All You Need To Know About Decentralized Social

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nonce Classic

10 min readJan 27, 2023

New “…Fi” in Town

With crypto markets starting 2023 with notable zest, alpha has been focused around the new kid — Decentralized Social. As if to prove winters were for building, these projects implementing SocialFi have been launching left and right attracting exponential growth. Hooked achieved over 2 million monthly active users in months, 100k+ profiles were minted on Lens Protocol just 8 months into launch and key influencers such as Ryan Selkis and Li Jin predicted the next big thing of 2023 to be Decentralized Social.

So, wtf is it? Here’s All You Need to Know About DeSoc.

Key Takeaways

The Web3 Social stack is built on fundamentally different foundations that can address Web2’s pain points — ownership, censorship, monetization etc. But its utility reaches beyond that.
Web2 giants (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) adding Web3 features (NFT, Crypto) will not serve as an alternative to DeSoc.
DeSoc introduces a new worldview where our social profiles are digital assets. DeSoc is not simply moving TradSoc on-chain.

Fundamentals: How is it built (What does a Open Social Stack look like)

The Web3 Social Stack can be generally understood by four layers.

First, the data layer. As the name suggests, on the data layer smart contracts record and execute transactions as well as archive and manage critical data content (IPFS, Arweave) — quite literally images, videos and text.
The second layer is the social primitive layer, on which the social graph is drawn. Here, the layout for basic data is structured to define the following components; individuals (users and identity-related profiles), their actions (comments, posts, followers etc.), and relationships/interactions (who follows who, assets they own).
The third layer houses algorithms, a core aspect of social media infrastructure that determines what content, ads and features should be recommended to you based on front-end collected data (views, scroll time etc.). At this stage, Web3 social integrates the use of wallets that allows users to transfer their data to any application of choice. Much like a passport, “wallets” become the foundation for a composable Web3 social profile.
Lastly, the application layer otherwise known as the front end, is what users will see. With an open social stack, multiple front ends can be built on the same algorithm meaning developers will be able to build on existing infrastructure and leverage already accumulated data on users — its open social graph. This layer will be the interface in which users will be able to contribute by providing data, and the layer in which users will interact with the underlying blockchain, storage protocols, and social primitives.

Why DeSoc?

This open nature of DeSoc creates an inherently different worldview from traditional social media (TradSoc) in areas we have begun to see major ramifications — namely

ownership, privacy and censorship.

Our understanding of sovereignty in these respects has been, quite frankly, sabotaged by major social media enterprises thus far. Take May 2022 as an example. Leading crypto youtube account Bankless was banned from youtube, for no apparent reason, losing more than 150k subscribers and 10k+ hours of content overnight. Although Youtube quickly restored the account as the news went viral on crypto Twitter, this isn’t a rare event nor a first-time “mistake”. Our current social platform landscape is designed to give complete authority to centralized entities to freely ban, terminate, close, delete, or suspend any content and creator leveraging their platform. With ownership entirely in the hands of the provider, every user agreeing to “User Service Agreement” and “Privacy Policy”, is indefinitely giving the platform the right to ban any arbitrary comment or content deemed “inappropriate”. This means opaque centralized entities with very few decision makers, are wielding power to directly filter and manipulate the content exposed to us on a daily basis.

Centralization Does Not Suffice

As more time passes we are witnessing that TradSoc’s top-down centralized operation cannot provide a sufficient solution to the autonomous and decentralized age we are shifting into.
e.g. Just three weeks ago, we saw Twitter allegedly hacked, resulting in a data breach and the personal information of 200million+ users compromised and sold in an online forum. Even putting aside the details of this event, it is irrefutable that one centralized entity holding sovereignty over accumulated data on millions is simply not sustainable in terms of security, morale, and privacy protection.

Not to mention TradSoc’s long history of getting caught dancing with the devil and sealing controversial deals with third parties.
e.g. Remember the infamous Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Scandal, where Facebook was accused of selling their digital targeting data (monitored data of user behavior) to manipulate public opinion in support of a certain political campaign — fun fact, the suit was only recently settled by Facebook’s parent company Meta for a whopping $725million.

Tradsoc exploiting users’ privacy by robust monitoring and acquisition of data on behavior will only run into deeper and more complex limitations as ownership, censorship and security become a prominent threat in our society.

*Enter Decentralized Social.

DeSoc is Built Different

As explored, Decentralized Social is built on an open social stack hence fundamentally different from TradSoc.

The layers are built intrinsically uncensorable, interoperable, and application features can be built on top of existing infrastructures permissionlessly.
Not only that, DeSoc is hardwired to be decentralized. This means DeSoc’s social graph, the relationships between participants, is decentralized with creators and consumers directly interacting with created content (P2P sharing) and at the ground level distributed among multiple blockchain nodes.
In the DeSoc landscape, data lies in the hands of the end users making data leakage or sharing of information with third parties self-sovereign minimizing exploitation.
This self-sovereign identity returns maximum privacy to users and extends the liberty of users to find the application, community culture and policy that best suits their niche.
DeSoc’s immense interoperability and data portability open new worlds of social experience.
DeSoc has harnessed immense Web3 potential including; on-chain social graphs, wallet-based reputation, being multi-protocol friendly, NFT marketplaces and even token economy into one trustless, permissionless social hub.

But it doesn’t stop here.

A key highlight of DeSoc that differs vastly from TradSoc is its integration of SocialFi and token incentives.

