Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech

For advocates of the decentralized web, protocols are often viewed as a good thing – a liberating alternative to, say, platforms like Meta and Twitter. But decentralization seems to be at odds with the historical purpose of protocols, which is to simplify communication. Most people would rather have one identifiable adversary to grapple with, inste... See more

The tools for public conversation should exist outside of private companies as common infrastructure, like the Internet itself. An open and durable decentralized protocol for public conversations can allow users a choice in their experience, creators control over their relationships with their audience, and developers freedom to innovate without pe... See more

So what we ultimately see is a kind of downleveling of web2 structures: platforms all become protocols, and people create their own networks on top of these new protocols.