Show HN: A federated social network, built on Ethereum and IPFS
Hey HN!<p>I’m really excited to share what I’ve been working on for the past few months. It’s a social network, built on distributed technologies, with support for federation with Mastodon and other compatible networks.<p>I don’t want to throw around too many buzzwords, so let me just get to the point. There is a smart contract on Ethereum that keeps track of references to all the network’s data. The only data actuall passed to the contract are IPFS hashes. Those IPFS objects are JSON files that contain the actual information that describes users, messages, follows, favorites, etc. If you view a message page[1], you can scroll down and see the raw details like the IPFS hash, actual IPFS file, and transaction information for that message.<p>Because all the data is stored in a distributed fasion, that means you’re not reliant on any central server. The server is open source[2], so anyone can run their own ‘gateway’ to the network, or build their own on top of it. You could even run it locally. Either way, you get the same experience, and since you control your private keys, you can take your account wherever you want.<p>The app batches all of your actions into a single transaction that only costs a few cents. You can sign up, post messages, etc, without having to spend or own any Ethereum. When you want to actually post it on the blockchain, you commit your batch. Until then, your content is cached on the server, and only other folks on that server can view it. Still, I get not wanting to go through the whole hassle of buying Ether, sending it to an account, and testing it out on some new thing. I’ve setup a staging server[3] that connects to the ‘Ropsten’ test network, and you can get free ether from a faucet to use.<p>It’s also built it so that the ‘gateway’ server is ActivityPub compliant, which means you can follow and be followed by other folks in the fediverse. You can have people follow you from other networks, though, by having them search for @your_username@numaverse.com . To follow people on other networks, search for their ‘fediverse handle’ in the search bar, i.e. @gargron@mastodon.social.<p>It’s just a start, but I’ve loved this project because I’ve never learned more than while working on this. I’m really excited for what will come from these technologies. One cool feature coming up will be support for Token Curated Registries, which are a form of a reputation network that’s tied to a blockchain. Stuff like that will be really interesting in the context of social networks.<p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;numaverse.com&#x2F;messages&#x2F;4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;numaverse.com&#x2F;messages&#x2F;4</a><p>[2] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;numaverse&#x2F;numaverse-gateway" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;numaverse&#x2F;numaverse-gateway</a><p>[3] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ropsten.numaverse.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ropsten.numaverse.com&#x2F;</a>