A fully Open Source Peer-to-Peer Social Media Protocol that anyone can build their favorite UI / Client on top of it
Posted by PlebbitOG@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Plebbit is a fully open source, selfhosted, peer-to-peer social media protocol built on IPFS.
Because it’s decentralized, it can’t be taken down, censored, or controlled by any single authority.
Right now, Plebbit already has working old.reddit
https://github.com/plebbit/seedit
it's like reddit, each community has a creator, the creator has the ability to assign mods, the mods can ban people they dont like.
Right now most subs are whitelist-only (temporary, until the anti-spam tools are ready), but you can still create your own sub and set whatever entry challenges you want (captcha, puzzles, etc.).
what's different from reddit is that there are no global admins that can ban a community, you cryptographically own your community via public key cryptography. also the global admins can't ban your favorite client like apollo or rif, as everything is P2P, there is no central API. nobody can even make your client stop working as you're interacting fully P2P.
We mainly use 3 technologies, which each have several protocols and specifications:
IPFS (for content-addressed, immutable content, similar to bittorrent)
https://docs.ipfs.tech/
https://specs.ipfs.tech/
IPNS (for mutable content, public key addressed)
https://docs.ipfs.tech/concepts/ipns/
Libp2p Gossipsub (for publishing content and votes p2p)
https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/pubsub/overview/
P2P is also better than federated, you can't be banned from an instance for example, only from a specific community.
An authentication tool is also being implemented, so sub-owners can add the specific challenges they want to prevent spam or bots (for example: proof-of-work, puzzles, identity verification, SMS ..or custom entry rules).
master_prizefighter@reddit
I'll try the android version first.
BlazeAlt@reddit
How do you deal with CSAM?
PlebbitOG@reddit (OP)
all data on plebbit is text-only, you cannot upload media.
so if you want to post media you must post a direct link to it (the interface embeds the media automatically), a link from centralized sites like imgur and stuff, who know your IP address, take down the media immediately (the embed 404’s) and report you to authorities. Further, plebbit works like torrents so your IP is already in the swarm, so you really shouldn’t use it for anything illegal or you’ll get caught.
BlazeAlt@reddit
I had a quick look at https://seedit.app/#/hot , there doesn't seem to be any comment, am I missing something?
PlebbitOG@reddit (OP)
Because of current anti tool spam implementation which will be ready by next weeks
keyclicker456@reddit
What advantages does this offer over ActivityPub?
PlebbitOG@reddit (OP)
ActivityPub is not fully decentralized, it’s a federated design, meaning it’s a network of instances, and each instance is just a regular website with servers.
Plebbit is fully decentralized, it’s purely peer to peer, meaning it’s a network of peers where every peer can potentially be a full node by simply using the desktop app (or in the future, a non custodial public rpc on mobile), and you don’t have to run any site/domain for it, it’s censorship resistant just like running a torrent with a BitTorrent client.
PlebbitOG@reddit (OP)
all data on plebbit is text-only, you cannot upload media.
so if you want to post media you must post a direct link to it (the interface embeds the media automatically), a link from centralized sites like imgur and stuff, who know your IP address, take down the media immediately (the embed 404’s) and report you to authorities. Further, plebbit works like torrents so your IP is already in the swarm, so you really shouldn’t use it for anything illegal or you’ll get caught.