Or why it’s worth trying decentralized socials
“In an information industry, the cost of monopoly must not be measured in dollars alone, but also in its effect on the economy of ideas and images, the restraint of which can ultimately amount to censorship.”
— Tim Wu in The Attention Merchants
The Problem with Centralized Platforms
Most crypto enthusiasts discover articles by scrolling through X, a pastime filled with memecoin scams, venture capital opinions, and occasional humor. However, the experience includes irrelevant advertisements and declining content quality — users struggle to see posts from accounts they follow while encountering misinformation and questionable commentary.
The core issue: crypto users remain trapped on X because viable alternatives don’t exist. If the platform introduced mandatory payments, most would comply rather than abandon their networks and reach. This pattern reflects what Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification” — platforms evolving from value-providers into extractive systems.
Examples of enshittification include:
- Amazon product searches cluttered with advertisements
- Google search results dominated by ads
- X feeds lacking posts from followed accounts
- Facebook’s transformation into a bot-driven rage machine
These platforms achieved monopolistic control through network effects. Professionals must use LinkedIn for networking, businesses require social media presence where users congregate, and users cannot exit without losing connections entirely.
The Cycle of Platform Decline
Early social networks genuinely connected people. Facebook’s original timeline showed authentic friend content. Once platforms achieved scale, they shifted toward monetization through business advertising and targeting. The pattern repeats across every major platform — TikTok displays identical dynamics despite regulatory pressure.
Current Problems with Centralized Platforms:
- Privacy violations: Users willingly participate in surveillance
- Data ownership: Platforms mine user-generated data for advertising revenue
- Algorithmic control: Opaque decisions by Silicon Valley executives shape cultural discourse
- Exit barriers: Leaving means losing accumulated connections
- Misinformation: Unmoderated or poorly moderated content spreads
- Monopolistic behavior: Competitors face acquisition or elimination
“We are all mine sites now, data mine sites, and despite the intimacy and import of what is being mined, the mining process remains utterly obscure and the mine operators wholly unaccountable.”
— Naomi Klein in Doppelganger
Yet Doctorow suggests these platforms contain seeds of their own destruction through overexploitation.
Decentralized Alternatives Emerge
Historical Context
Researchers developed peer-to-peer alternatives before cryptocurrency became mainstream. PeerSon (2009) proposed fully distributed social architecture, though it never gained adoption. Development continued throughout the 2010s.
Current Decentralized Platforms
Mastodon operates through interoperable code deployed across developer-operated instances. Each instance maintains independent moderation while remaining connected to the broader network.
Bluesky, the former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s project, currently hosts 6 million users (1.3 million monthly active). Built on open-source frameworks, it provides transparency into operational mechanics.
Lens Protocol and Farcaster advance decentralization further by operating on blockchain infrastructure. Users authenticate through crypto wallets using public key encryption rather than email addresses. Lens maintains approximately 30,000 interacting users, while Farcaster shows 621,000 total users with 10% daily active engagement.
Benefits of Decentralized Social Platforms (DeSo):
- Enhanced resilience against single points of failure
- User data portability and ownership
- Open-source codebases enabling community improvements
- Censorship resistance
- Native cryptocurrency integration
- Developer ecosystem building on distributed infrastructure
Advantages of Decentralized Social Networks
Open Playground for Innovation
Blockchain-based protocols enable developers to build diverse applications. Farcaster experienced experimentation with “mint profile and trade on bonding curve” mechanisms. While these don’t guarantee mass adoption, they represent the type of iterative development eventually producing mechanisms users genuinely desire.
Algorithm Customization
Protocols aggregate essential data (follows, likes, posts) while clients choose presentation methods. Warpcast (the primary Farcaster client) uses algorithmic prioritization, yet developers created alternatives featuring reverse-chronological feeds. Users selecting unfavorable algorithmic approaches aren’t trapped — they simply build competing solutions.
Community Vibes
Invitation-only launches allowed initial curation of cohesive communities with distinct subcultures. Farcaster’s channel system (similar to subreddits) enables niche discussions beyond cryptocurrency, fostering genuine connections around shared interests. Users report wholesome interactions — boardgame meetups, literary discussions, postcards between community members, and organic collaboration opportunities. These experiences contrast sharply with X’s crowded, opaque environment.
The Challenges Remain
Insider/Outsider Dynamics
Early adopters accumulate reputation advantage over newcomers, creating perception of exclusivity. However, every platform experiences this pattern. Determined users can locate communities matching their interests, and no guarantee ensures either current DeSo platform survives long-term — participation offers value regardless.
Bot Infestations
The Degen Airdrop represented a turning point, enriching early users while attracting airdrop farmers. Despite storage fees creating friction, bot suppliers outpace reporting mechanisms. This arms race likely continues indefinitely across all platforms.
Spam and Content Moderation
Freedom from centralized control doesn’t solve content quality issues. Uncurated platforms fill with misinformation, conspiracy theories, and unreliable content. Warpcast implements spam-filtering for suspected bot replies, yet this remains an ongoing challenge.
“What if the powerful can use information abundance to find new ways of stifling you, flipping the ideals of freedom of speech to crush dissent, while always leaving enough anonymity to be able to claim deniability?”
— Peter Pomerantsev in This is not Propaganda
The Moderation Paradox
Permissionless protocol-level posting balanced against client-level filtering represents the ideal decentralized approach, but achieving this balance remains unsolved. Facebook spends $3.7 billion annually on content moderation — exceeding X’s total revenue — yet feeds remain undesirable. Moderators experience PTSD and traumatic working conditions.
Solving censorship through unrestricted posting addresses only half the equation. Creating spaces where humans genuinely want to spend time requires consistent moderation balancing information freedom against filter bubble isolation.
The Case for Trying DeSo
Despite unresolved challenges, decentralized social networks merit experimentation. They foster distinctive insider jokes, memes, and movements while maintaining superior signal-to-noise ratios compared to centralized platforms, primarily due to smaller user bases.
Those discovering missing communities or movements shouldn’t await organic growth — they can create them. Rather than pursuing inflated user metrics, social network value derives from quality connections and conversations. Unlike blockchain networks, human relationships resist scaling.
“It seems that in a world where people compete with numbers, it is the numbers that always win”
— Ronan Hession in Leonard and Hungry Paul
The noise and criticism from X users dismissing DeSo adopters reflects typical platform growing pains rather than fundamental problems. Even modest experimentation offers potential for surprising enjoyment and authentic community building.
About Subsquid
Subsquid maintains a Farcaster channel for sharing feedback, memes, and questions. The company anticipates significant roles for its indexing technology in enabling customized feeds powered by local device-based indexing as onchain data powers increasingly sophisticated social experiences.