As you may have heard, Jack Dorsey has announced that Twitter will commission an independent team to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The project is codenamed "bluesky", which you can follow @bluesky on Twitter.
Currently, bluesky is in its infancy, with the key goal being to find a leader for the project. All options are open at this point, and once the team is assembled, they'll build a standard at their discretion, not Twitter's.
This does not mean that "Twitter is entering crypto". Firstly, as mentioned before, the standard will be developed independent of Twitter, and if the platform is deemed successful, Twitter will become a client of it. That said, Jack seems to be all in on blockchain, and indeed did call this project akin to what Square has done for bitcoin. It's very likely the standard will use blockchain technologies in some part, but it may also simply be an evolution of existing standards like ActivityPub or Mastodon that do so without blockchain. I'd imagine it'd take some bits of ActivityPub and Mastodon, use Ethereum 2.0, and build a lot of new tech. Twitter CTO, Parag Agarwal, also replied to Mastodon saying that the intention would be to work with Mastodon and others to collaboratively build something.
Those who follow my blog will know that I've harped on about Steem's lack of any privacy for years now, and I'm glad to see the CTO identify privacy as the number one challenge for an open standard. The other challenges are also well-identified: building sustainable business models, and speeding up consensus building to keep in touch with the rapidly evolving world of social media. Based on the above, you'll notice that the CTO too does seem to be imagining a blockchain-based standard.
This is definitely a long-term project that'll take years to develop. We have no idea if Twitter (or anyone else) will adopt the standard even if it's developed successfully. Based on the tweets by Jack and Parag, I'm optimistic that they understand what is required, and will commission the right team for the job.
As for Steem, this is a second opportunity to listen to the people who know what they are doing and have proven they can run a large scale social media platform, and focus on solving the problems that have made this a failed platform in its current state. Beginning with privacy.
Here are my thoughts and conversations with justineh & smooth on the topic of privacy from a couple of months ago. To summarize I think encryption and more options for users to set in the blockchain level can solve most of the privacy concerns and needs.
https://steemit.com/steem/@geekgirl/pytfo6
Yes, we'll need configurable encryption. I don't understand the technical details of how it can be implemented on the Steem chain, but it needs to be done. If the reward pool and some other failed "features" need to go, so be it.
As go rewards, so goes Steem.
On Steem, privacy is largely determined by pseudonymity, and folks that do not undertake pseudonmymity do not undertake privacy. My wallet is as visible as anyone's on Steem, but it is not connected to my person because I do not spend Steem via KYC or AML regulation infested exchanges.
Glad to see a post from you and tentatively hopeful that @bluesky may result in platforms more censorship and surveillance resistant than extant spyware.
Thanks!
I'm sure we have talked about this before, but what you are describing is a niche case. Mainstream social media is designed to connect real world people with one another, and that's what most people want. Hence, privacy is crucial for mass adoption.
Of course, Steem can continue to be a niche platform with a few thousand or million users, but it's clear what the billions want.
Well, there is plenty of truth to what you say. I reckon it's also true that Imma need a platform that is a niche case. I don't do the other social media platforms, for reasons. I don't watch TV. I am a niche case.
There are products that meet the needs of ancillary or niche markets and do so quite successfully. Vive la difference!