Best Blockchain Based Decentralized Social Media Sites

21st century -the internet age, is all about digitalization and fast movement of stuff from one point to another. Social media platforms are one of the internet sensations of the modern era of the internet. Facebook and Twitter are the top social media platforms having millions of user base. 

By nature, these platforms require a lot of personal information from the user, hence raising the issue of privacy and security at the hands of a centralized platform, controlled by a big corporation. In recent years scandals of user data leakage and privacy emerged on the mainstream media. Facebook was accused of selling or misusing essential user data that lead to several issues of identity theft and other related problems.  

With company share price tumbling and numerous lawsuits, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg had to present himself to Congress where he had to answer the questions related to data harvesting scandal. A significant problem with centralized networks like Facebook and other mainstream social media is that there is only one party controlling or responsible for all the user data and actions by the user, thus raising issues of privacy and security. 

These issues of privacy, freedom, and lack of control at the user's end gave rise to a new form of social networks, i.e., Decentralized Social Networks, - A network controlled and managed over distributed systems rather than one single entity. This concept gave rise to new social networks that are now very popular and have a vast user base.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of Decentralized Networks is decentralized blockchain technology. This was one of the leading causes for people feeling secure using crypto and other digital currencies as they thought the technology is safe and not controlled by a single centralized identity. 

In this article, we will discuss top Decentralized Social Networks with their main features and advantages.

Top decentralized Social Networks 2019

Diaspora: is one of the top Decentralized Social Media network having millions of user base, using the system on Distributed Database Network. 

Diaspora introduces itself based on three main principles.

•    Decentralization — Network runs on independent distributed serves and is not centrally owned by a corporation.

•    Freedom — It's not compulsory to reveal all your private information like a phone number.

•    Privacy — User owns the data and is not forced or advised to use it on the platform.

Minds: is one the modern day platform that you can say has revolutionized the concept of, user-owned platforms. With zero censorship of the network, the user owns everything.

Even the code is open source, and users can make changes in it. It has features of all modern platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and is getting popular day by day with a user base of over 2 Million.

Minds is a great enforcer of freedom of speech and encourage it through its features; nature and by relying on core principles of liberty and privacy of its users.

All.me: Imagine a platform having all the features of general social media with the addition of you getting revenue and rewards from it. This is how all.me is revolutionizing and changing trends in the world of decentralized social networks. 

All.me comprises primarily of four main modules:

•    Social network (meNetwork) – Users interacting over distributed social media platform 

•    Marketplace (meMarket) – Buying and selling platform for users 

•    Payment service (mePay) – Payment service to make safe and secure online purchases

•    Cryptocurrency (meToken) – The network has its digital currency for transactions

With new and advanced features like a proper market place and combining blockchain technology with a social media network. All.me is going to be one of the top systems you can sign up to.

Mastodon: is open source software like twitter but running on independent servers. This ad-free network allows you to control who can see your message and posts. 

To avoid annoying the users and keeping it free from ads, the network is fueled on donations. User's interaction with the platform is strictly monitored by moderators, and they jump in if there is an issue.

Sola: Did you ever get annoyed by seeing videos or posts on social media that you are not interested in? Sola aims to provide a solution to this problem, by using AI and advanced technology it seeks to target content based on user interest and thus ensuring more engagement on posts and content reaching the right audience.

Sola is not an ad-free platform, but It makes sure it gives the opportunity of monetization to its users. It is converting quality content into revenue streams.

The list doesn't end here, and there are a lot of other platforms that are making their place on the internet. As discussed earlier, the recent scandals of data harvesting Facebook caused a significant backlash, and users even started deleting their accounts. It is rumored that almost every top social media is involved in selling user data to advertising companies who in return, use that data to bombard users with ads. 

Decentralized Social Networks – Solution to the Problem

Users on the internet want to feel safe while using it. Centralized Social media platforms have failed to provide users a secure and reliable system in the recent past, and this led to a vacuum that is now being filled by decentralized networks. These networks are secure and solely based on the concept of freedom and control being held by the user. 

As social media networks are now evolving every day, the risk of privacy and user data concerns are also increasing. Users are now aware of privacy concerns, and they prefer a platform that doesn't ask for their personal information or keeps it safe. Traditional social media has now also introduced the opportunity of monetization for users, but again being a convenient form of media, they have to cut their commission and then reward the user. Decentralized networks noticed this weakness and being decentralized they reward users with more opportunity of revenue streams then the traditional social media.

Although it might be too early to say, seeing user's changing interest over time, decentralized Social Media is all set to take over the world of social media soon.