and the application layer. Compare that to the fediverse and some striking differences become apparent.

Identity, Decentralization, Social Media, Web3, Technology

109 points by icy 74 days ago | 131 comments

'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 77 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 78 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 78 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 78 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 79 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 79 days ago | 3 comments

Facebook blocks links to Pixelfed, a federated Instagram alternative (bsky.app)

Social Media, Privacy, Decentralization

179 points by boramalper 79 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 82 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

142 points by brisky 82 days ago | 94 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 88 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 89 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 89 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.