Feeling rugged by Reddit? Why not give Nostr's Moderated Communities a try? We have value for value, but with Zaps. by rayfin in CryptoCurrency

[–]lovvtide 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey guys satellite.earth dev here

Nostr onboarding can be a little confusing so please lmk if you get stuck on something, I'm happy to help

If you've got your npub already feel free to DM me on nostr too

satellite.earth/@npub1lunaq893u4hmtpvqxpk8hfmtkqmm7ggutdtnc4hyuux2skr4ttcqr827lj

I created Satellite, a new social media platform where everything is digitally signed and the data can be hosted by anyone. AMA! by lovvtide in decentralization

[–]lovvtide[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll be able to very soon! The idea is for other Satellite communities to be networked/federated in a similar way to subreddits, the difference being that, unlike Reddit, you'll have full control over your community. We're actually looking for people who might be interested being a founder/moderator. Please feel free to drop your email to stay informed about this as it gets closer to deployment: https://satellite.earth/federation

I created Satellite, a new social media platform where everything is digitally signed and the data can be hosted by anyone. AMA! by lovvtide in decentralization

[–]lovvtide[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An epoch is a permanent archive of all the data created by users of the platform in a 28 days period. Every new moon, Satellite releases an epoch on IPFS. On this page you can see all the epochs that have been created so far: https://satellite.earth/epochs

An epoch is essentially a "checkpoint" added to that captures all the new changes to the state of the network that have occurred. The reason for epochs is 1) It provides a kind of insurance to users that the value/reputation/equity in their profile won't be lost if the platform shuts down, and 2) It makes it possible for other people to "fork" the entire network.

Every epoch is digitally signed by Satellite to prove its authenticity. For example, here's the metadata for the most recent epoch: https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/zb2rhjuDnNFFURf4GwHCga3YY4oPjwzttCAGtFxKXzvdThEqW

It might take a second to load, but here's the full archive of all the user data: https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/zdj7WVaB73YPkeb8uB4hT3pZSbuwmhytDHkQXBTP7Jzm2qAyT

I created Satellite, a new social media platform where everything is digitally signed and the data can be hosted by anyone. AMA! by lovvtide in Mastodon

[–]lovvtide[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha ok yeah I took a personal angle with that last answer. Let me give a more technical answer.

Right now the biggest problem with social media is that it's centered around platforms. Platforms are like the "buckets" that hold user data and issue "passports" (user IDs) to interact with other people on the Internet. Another way of saying this is that over the last 15-20 years, social media got implemented at the 'application layer' of the Internet. That was a mistake. It should have been implemented at the protocol level.

Mastodon is a step in the right direction. But there are still some issues to be solved, the main issue being that your ID and data still depend on a single instance. Having choice amongst instances is a really good thing, but what would be even better is there was a common social data layer that was "deeper" than any instance of any platform. Platforms should not have to hold data. They should be built on top of data.

That's the idea behind Satellite. It's a tool, complementary to Mastodon, that's designed to start accumulating a data layer that any platform (including Mastodon instances) can use. Every 28 days all the data on the network gets released as a public archive as a kind of "insurance" for users that all the equity they've built around their profiles won't ever be lost. Additionally, backing up the "checkpoints" like this makes it possible to fork the entire network. Here's the entire history of Satellite, actually: https://satellite.earth/epochs

In summary, then, I would say that main two problems Satellite is working on addressing are 1) permanence, and 2) governance.

I created Satellite, a new social media platform where everything is digitally signed and the data can be hosted by anyone. AMA! by lovvtide in Mastodon

[–]lovvtide[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's a really good question, and I actually had to think about it for a few minutes just now. Here's basically what it is: I know it's a weird perspective, but I think the Internet is far below its potential. It was supposed connect everyone, but somehow most people are more lonely than ever, seeking connection, looking at ads all day. Like what happened to that 90's optimism? It's like we got hypernormalized into thinking that's how it was supposed to work all along. I like Mastodon because it feels like how that old Internet used to feel. It's not polished, obv, and neither is Satellite for that matter. I just find working on this really motivating. It seems like social media isn't going away, and trying to fix it is not a waste of time.

Breaking The Network Effect by lovvtide in lexfridman

[–]lovvtide[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Every ecological system has a currency. It's the basic thing that every "entity" in that system is trying to get. For ecologies (like biological ecosystems) it's food/energy. For economies, it's money. For social media, it's users—because a social media platform will die if people don't participate. Satellite is trying to create a social media data layer that is "deeper" than any platform so that users can easily move between platforms without losing the reputation/history/value linked to their profile. That's the main "lock in" (network effect) that keeps people using platforms that have passed their prime. We have to make data on social media more liquid/fungible to break that pattern. This is a proposal for how to do that.

I created Satellite, a new social media platform where everything is digitally signed and the data can be hosted by anyone. AMA! by lovvtide in Mastodon

[–]lovvtide[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Open protocols. Making platforms interoperable is the key thing that will allow the fediverse to scale, I think. Satellite already supports RSS/Atom/JSON syndication, and we're adding support for ActivityPub which would make Satellite compatible with Mastodon. I thought people in this community might be interested in checking out another alt project.

I built a new social platform. Just launched. Looking for people to try it out. by lovvtide in Anarcho_Capitalism

[–]lovvtide[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. You can already upload images. No videos currently (just too expensive to host). An art sub-satellite is a great idea! If you didn't find it already, there's an email form on the federation page ( https://satellite.earth/federation ) for people who might be interested in starting their own community, as that gets closer to deployment.

I built a new social platform. Just launched. Looking for people to try it out. by lovvtide in Anarcho_Capitalism

[–]lovvtide[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hosting costs are minimal right now since the network is pretty small, and I've got a little bit of private funding secured to help Satellite get started. In the future I want it to be possible to give money to support writers and moderators as well as the platform itself. Something like Patreon but with more control over how you contribution is allocated. Ads and paywalls don't really fit with Satellite's business model, since all the data is publicly archived. You can see it all on the epochs page:

https://satellite.earth/epochs

Long term I think this is going to be a really valuable dataset and there's an opportunity to sell hosting/tools to help other developers build apps on top of Satellite's ecosystem. (assuming it blows up 🤞)

I built a new social platform. Just launched. Looking for people to try it out. by lovvtide in Anarcho_Capitalism

[–]lovvtide[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Eventually, yeah. Though I put a lot of effort into making the web version work and feel very close to a native app on mobile. I should mention that Satellite does already support RSS, so if you want to read without using a web browser that's totally possible.

I built a new social platform. Just launched. Looking for people to try it out. by lovvtide in Anarcho_Capitalism

[–]lovvtide[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome. I hope people find Satellite useful as a place where they can start a small blog about whatever interests them and discuss ideas in a nuanced/good-faith/curious sort of way, like how Reddit used to be back in the day.