New social networks (from Cypherpunk visions and trends 2023-2025)

Exploring the evolution of social networking in the cypherpunk realm, this chapter from 'Cypherpunk Visions and Trends 2023-2025' dives into the shift from conventional platforms to new, privacy-centric networks that focus on decentralized and uncensored communication.

This is a long form article, you can read it in https://habla.news/a/naddr1qqxnzdesxv6rzve38y6njvehqgsd4dkxqewy8xum47ctpu0ltgxxsfemeewpjkdyzk9ddfcg286s0dsrqsqqqa28qeu6qy

This is a chapter of [my short book Cypherpunk visions and trends 2023-2025](https://hackyourself.io/product/cypherpunk-visions-and-trends-2023-2025-ebook/), written in january 2023.

# New social networks

Cypherpunk social networks have been different from traditional ways of communication since the beginning of cypherpunk ideas. Communicating through Internet Relay Chat (IRC) using just nicknames, being friends with people you’ve never seen and do not know their “legal name” was common for us. We were communicating in groups (“channels”) that were based on topics. It is a similar experience to Slack or Discord, but with a different vibe, that changes the quality of discussion. On cypherpunk networks, there is no censorship, there is often encryption and pseudonymity or anonymity is expected.

We are moving from old-school big tech social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) towards private groups on Signal, Element/Matrix or [DarkFi’s peer to peer IRC](https://darkrenaissance.github.io/darkfi/misc/ircd/ircd.html). There are experiments such as [status.im](https://status.app/) that try to combine functioning of DAOs with tokens and social networks. For example, only a person with some amount of token or holding a type of NFT can enter a room. Voting and other features are expected in future versions.

I have discussed [the need for end-to-end encrypted chat applications](https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2022/04/29/encrypted-messengers-how-to-communicate-privately/) and [written a comparison of current projects](https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2022/05/03/encrypted-messengers-comparison/) in the [Cryptocurrencies](https://hackyourself.io/product/cryptocurrencies-hack-your-way-to-a-better-life/) book, but also published them online for free. I believe this industry will grow. There are new projects with different approaches coming up all the time.

These technologies will be the technological basis powering ideas such as [The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan](https://thenetworkstate.com/).

Interactions in groups are not the only use of social networks. We often use social networks also as a public square, mainly for promoting our products and services, building brands, etc. I know it has a bad rep, but you also needed a way to learn about this book. Have you heard about it in a podcast or followed me or someone who liked it and wrote about it on Twitter? One way or another, you need to learn about these things somehow. Creating something that has no users, no customers and no readers is wasting time. Of course promoting these things in closed Signal groups is useful, but sometimes a more public approach is needed.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have “the algorithm” (for a nice philosophical description, be sure to follow [the ideas of Alexander Bard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tTJR9vqWB4)). “The algorithm” is part of the programming of social networks that chooses which posts from the thousands of available posts you are seeing. The big tech social networks have been criticized for optimizing for engagement, which often means negativity, conflict, and polarization. I am not sure if “the algorithm” is the cause of the polarization of society and I do not think that this polarization is only negative. Cypherpunks have long been at the edge of society and in conflict on values with violent statist philosophies all along. The fact is that we do not have control over the algorithm. We can think we can curate “our feeds” by following the right people. After Twitter files we see that “the algorithm” is tuned to hide some voices and curate what people talk about. This attacks the notion of “public discourse” - it is heavily moderated by the social networks, with instructions from some institutions of some countries.

I personally think that the use of social networks for “public discourse” is overrated and furthermore that the impact this “public discourse” has on society is way overblown. This book is probably not the place to discuss the usefulness of public discourse for society. Just a few notes – when countries especially in Europe were censoring misinformation and other “hybrid threats”, the people instantly moved mostly to Telegram groups. For cypherpunks this is great news – we see that these alternative tools and social networks are discovered and used the moment someone tries to mess with communication. As John Gilmore famously said, "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it". (And I repeat – financial communication is also communication, financial censorship is also censorship – people use cryptocurrencies when states tamper with financial communication using CBDCs or other forms of control).

These regulations of “opinions” and topics of “public discourse” had an effect – they made the communication on forbidden topics more intense. (Side note: Please do not use Telegram, it is not end-to-end encrypted).

