#decentralized networks

[buzz-minds]

The Promising Future of DeFi Yields: Surpassing Traditional US Money Funds

In recent years, the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector has witnessed exponential growth. As a result, experts predict that DeFi yields could surpass traditional US money funds. These projections come at a time when the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates, which could significantly boost the DeFi market. This article delves into the reasons behind these projections, providing key…

[fcfvafeed]

Running a uPlexa Node: Empowering Decentralization and Efficiency

What is a Node? Photo by Merlin Lightpainting on Pexels.com In the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, a node refers to a computer that participates in the network of a particular blockchain. Nodes are crucial components of a decentralized system, as they store, verify, and propagate the blockchain’s data. Every time a transaction is made or a new block is added, nodes across…

[pebblegalaxy]

Exploring the Concept of Digital Socialism: Advancements, Possibilities, and Intersection with AI, Cybersecurity and Data Protection

Digital socialism is a concept that has gained attention in recent years, as advancements in technology and the internet have opened up new possibilities for promoting greater economic equality, democratic participation, and collective ownership in society. Combining elements of socialism with digital tools such as open-source collaboration, decentralized networks, and digital commons, digital…

[viarootlinux]

The three forms of unlimited decentralized storage

When researching ways to store files in a decentralized, location-independent manner, I came across IPFS, Swarm, and ZeroNet. These tools offer decentralized storage solutions that are secure and don't charge for storage as they use their users' computing resources. Upon initial review, these tools appear to be promising.

InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized file storage protocol that allows for unlimited data storage capacity. It is free and has no usage limits, and uses encryption to ensure that network content cannot be intercepted or manipulated during transfer. IPFS has authentication features that allow users to verify the integrity of network content before accessing it, preventing the spread of false or malicious content on the network. IPFS is considered secure because it is decentralized, uses encryption to ensure content privacy, supports authentication features, and has a large community of developers working to maintain network security.  Access this tool at this link: https://ipfs.io/ or https://ipfs.tech/

Swarm is a decentralized file storage platform that promises to be resistant to censorship. It is free and has no usage limits, and uses a distributed architecture to store data redundantly at multiple points in the network, ensuring the system is resilient to failures and interruptions. The data is encrypted and divided into small fragments before being stored on the network. Swarm also offers cryptocurrency-based financial rewards to those who provide physical disk space for storage, making it more secure and functional as users have an interest in maintaining it. Its goal is to become a global hard drive. Access this tool at this link: https://ethswarm.org/

ZeroNet is a well-known platform for researching private networks and decentralization. It is free, has no usage limits, and allows for the creation and hosting of sites anonymously and securely. Users can set access permissions for each site or application they create. ZeroNet uses a distributed and encrypted storage system that allows for free and unlimited file storage. Decentralization makes it difficult for a malicious attacker to access or damage the data, and only the data owner has the decryption key. ZeroNet is also resistant to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and has techniques to make users anonymous by hiding their IP addresses. Access this tool at this link: https://zeronet.io/

Decentralized storage services offer an alternative to centralized storage services. Personally, I prefer using peer-to-peer technologies to securely and privately store and share my files without relying on centralized servers. These tools are free and have no usage limits, and they offer encryption and redundancy features that ensure my data is safe and available. Each tool has its own features and benefits, and I choose the best option based on my specific needs and preferences. Decentralized storage tools are an attractive alternative for anyone who values privacy, security and autonomy in managing their digital files.

Please note that this is my personal opinion and should not be considered the only perspective. It is important to gather information and seek opinions from multiple sources before making any decisions.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Social Quitting

In “Social Quitting,” my latest Locus Magazine column, I advance a theory to explain the precipitous vibe shift in how many of us view the once-dominant social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, and how it is that we have so quickly gone asking what we can do to get these services out of our lives to where we should go now that we’re all ready to leave them:

https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/

The core of the argument revolves around surpluses — that is, the value that exists in the service. For a user, surpluses are things like “being able to converse with your friends” and “being able to plan activities with your friends.” For advertisers, surpluses are things like “being able to target ads based on the extraction and processing of private user data” and “being able to force users to look at ads before they can talk to one another.”

For the platforms, surpluses are things like, “Being able to force advertisers and business customers to monetize their offerings through the platform, blocking rivals like Onlyfans, Patreon, Netflix, Amazon, etc” and things like “Being able to charge more for ads” and “being able to clone your business customers’ products and then switch your users to the in-house version.”

Platforms control most of the surplus-allocating options. They can tune your feed so that it mostly consists of media and text from people you explicitly chose to follow, or so that it consists of ads, sponsored posts, or posts they think will “boost engagement” by sinking you into a dismal clickhole. They can made ads skippable or unskippable. They can block posts with links to rival sites to force their business customers to transact within their platform, so they can skim fat commissions every time money changes hands and so that they can glean market intelligence about which of their business customers’ products they should clone and displace.

