从用户到所有者：通过去中心化重新定义社交媒体

研究现有社交平台的中心化问题以及新兴的去中心化解决方案，将数据所有权和控制权重新交还给用户。

现在什么是社交媒体？它是如何运作的？

我们都至少听说过 Meta 的 Facebook 和 Instagram 等社交媒体巨头以及 X（以前称为 Twitter）等平台，而且我们大多数人在这些平台上都有个人资料。

根据 DataPortal 发布的 Kepios 研究报告，2023 年 7 月，全球超过 60% 的人口，即约 48.8 亿用户在至少一个社交媒体平台上注册了个人资料。

但在表面之下，社交媒体平台是赚钱机器，很容易干扰我们的看法、世界观和福祉。

传统社交媒体平台主要通过广告、销售广告空间以及向其庞大的用户群推广内容来产生收入。

他们设计算法来最大限度地提高用户参与度，通常偏爱耸人听闻、有争议或充满情感的内容。

这可能导致宣传传播、扩大社会分歧并助长成瘾行为，从而对心理健康和社会凝聚力产生负面影响。

因此，平台的盈利可能并不总是符合用户或社会的最佳利益。

当今社交媒体运作方式中最糟糕的部分可能是——这些平台每时每刻都在收集数据，而且往往比他们自己的家人和朋友更了解他们的用户。

关于错误信息、审查制度和社交媒体的陷阱

一方面，社交媒体给世界各地带来了前所未有的联系，但这些平台的幕后运作长期以来一直受到质疑。

社交媒体连通性的显着进步已成为一把双刃剑，其中包括审查、操纵以及困扰用户提要的回声室内容的兴起。

更糟糕的是，社交媒体平台现已成为全球政治和世界运作方式的关键参与者，影响着我们日常生活的各个方面。

社交媒体滥用问题引起人们关注的最重要案例之一是剑桥分析公司丑闻，政治咨询公司剑桥分析公司未经授权获取和使用超过 5000 万 Facebook 用户的数据。

这些数据被用来创建心理概况，并在竞选期间（包括 2016 年美国总统选举）向目标用户投放个性化政治广告。

这些数据是通过 Facebook 上的一个测验应用程序获得的，该应用程序不仅访问参加测验的个人的数据，还访问他们朋友的数据。

On the other side of the pancake, content moderation threatens free speech. Most recently, actor Rusell Brand was notoriously demonetized on several major platforms, including YouTube, following allegations, but not a conviction, of committing a sexual offense. Regardless of the veracity of these allegations, the platform scrapped monetization and singlehandedly cut off his earnings. The more worrying aspect of this scandal, however, is that UK Government officials from the Culture, Media, and Sports Committee sent out emails to video-sharing platform Rumble’s CEO Chris Pavlovski to also stop monetizing Brand’s posts going out to over 1.4 million followers, effectively meddling in a private organization’s content moderation and monetization policies.

Aside from direct requests to private organizations, governments worldwide are now increasingly issuing legislation that aims to battle misinformation and hate speech. Canada introduced Bill C18, while the European Union enforces the Digital Services Act. And while these regulatory shifts presumably protect users, they are giving a lot of power and control over social media and free speech to the government bodies.

Moreover, social media platforms increasingly implement strict but not necessarily justified or disclosed demonetization policies for users. A simple word like “Amen,” as highlighted by X user Chaya Raichik, can be red-listed and cause demonetization on posts, effectively hampering creators’ earning opportunities.

Web3, SocialFi, DeSoc and the social graph

The transition from Web2 to Web3 on a global scale is in its very early stages. However, with the emergence of SocialFi, representing the intersection of social media and decentralized financial systems, a social media space powered by Web3 is already underway.

SocialFi is about monetizing and tokenizing social aspects and is not necessarily an on-chain element, while DeSoc is about decentralizing the content, relationships and interactions in Web3 social media networks. This enables a framework where content creation, revenue, and user data are fully interoperable and controlled by users. In other words, users’ profiles, along with all content and data they generate, can be moved from one app to another in their entirety.

One of the critical elements that SocialFi aims to enhance is control over users’ social graphs. In the context of social media interactions, a social graph maps the relationships and interactions among users on a platform. It represents how individuals are connected to each other through friendships, follows, likes, shares, or comments and can be used to analyze social dynamics, tailor user experiences, or target advertisements. In legacy social media platforms, social graphs are the most valuable asset platforms have when trying to sell views to advertisers.

