Someone Is Still Willing to Fight for Decentralized Social Media

I care a lot about decentralized social media, and lately that’s mostly meant being disappointed. I’d mostly written Farcaster off, and suddenly someone with the conviction and resources to keep fighting for decentralized social media is taking it on.

Everyone recognizes the problems with social media. The algorithms addict us to brain rot and make us mad at each other. But when most people talk about solutions, they usually talk about quitting entirely or getting regulators to make these companies behave better. Neither changes the underlying incentive, the company makes money by keeping you scrolling, and it knows you won’t leave because everyone you know is there.

Decentralized social media offers a way out, but getting people to move is hard. Even the tech people who understand why owning their social graph matters don’t want to start over when they’ve spent years building a following on Twitter. Everyone else mostly sees another app with fewer people on it. They might hate what social media has become, but they don’t connect those problems to who owns the network. Why move somewhere your friends aren’t, for a benefit you don’t understand?

Bluesky has made some progress, but it’s mostly just the Elon hating app. That can get a community started, but I’m skeptical it’s enough to keep growing.

I respect the work that Dan, Rish, and others put in to get Farcaster here. They were making the right moves to build a traditional VC-backed company. Decentralization itself clearly doesn’t have product-market fit in social right now. When you’re trying to grow a venture-backed business, the correct response is to focus on something people actually want today. But I think this needs a Vitalik type of commitment. Someone who believes decentralized social media needs to exist and has the energy and capital to keep pushing it forward while the market isn’t ready. You want people building now so that when people do come around, there’s something worth using. That’s what makes me excited about Balaji. He’s spent years writing about, talking about, and investing in decentralization, and he’s trying to build entire societies around these ideas. I believe he cares enough to keep going when it gets hard, and he has the resources to do it. I don’t know if he’ll succeed, but I think he has the commitment this needs.

I’m also directionally supportive of the app having an explicit constitution. Here’s the community we’re building, here are the rules, join if you want to. I like the idea of social media where being an asshole isn’t the easiest way to get attention, even if I won’t agree with every moderation decision. The key is that you can leave for another app and keep your following. Balaji can build the community he wants, and if you don’t like it, you can build something else on the same network. And Balaji gets this. If he just wanted a community for people interested in Network School, he could have spun up a forum. He didn’t need to buy Farcaster.

I don’t know when decentralized social media will find its moment. People being frustrated with the existing platforms clearly isn’t enough on its own. But I want people building alternatives now, so there’s something worth moving to when that moment comes. You don’t have to love Balaji or agree with his exact vision to see why this is exciting. Someone with his passion and resources is taking on an app I had mostly written off.

For the first time in a while, I’m excited to see what happens next.