Decentralized Social Media Dapps

In this segment: Decentralized Social Media Dapps, why use them instead of the traditional ones and their advantages.

Nowadays, social media platforms have become part and parcel of our lives. However, you may be wondering what Dapps are best for social media. Well, look no further! In this blog, we address some of the well-known social media in the web3 ecosystem.

1. Rekt.news

Rekt.news calls itself The dark web of DeFi journalism. Here you can publish articles without worrying about being censored out in the process. Rekt functions on the Ethereum blockchain and serves as a public platform for anonymous authors.

To publish anything on Rekt, you need valid stories, proof, and facts that hold ground to what you are trying to claim. In short, there is a content regulation that supports only quality and not straight-up false stories and low-quality journalism.

2. Mirror.xyz

Mirror.xyz is a social media blogging platform built on Ethereum Blockchain. Here they use $Write as a utility token which is required to publish on the mirror platform. A user can create Mirror Publication, crowdfunds, and auctions.

Joining mirror as a publisher is a bit challenging. Here you have to compete in a weekly race where you write a brief on the given topic and others vote for you or your content and based on votes, it is determined who gets the publisher access next.

3. Peepeth

Peepeth is your alternative to Twitter. It runs on the Ethereum blockchain and stores all the user data on the same. Here you can post peeps (tweets), acknowledge someone’s content by giving them votes and pinning it on your profile.

Furthermore, users can earn tips in ether for posting content. One key feature here is that you can see legit profiles as they can be linked to social media accounts through the blockchain.

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Decentralized Social Media Vs. Traditional Social Media

With the advancement in Blockchain scaling solutions, all the prior fuss on more user onboarding now seems to be void. It’s time to acknowledge the speedy and privacy-focused era of user engagement.

Central Authority: A barrier in user experience

Many things could go wrong with centralized infrastructure. We generally see a notable bias inclined towards the gains of controlling authority. It further hinders user experience in many ways.

We are not here to defame any entity in particular but to analyze the missing puzzle by solving the challenges and drawing innovation.

Algorithm Abuse & Data Privacy:

The problem with algorithms is not that they are inherently bad, but that they are so useful that we take them for granted. Sometimes they work really well, and we have to thank the giants for their millions of hours of work. But in the vast majority of cases, algorithms do a poor job of what they are supposed to do.

This involves a number of obligations. Search & content manipulation is the influential stretches of concern.

We all have seen this quite a few times now. Remember how a certain analytics firm, with the help of a social media giant, was involved in manipulating elections of a country? See! Now that’s a huge scandal.

Similarly, there’s more manipulation involved to make a user spend more time than average and consume content as per the trend that benefits the platform they are surfing.

Manipulated Content Discovery and Less Reach:

Content Discovery works on trends, relevancy, and a host of other factors. But somehow, there’s a lot of distortion mixed with regular discovery. Distortion is in the form of malicious or promoted content. There’s no definite ratio or a value to which this content pops up. It’s always directly proportional concerning the controlling entity’s propaganda or benefits.

Similarly, the reach on social networks is declining. With the rise of paid reach/boost and other advertisement options, the general audience suffers from limited reach and even misses on content/updates vital to them.

Decentralized Authority : Upgrading the user experience:

With decentralization in place, the manipulation for an entity’s gains fades out, resulting in a better user experience. Here no one, in particular, can take core decisions as most of the dapps follow a community first approach.

Algorithms / Processes are Open Source / Community Governed:

Algorithm abuse doesn’t exist here as most of these platforms are open source or community governed. With community governance in place, it’s tough for anyone to manipulate or use loopholes in the existing system to promote any content without user consent.

Data privacy is duly maintained, plus most of the time, you don’t need to provide that much data compared to traditional apps; additionally, users are consent fully track for advertisement and other content targeting purposes.

Did you know that The Dapp List’s core mechanism is based on community governance?

Relevant Content Discovery and Maximum Reach:

Content discovery is bang on most of the time, again for the same reasons as the content consumed here is mainly aligned with the user’s interest and not the platforms.

With less clutter of promoted content in any form, it’s sure that a user will gain maximum potential reach. Here chances of them missing any necessary updates from their friends and following are low.

Summing Up:

Efforts are made on both sides to curb Miss information and malicious content. But significance here is that the centralized environment generally works for its own benefits and harms user experience in the process.

Furthermore, most of the dapps incentivize their audience for engagement which is absent in centralized systems. Moreover, user’s content is used to make money, while in dapps, it is the opposite as users are rewarded for their content.

Further Reading / Sources: https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_facebook_s_role_in_brexit_and_the_threat_to_democracy/transcript

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-organic-reach-declining

https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81254224

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120935102

https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80117542

https://medium.com/adamant-im/how-decentralized-blockchain-messenger-works-b9932834a639