By accelerating adoption of P2P monetization, cross-chain interactions, user-owned content and interoperability between dApps, incentives are aligned between users, content and the community. Alongside SocialFi, the implementation of governance tokens further elevates the utility of one’s profile and community-driven development within the ecosystem.

Example: Lens Protocol
Lens Protocol, born of Aave, has literally created a world of DeSoc. On Lens your profile, the social graph that you draw (relationships) are stored on-chain as NFTs. These profiles translate onto any dApp across the Lens ecosystem and is connected directly to your crypto wallet. The creator themselves own their own data and profile and can carry their followers to another app seamlessly. For example, one of the largest dApps built on Lens Protocol, Phaver is home to +100k active users and has harnessed this “balanced value exchange” by integrating a dual-token economy model similar to many play-to-earn games. Phaver promotes value exchange by rewarding genuine content with tokens and implementing tried and tested Web2 patterns such as membership content, add-free premium etc to boost token utility. User behavior is accumulated through topics funneled in the app rather than exploiting private messages or tracking user behavior, and brands can use native tokens for advertisement thus increasing liquidity, utility and can even alleviate pressure for creators to find their own partnerships.

More examples:
Not to mention composable dApps such as, Lenster who recently announced token gating for posts and comments, Farcaster still in beta but quickly gaining traction for being “sufficiently decentralized”, Mastodon a Germany-based microblogging platform similar to Twitter that operates like email, and an entire decentralized army (decentralized medium, zoom, analytics, spotify..every social thing on the face of Earth) on DeSo.com.

(It must be noted that these projects are nowhere near perfection in comparison to Web2 social network services. Nonetheless their developments — successful or not — are noteworthy in understanding the current DeSoc landscape).

Web3 native social media platforms vs Meta

But TradSoc giants are also jumping onto the Web3 wagon with Twitter announcing NFT Twitter Tiles, Reddit releasing “collectibles” on Polygon and the biggest of them all, Facebook and Instagram rebirthing as Meta. In Mark Zuckerbug’s 2021 Founder’s Letter he explains the vision for Meta,

“Privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one. So do open standards and interoperability. This will require not just novel technical work — like supporting crypto and NFT projects in the community — but also new forms of governance. Most of all, we need to help build ecosystems so that more people have a stake in the future and can benefit not just as consumers but as creators.”

Sounds like everything DeSoc is preaching can be enhanced at Meta. Then will DeSoc just be a temporary springboard for centralized social networks to eventually parade in all its capital and userbase glory and take the undeserved crown?

Let’s say privacy, monetization, self-sovereignty, interoperability and community as inferred to in the letter, are all guaranteed by Meta to a Web3.0 standard. Since people are already familiar with centralized social and unfamiliar with the relatively cumbersome nature of dApps we’ve seen so far, the value proposition of DeSoc and its mass adoption may run into more hurdles than crypto natives expect. Honestly, even without listing the many, mannnyyyy existing challenges and limitations of DeSoc, TradSoc v2 seems much more promising at this point. But there are three key values that Web3.0 has introduced to our world and henceforth cannot compromise; Decentralization, Transparency and Trustlessness. Whether its Meta or any centralized tech giant for that matter, with individuals knowing the level of autonomy, community alignment and monetization that can be leveraged through Web3.0 dApps where users read, write and own wholly, DeSoc is destined to scale incomparably to TradSoc.

Not to mention, Meta has started the first week of 2023 paying +$410M in fines, in addition the $912M (publicly disclosed) fines it was handed in 2022 for processing personal data and violating EU data protection policies.

Taking an Ideological Approach

Taking a sidestep, consider this. Just this week U.S. public universities banned much loved TradSoc app TikTok from school-owned devices and campus wifi in the name of U.S. vs China security concerns. FBI Director Christopher Wray at Homeland Security Committee explained the decision as protection against the possibility that the “Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users” as skeptics argued that China’s broad security laws could potentially push TikTok (ByteDance) to share data with the Chinese government if asked. Though the majority of public opinion is berating this decision, the ban itself speaks volumes regarding the influence that social media has in wielding soft power.

As digital diplomacy becomes common practice, the authority that social media platforms hold in our world is unprecedented. With its soft power leverage, social media platforms have the power over enough data to set and remove political agendas, inform citizens on legitimate information and facilitate social debates. Quite simply, open your favorite social media app. Whatever its feed shows you will construct the way you perceive this world. Beyond what we imagine, social media has become a bridge for institutions and individuals, for societies and communities, and thus these social network dynamics are translating into international relations and social processes even within states. Then if authority is solely in the hands of these centralized and intricately dependent entities, when their profits and losses stop adding up, or when external political pressure strangles their operation, can users be protected? Would end-users even know what is happening?

Which is why…

Despite the many challenges DeSoc faces today, the technology itself holds real value. It is why DeSoc is more than creator economy, more than SocialFi and more than just a Web3 take on social media. DeSoc will accelerate the crypto-native worldview of digital assets, redefine user behavior acquisition and social graphs, and a new generation of DeSoc natives will set the standard for virtual interaction. Trusting DeSoc’s underlying value, and waiting for a front-runner that will catalyze mass adoption of DeSoc. I say… DESOC GMI!

Special thanks to Kaido(nonce Classic)

About nonce Classic

nonce Classic is a web3 native accelerator on a mission to democratize decentralized technology by investing and accelerating early-stage crypto projects to amplify their vision in the market.

Are you a founder or interested in sharing your project with us?
Contact us at contact@nonceclassic.org.

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