Welcome To The World Of Decentralised Social Media: Empowering self-governance and privacy

Mastodon, Peertube, Xwiki

The Fediverse is a decentralised network of social platforms powered by ActivityPub. This protocol allows different platforms to communicate — like for example digital services and platforms such as Mastodon, PeerTube and Xwiki supported by NGI funding.

NGI is also funding a specific pilot in this area called Fediversity, aimed at creating a practical, user-friendly, and secure communication environment that incorporates various powerful components, making a significant difference compared to centralized solutions owned by Big Tech.

All these activities and projects are part of a more significant movement to give users control over their digital interactions via an open and interoperable ecosystem. Think of it as social media without a central authority. You choose which server to join, you own your data, and you can interact across platforms. Like with email, thanks to this common protocol you can follow and interact with people regardless of the software they use or who hosts their account. Trust is built through community moderation and decentralised governance, not by a single corporation.

Peergos, Scuttlebutt, P2Panda

NGI has funded many other decentralized social media projects using a variety of other decentralized protocols such as the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) or Secure Scuttlebutt (SBB), who are focusing more on peer-to-peer communications in a decentralised manner such as in a mesh or multihop network.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols are systems that enable devices (peers) to communicate and share data directly with each other without relying on a central server. In a P2P network, each peer acts as both a client and a server, contributing resources like processing power, storage, or bandwidth.

For example, Peergos is a digital private space that stores data securely and in a distributed fashion. It is built on top of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a distributed and content-addressed file system designed to be reliable, resilient and future-proof.

Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) is a peer-to-peer protocol for self-hosted social media, where users manage their own content and that of peers they follow. Messages are signed, added to an append-only log, and secured with cryptography to ensure authenticity. Unlike centralized platforms, SSB avoids monetising user data, ad-driven designs, and marketing metrics, relying instead on grants and user donations to support its development.

p2panda is a peer-to-peer protocol and framework for creating local-first applications with distributed databases. It emphasizes data sovereignty, developer ease, and support for collaborative software. The project aims to improve p2p networking and validate its approach through real-world use cases.

Want to know more? Here are, in more detail, the 3 examples per area of NGI funding recipients that are creating substantial impact in their technology cluster and towards a more human-centric internet. For even further information please check the NGI Impact Study here.