Decentralized Protocols and How They Change Social Media

Decentralized protocols are presented as a way to shift control of social media from central authorities to users, improving privacy, security and transparency. The essay says these protocols use blockchain and consensus mechanisms, and it cites Farcaster, which ties user identities to Ethereum addresses, Lens Protocol, which aims for a single social identity across platforms, and DeSo, described as a layer-1 blockchain where users' social data is kept on-chain. The essay acknowledges scalability and adoption as remaining challenges.