Some people even realized that opinions (or “truth”) should be discovered, not handed down from the leaders.

While mainstream “democratic” folk (i.e., members of current wider establishment) are trying to control the narrative of “public discourse”, they also say that it is important for society to have this public discourse. It seems like the minds of people go to the internet to logically argue, discuss and the result of this will be the best solution for society. The common belief is that the politicians would do what the wider society requests – and this request is the result of this mythical “public discourse”. But the results are far from correct logical inferences. Some signals are stronger (and not based on merit), some signals are weaker. It feels like people are changing the world by chatting on social media, but the impact of these discussions is miniscule. The process is more stochastic, with lots of emergent behavior.

We can look at memetic theory, where membionts are a form of life and they do not prevail and replicate based on merit of the idea, but on how well they can spread using their existing living environment (which is our brains, or if looked at globally – our culture). Is it really that important that someone wins an argument on social media? Does this win last for more than 24 hours? And then someone comes with an insane idea that fits our cultural basis and is spread like crazy. These membionts are formed, they avoid censorship or control like SARS-cov-2 avoided lockdowns. As a form of life, they survive if they adapt to the environment. And the environment is our mass culture and brains of the majority. The immune system is not based on logical refusal of these membionts.

Is this a problem? It would be if it mattered to the ruling society what was the result of yesterday’s Twitter fight. It is more layered; opinions are formed across group membership,  echoed and politicians basically pick a group or groups that will provide them most votes according to their political rhetoric. There is no “public discourse” that forms the wider governance.

For cypherpunks, this is less important than the other aspects of social networks. Cypherpunks are of course also members of groups, but they are often outside of the traditional political dividing lines. For us, the ideas of most of these mainstream political groups are unacceptable and we must form our own reactions to these pressures (remember, regulation = banning of unapproved behavior, regulation cannot create, only forbid, remove). These reactions are both on an individual level, but also on a group level.

Therefore, groups are of some importance. Not everyone is invited, and shared values are verified at the door. Knowledge is spread to be used in life, not to be used in fights on social networks. We are going back to the roots of private discussions based on topics, as we did with mailing lists and IRC channels.

The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk sparked an innovation in public social networks as well. People started to move to Mastodon. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter is sponsoring a less centralized alternative called Nostr. These new social networks have either a different algorithm or no algorithm at all. But you can also change it yourself and program it in a way you like. With open-source AI models, you will soon be able to not only filter out the content, but also change the tone of the discussion. Someone writes an angry post and you will only extract the boring facts, if you do not filter it out completely.

## Nostr

Nostr is friendly to the Bitcoin Lightning network. The identity is based on a public key, which means it is more difficult to follow people you are interested in – you must learn about their identity somehow. Nostr is a peer to peer gossip network with relays. Compared to Mastodon, this means that there is no central banning of instances – if you convince a relay to distribute your messages, you are good to go. The problem might be spam. Messages are free to distribute and there is no cost with spreading them. You can block individual spammers, but creating new keys is almost free. There have been experiments with using Bitcoin Lightning micropayments to incentivize spread and thus fight spam, but this creates a barrier for the masses that will almost instantly kill any network effect.

You can follow me using my key:  npub1m2mvvpjugwdehtaskrcl7ksvdqnnhnjur9v6g9v266nss504q7mqvlr8p9

# Updates?

One year after: Mastodon is officially dead, Nostr has one. User interfaces have gone much better. There was the Apple removing Nostr clients that support zapping drama (I have a chapter in the book about app store censorship and PWAs and desktop apps).

Two interesting things I would like to play with next year is integration of open-source AI (feed curation, help with writing articles, ...) and mesh-like transports (maybe [Reticulum](https://github.com/markqvist/NomadNet), which I also write about in the book).

# About the book

I wrote this short book as a reflection on what I think cypherpunks should look forward to, aspire for and experience in the coming years. I published this chapter on social networks exclusively on Nostr.

[![Cypherpunk visions and trends 2023-2025](https://nostrcheck.me/media/jooray/cd272976bdd5dd1f89e64ea5bc208123081c4bdbd8039c930d2c3227e0602b71.webp)](https://hackyourself.io/product/cypherpunk-visions-and-trends-2023-2025-ebook/)

# The talk from Bitcoin Pizza Day

I introduced all the chapters in my talk on [Cypherpunk Visions and Trends, which is published as part of my OptionPlus podcast](https://hackyourself.io/2023/11/22/cypherpunk-visions-and-trends-2023-2025-at-pizza-day/).