However, what SocialFi and the Web3 revolution are bringing to the space is complete autonomy and total control over users’s social graphs. It allows each individual user to monitor, and decide the fate of their data, followers, content, and interactions as well as the platform or app they chose to create these on. What’s more, with the rise of interoperability between Web3 social apps using the same social protocols, users can create social graphs that are easily transferable across different platforms and applications.

In this way, Web3-based social platforms push for transparency as social graphs are built on publicly audited smart contracts. Users' privacy is also protected because they can opt to use the most secure app out there without losing any of their data, content, or connections. Last but not least, an ecosystem that is rooted in transparency and interoperability creates a naturally competitive field where social apps will strive to keep their users and treat them more like stakeholders instead of banishing and blocking them.

Powering SocialFi with social protocols and apps

Different Web3 social apps are provided interoperability solutions through blockchain protocols like Lens and CyberConnect. These protocols give users ownership and control over their social connections by allowing them to easily take their profile across different social apps that support the same protocols.

The SocialFi ecosystem consists of three primary structural layers. At the foundation, blockchains offer the main infrastructure that allows decentralization and verified ownership of social graphs. In the second layer, social protocols build these decentralization avenues on top of the blockchain structure and create an opportunity for application developers to integrate decentralization features. Finally, the top layer consists of SocialFi apps. These can be entirely decentralized and based on blockchain technology or only utilize some features offered by the social protocols and are still operated by a centralized entity. However, thanks to social protocol integration, SocialFi apps allow users to control the entirety of their social graph and easily move it from one app to another based on features like ad revenue, subscription models, and engagement.

Lens Protocol is a blockchain-based open-source social graph aimed at redefining social media in a decentralized manner. Unlike traditional platforms, it allows users to own their digital connections and monetize content. It operates via a graph database, creating a network showing members and their relationships, with smart contracts ensuring data accessibility, unlike centralized services. Its modular design facilitates feature additions while securing user relationships and content and promoting cross-platform interoperability​.

Functioning in a similar way, the CyberConnect protocol is a Web3 social network protocol allowing developers to build social apps where users own their digital identity, content, and interactions. It fosters on-chain connections, with its v3 upgrade introducing a multichain future for Web3 social DApps, comprised of three core components: CyberAccount for identity infrastructure, CyberGraph for recording user content and connections, and CyberNetwork for scalability and global reach.

Protocols like Lens and CyberConnect form the infrastructure and framework for social media platforms to create user-centric applications based on decentralized data storage and zero control from third-party entities over users’ personal information and social graphs.

What are decentralized social media apps, and how do they work?

To illustrate how dramatically different decentralized social media platforms are from legacy names in the industry like Facebook and TikTok, we’ll look at Phaver - a Web3 social app purpose-built for the permissionless and noncustodial ecosystem within the Web3 space.

Launched in 2022, with the release of Lens Protocol, Phaver aims to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 users. It facilitates accessible and well-known sign-up practices with a simple email and password combination that does not require a Web3 crypto wallet. However, once registered, users can start integrating on-chain functionalities by minting a blockchain-based Phaver profile. The on-chain profile allows users to publish their content on the blockchain through Lens protocol, and have full ownership over their social graph, on the protocol level.

Importantly, once users start using Phaver, they are incentivized to be active participants in curating content on the platform. Replacing the infamous social media algorithms with incentivized user curation allows Phaver to both ensure the quality of the content it offers to users and to give content creators and viewers a chance to participate in monetization.

To date, the Phaver app has generated over 250,000 app downloads across Android and iOS with 100,000 monthly active users and is steadily pushing for the decentralization of social media globally. Thanks to its integration of protocols like Lens and CyberConnect, this decentralized social app puts control back in users’ hands.

Challenges for SocialFi

A significant hurdle is the onboarding process; familiarizing individuals with blockchain technology and motivating them to transition from traditional to decentralized social platforms can be daunting. Simplifying onboarding is crucial to attract a broad user base.

Scalability is another mountain to climb. As user numbers swell, ensuring the network remains fast, efficient, and cost-effective is imperative. Solutions to scale the infrastructure without compromising user experience or incurring exorbitant fees must be identified and implemented.

在 SocialFi 创新框架和 Phaver 等应用程序的推动下，社交媒体不断发展的格局预示着以用户为中心的交互的新时代的到来。

尽管广泛采用的道路是崎岖的，但去中心化控制和货币化的承诺为建立一个更具包容性、透明的、注重用户赋权的社交媒体生态系统铺平了道路。

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＃社交媒体

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