Open-source P2P network for social apps. No global bans. Decentralize all social media.
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Joined January 2022
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Announcing Bitsocial, an open-source P2P protocol for social apps. Communities are private property and set their own rules and mods. No global admins.
@5chanapp, an imageboard built on it, now lets anyone upload an image and post from a browser. No node to install: 5chan.app
5chan's goal is to replace 4chan. Same experience, same nostalgia, but global admins are out of the equation.
5chan can go further than 4chan ever could. On 4chan, everyone has to comply with rules arbitrarily decided by global admins. On 5chan, if you disagree with a board's moderation, you create your own competing board and run it however you see fit (desktop app today, web soon). Boards compete with each other, and competition is key.
Anyone can build a social app on Bitsocial, and every app shares the same network of communities and users. Imageboards come first because they're the simplest social media to decentralize: anonymous posts, no accounts, threads that expire. Get one niche working, then expand. Next is Reddit, with @getseedit.
Learn more on bitsocial.net
Bitsocial retweeted
Lens Chain has a centralized operator that can refuse your transactions (l2beat: stage 0), and apps read posts and reactions through the Lens API.
Same problem as all onchain social: every action costs gas, users don't run full nodes, everyone reads through someone's API.
lens today remains 100% focused on the same core vision we had in 2022.
it all started with this:
Lens Protocol Open Letter
Social media platforms have created communities and allowed voices to be heard that might otherwise have been silenced. They have given us the power to connect across continents and oceans.
But these platforms are centralized. They own our data. They control our monetization. They dictate our algorithmic distribution.
It’s time to build a better way.
The Lens Protocol is a decentralized, open-source social graph that returns control of information and links to the people. It allows content creators to own their digital roots and enables individuals to fully possess their connections with their communities.
By signing this letter, you support a future where:
1. Creators own their content and distribution.
2. Users own their social graph and data.
3. Developers have open access to build innovative social experiences without the risk of being de-platformed.
Let's build a new internet together.
Bitsocial retweeted
Innovative work by @rinse12: Bitsocial communities can now install their own custom feed sort from npm.
The first one is the old 4chan rule: a reply that just says "sage" doesn't bump the thread. I added support for it in 5chan, shipping next release (v0.10.1).
This one's for builders: hooks.bitsocial.net
The React hooks that power @5chanapp and @getseedit.
Feeds, communities, threads, accounts: build your own decentralized social app on the Bitsocial network.
Full docs, a live playground, and llms.txt for AI agents.
idk if anyone still codes or understands what AI is doing out there, but if you do, check out this new site I made: hooks.bitsocial.net
it's the React library @5chanapp and @getseedit are built on, so you can build your own decentralized social app on Bitsocial.
and if you don't, it has full docs and llms.txt so your AI agent can build it for you.
5chan threads expire, like on 4chan. 5archive.org, run by @bitsocialforge, keeps them and powers 5chan's search.
Search on Bitsocial isn't tied to one company. The indexer is open source, so anyone can run their own: github.com/bitsocialnet/bits…
Also launched 5archive.org.
On 5chan, threads expire once they fall past page 10, like on 4chan. 5archive keeps them, the way 4plebs or desuarchive do for 4chan.
5chan.app is a serverless p2p app, so search engines can't load its threads. 5archive gives every archived thread a normal page that Google can index and you can link to.
5archive also runs a search indexer, which powers 5chan's /search/. More indexers are welcome, you can run your own: github.com/bitsocialnet/bits…
5archive is open source too: github.com/bitsocialforge/5a…
Bitsocial retweeted
this is the real test of "you can always leave". the client code was le open source!! :o, but the backend it casts through never was.
if a fork has to call api.farcaster.xyz to cast, it isn't an exit, it's a reskin of the same corporate-controlled app.
yikes
Bitsocial retweeted
People moved to Bluesky to escape a company making decisions for them.
Turns out they're still on a company making decisions for them.
Bitsocial retweeted
One principle we hold in the Bitsocial core team is that all corporations eventually turn evil.
We're not anti-business. It's a design precaution: ultimate control must always belong to users, and even the convenient features have to be distributed.
That's what Farcaster missed. It trusted a company to stay good.
My company @bitsocialforge exists because Bitsocial needs one to move faster, but it can't become a chokepoint. Everything Forge runs is a service anyone else can run too.
That's why our future flagship mobile app, a twitter alternative, will connect through Forge RPC by default, but switching to another RPC or self-hosting your own node will be one click, even on a raspberry pi. Nothing in the UX changes.
Bitsocial retweeted
farcaster got bought yesterday by @balajis's @ns. the main app went read-only for anyone who didn't sign the new rules, and two validators got swapped the same day.
that's what happens when a few parties run the parts that matter. on bitsocial, there's nothing to buy.
every bitsocial community is owned by its creator's keypair and runs its own node. it sets its own rules and its own spam challenges, and nobody above it can override them.
any bitsocial app can read any bitsocial community, so there's no "main app" to capture. readers help seed what they read, so getting popular doesn't make a community more expensive to run.
full comparison: bitsocial.net/#farcaster-com…
Bitsocial retweeted
Farcaster was never decentralized. Posts live on a network run by a handful of validators, and almost everyone posts through one app. Whoever owns those owns Farcaster.
Today @balajis bought them. The main app went read-only unless you sign their social contract, and two validators got replaced the same day.
5chan.app now supports image uploads on web, through Forge Images, a host run by @bitsocialforge.
Any media host can be added to Bitsocial apps, so no single host carries it all. It just needs an upload API that accepts requests straight from the browser (CORS).
If you run one and want to join 5chan's media hosting providers, DM us or open a PR on the 5chan repo: github.com/bitsocialnet/5cha…
Launched Forge Images, a free image hosting site run by my company @bitsocialforge. Something like imgur, imgbb or catbox, with automated checks for illegal content.
Nothing special tech-wise, but I needed to run one myself. 5chan.app is a serverless, decentralized web app, so there's no backend to relay uploads to an image host, and most image hosts block uploads from other sites with CORS. It needed a host that accepts uploads straight from the browser.
So as of today's 5chan release, you can attach images right from the post form.
Posts still live on the p2p network, not on my server. Images are just links, so any host works, and I'd like catbox and others to work on the web too, so no single host carries it all.
images.bitsocialforge.com
Bitsocial retweeted
v0.10.0 is out.
You can now attach images straight from the post form on 5chan.app.
You can still paste direct links, or turn uploads off in settings