You can watch it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa1GX2RIU64


Yeah sure:

Powerful people want to change how people access and use the i ternet.
There would be too much pushback from the public if they pushed these changes without justification.
So , in order to justify these changes to the internet, in a way that the public will agree to , they stage a cycber attack event that will frighten the public into agreeing.
This cyber attack will affect some vital part of American infrastructure, hospitals for example, and it will be on a scale that will shock most Americans.
Mainstream media will work tirelessly to frighten the public into believing that the only solution is to accept government proposals on restructuring the internet, most likely this proposal will include the need of a government issued digital identity in order to access the internet (or at least many sections of it) .


Onboarding and user experience in Nostr will be polished to the point the average user will use Nostr just like X and FB. Without having to deal with npub and nsecs while also keeping their account secure and not running into sharp edges.

As more and more countries go authoritarian and try to regulate/censor social media ahead of elections, we will see a *considerable* influx of normie users make their way to this platform. And some medium sized creators will see the benefit of the V4V model particularly on flare.pub and a Tik Tok like service, which will grow among Gen Zers.

Because of the above I also predict we will get bad headlines this year and be acused of being a "cesspool of right wing baby eating extremists whose existence threatens humanity's very existance" or something along those lines.


"The Genocide in Gaza"

An unmissable talk by journalist Chris Hedges, who spent 7 yrs covering Israel & Palestine. Comprehensive, in-depth & moving presentation.

Co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace; Muslim Solidarity Committee & Project SALAM; Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace; Palestinian Rights Committee; RPI Muslim Student Association; UAlbany Muslim Student Association; Women Against War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly6lfhOxTe0

#USPol #Israel #Gaza #UKPol


"Bloodbath: Israel’s War on Gaza’s Hospitals and their Patients"

At Kamal Adwan Hospital, "the army is alleged to have bulldozed people alive into a mass grave, which, if the assertion is true, is one of the more horrific atrocities it has committed in this campaign."

"The Israeli army denies the reports, saying the hospital is a terrorism command center, a standard propaganda line for which it has supplied zero evidence."

https://www.juancole.com/2023/12/bloodbath-hospitals-patients.html

#USPol #Israel #Gaza


“The Hostages Weren’t Our Top Priority: Israel’s Bombing Frenzy Endangered Hostages Held in Gaza"

"...They took off their clothes to show that they were not wearing any explosives. & soldiers opened fire at them, immediately killing two of them.

"The commander..realized that they were perhaps Israelis, & told soldiers to stop firing. The third captive managed to run back to a building. & when he came out, soldiers shot at him again, killing him"

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/21/yuval_abraham_israel_gaza_hostages

#USPol #Israel #Gaza


"To reach a just & comprehensive peace between Israelis & Palestinians, the Nakba must be acknowledged.

"The events of 1947-9 stand at the root of the conflict. By acknowledging them, there is hope for sincere reconciliation".

The UN planned to partition Palestine into an Arab & a Jewish state.

The problem? "Half the Palestinian population -- the indigenous majority on its own ancestral soil -- [would become] a minority under alien rule".

http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JVP-Nakba-Fact-Sheet.pdf

#USPol #Israel #Palestine

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/632/223/141/632/376/original/08e010ddb9399ed5.png


Minority Report 🙃 https://image.nostr.build/b1d238496e4bbd85b022897faa53d0853d666ff69355871c86e4857ee8252d21.jpg


🧡💜 #media #bitcoin ⚡ #nostr 💜🧡 https://image.nostr.build/a8b1a5359596af18f268d4cc74de6bfbfc80f4ba99355e602532dda131037b3f.jpg


https://m.primal.net/HVDB.png
#Jesus #WordofGod #Christian #Bible #Scripture #Wisdom #worship #biblestr #bibleverse #Christ #God


Digital ID -> by twitter verification + IP address + DNA from covid test + CO2 footprint + Social status. Here we go


Follow your favorite shitposts across #Mastodon #Threads #Bluesky #Nostr and #Twitter

coming very soon

https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/111/586/673/464/343/771/original/55847e05c3771caa.jpeg