An answer to censorship on the social networks
I spent the day reading about decentralized social networks and I documented it for everyone who is looking for an alternative to the likes of Facebook, Reddit, and Youtube.
There are a lot of options! Although a couple true peer to peer networks do exist they don't have phone apps yet. Although some social networks exist on the darkweb (such as Galaxy 3) those services tend to have a short lifespan and others are still in their infancy. There are a lot of federated platforms that are exciting, but they are costly for the admins and better suited to organizations with a shared purpose. At this moment, my recommendation is that we move the discussion to Hive
Create an account with the third button (the one labeled 3Speak) at this link, or whichever one you prefer.
Save your username, password, and the four private keys in a password database such as KeePass.
Download and install the Ecency app from the hamburger menu at this link. It will probably launch your app store.
Select hivesigner at the login screen. Login to hivesigner with your password and create a hivesigner password. This hivesigner service will keep track of the apps you sign onto but it is optional. The safer alternative is to directly sign into apps such as Ecency, PeakD, or Hive.Blog with your username and the private posting key. This video explains the keys.
and this post also discusses the keys
https://steemit.com/steemit/@davidk/how-does-steemit-password-gets-changed-to-wif
I noticed that some apps require hivesigner.
Because Hive is a fork of Steem it has many of the same features. Hive is like a facebook or reddit. You can post stuff for others to read in more or less the same manner.
You can subscribe to communities, post to them with a tagging system, and crosspost to other communities.
At the moment I discovered that the subscribe button in Ecency does not work. To get around this bug I opened PeakD.com in my browser and used it to subscribe to a couple communities after signing in with hivesigner.
3Speak is another Hive client like Ecency or PeakD. You can also access 3Speak directly at their website.
https://3speak.co/intl/about_us
If you followed the directions you chose 3Speak when creating your account. Unfortunately, we can't log into 3Speak because they don't support hivesigner and the login form requires an email. This is ironic, because I recommended the 3rd option of 3Speak due to the fact that it provides instant, and free accounts without providing an email address or any other personal identifiers. Oh well, it might get sorted later. In the meantime you can go to wallet.hive.blog to change your password or to create a community.
If you have any issues with posts not showing up on Hive apps or Dtube you might want to change your API node.
@focusnow/if-your-published-posts-are-not-showing-up-here-is-how-to-change-your-node
If you plan to post videos with Dtube then you probably should use anyx.io.
https://steemit.com/hive-196037/@knowhow92/x6zmdipm789
Dtube and 3Speak are youtube alternatives that you can theoretically access with your Hive username and posting key. Navigate to d.tube and select "login with another network" then select Hive. Use your private posting key to login to Dtube. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me so your mileage may vary. Since we can't login to 3Speak or Dtube you could approach video from another angle. I tried creating another 3Speak account at 3speak.online. The new login form requires an email and a private posting key, but that form didn't work either. You could use Youtube, but we are trying to decentralize here. D.tube, LBRY.com, or ChainFlix.biz could be viable alternatives and each of them has an independent blockchain that you can get keys to. You can post links to videos in your posts on Hive.
You can use dpoll.io to create and participate in polls.
Signin with hivesigner and share your private posting key and your username to dpoll.
Here is a list of additional Hive applications.
All of these apps post to the Hive blockchain. As a blockchain based database, everything you publish is public and permanent. Hive is a fork of Steemit with special modifications designed to prevent any one party from controlling most of the servers. Steemit and Dtube still exist, but they are owned and operated by the people behind the Tron blockchain, and they did successfully capture the majority of the Steemit servers. It's not good or bad, but Hive is more decentralized and thus less prone to censorship.
This is also new to me so please correct me if I made a mistake. I suspect there is a more secure way to create and manage your initial username and password, but it would also be more technical. The app looks like it works on every platform, and if you follow the directions above you will be logged in quickly. Those were major factors in my decision to recommend this network.
I also found some interesting communities that have already been created.
Deep Dives
Ask the Hive
Citizen Journalists
Hive Improvement
News & Views
Economics
World News
FreeSpeech
Informationwar
Politics
news
Philosophy
Conspiracy Realists
Hive Beginners Tips
Not Like Me
Hive Think Tank
In conclusion, this is a young platform with some rough edges. It may not be the best solution, but it could be the best right now, especially if a lot of people start using it.
My biggest criticism has to do with the way so many apps have access to a users private keys. Tradeoffs were clearly made for ease of use. The passwords are tossed around in a haphazard fashion. You may still decide to put some money into this, but treat it as entertainment. You ARE trusting people with your passwords so you could lose access to everything you put into these apps.
The upshot is that Hive is an excellent introduction to blockchain technology and decentralized services. If you are open minded it could be a forum for real debates with people who have a diversity of perspectives. It is already hosting a noticeable international community.
If you don't want to see or hear opposing ideas you can choose what to ignore, but you can be fairly sure that someone else isn't keeping things from you. That said, it is possible to "remove" or at least hide some content. Criminally offensive posts won't forever plague the listings. I didn't see anything unsightly while browsing today. That's probably because it is on the clearnet. Unlike the darkweb, where users are relatively anonymous, sane users are not likely to post damning content on Hive where it would forever remain in the public record. I think some darkweb forum will eventually supplant this as the last bastion of free speech. That technology isn't ready yet. Please don't wait for the next big thing. Surf the times. Even after the darkweb becomes the superior library public forums such as this will continue to be relevant for people who have skin in the game. This is a platform for negotiating an identity and it is ready today.
Is Hive better than facebook or reddit? Sign up and let me know in the comments. It's easy, it's free, and I marked a trail for you.
You are welcome to share this, copy it, improve it, print it, and distribute it.
Jesse Horstman
31 Oct 2020