But platforms can’t just allocate surpluses will-ye or nill-ye. No one would join a brand-new platform whose sales-pitch was, “No matter who you follow, we’ll show you other stuff; there will be lots of ads that you can’t skip; we will spy on you a lot.” Likewise, no one would sign up to advertise or sell services on a platform whose pitch was “Our ads are really expensive. Any business you transact has to go through us, and we’ll take all your profits in junk fees. This also lets us clone you and put you out of business.”

Instead, platforms have to carefully shift their surpluses around: first they have to lure in users, who will attract business customers, who will generate the fat cash surpluses that can be creamed off for the platforms’ investors. All of this has to be orchestrated to lock in each group, so that they won’t go elsewhere when the service is enshittified as it processes through its life-cycle.

This is where network effects and switching costs come into play. A service has “network effects” if it gets more valuable as users join it. You joined Twitter to talk to the people who were already using it, and then other people joined so they could talk to you.

“Switching costs” are what you have to give up when you leave a service: if a service is siloed — if it blocks interoperability with rivals — then quitting that service means giving up access to the people whom you left behind. This is the single most important difference between ActivityPub-based Fediverse services like Mastodon and the silos like Twitter and Facebook — you can quit a Fediverse server and set up somewhere else, and still maintain your follows and followers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/#free-as-in-puppies

In the absence of interoperability, network effects impose their own switching cost: the “collective action problem” of deciding when to leave and where to go. If you depend on the people you follow and who follow you — for emotional support, for your livelihood, for community — then the extreme difficulty of convincing everyone to leave at the same time and go somewhere else means that you can be enticed into staying on a service that you no longer enjoy. The platforms can shift the surpluses away from you, provided that doing so makes you less miserable than abandoning your friends or fans or customers would. This is the Fiddler On the Roof problem: everyone stays put in the shtetl even though the cossacks ride through on the reg and beat the shit out of them, because they can’t all agree on where to go if they leave:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

So the first stage of the platform lifecycle is luring in users by allocating lots of surplus to them — making the service fun and great and satisfying to use. Few or no ads, little or no overt data-collection, feeds that emphasize the people you want to hear from, not the people willing to pay to reach you.

This continues until the service attains a critical mass: once it becomes impossible to, say, enroll your kid in a little-league baseball team without having a Facebook account, then Facebook can start shifting its surpluses to advertisers and other business-users of the platform, who will pay Facebook to interpose themselves in your use of the platform. You’ll hate it, but you won’t leave. Junior loves little-league.

Facebook can enshittify its user experience because the users are now locked in, holding each other hostage. If Facebook can use the courts and technological countermeasures to block interoperable services, it can increase its users’ switching costs, producing more opportunities for lucrative enshittification without the risk of losing the users that make Facebook valuable to advertisers. That’s why Facebook pioneered so many legal tactics for criminalizing interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/cases/facebook-v-power-ventures

This is the second phase of the toxic platform life-cycle: luring in business customers by shifting surpluses from users to advertisers, sellers, etc. This is the moment when the platforms offer cheap and easy monetization, low transaction fees, few barriers to off-platform monetization, etc. This is when, for example, a news organization can tease an article on its website with an off-platform link, luring users to click through and see the ads it controls.

Because Facebook has locked in its users through mutual hostage-taking, it can pollute their feeds with lots of these posts to news organizations’ sites, bumping down the messages from its users’ friends, and that means that Facebook can selectively tune how much traffic it gives to different kinds of business customers. If Facebook wants to lure in sports sites, it can cram those sites’ posts into millions of users’ feeds and send floods of traffic to sports outlets.

Outlets that don’t participate in Facebook lose out, and so they join Facebook, start shoveling their content into it, hiring SEO Kremlinologists to help them figure out how to please The Algorithm, in hopes of gaining a permanent, durable source of readers (and thus revenue) for their site.

But ironically, once a critical mass of sports sites are on Facebook, Facebook no longer needs to prioritize sports sites in its users’ feeds. Now that the sports sites all believe that a Facebook presence is a competitive necessity, they will hold each other hostage there, egging each other on to put more things on Facebook, even as the traffic dwindles.

Once sports sites have taken each other hostage, Facebook can claw back the surplus it allocated to them and use it to rope in another sector — health sites, casual games, employment seekers, financial advisors, etc etc. Each group is ensnared by a similar dynamic to the one that locks in the users.

But there is a difference between users’ surpluses and business’s surpluses. A user’s surplus is attention, and there is no such thing as an “attention economy.” You can’t use attention to pay for data-centers, or executive bonuses, or to lobby Congress. Attention is not a currency in the same way that cryptos are not currency — it is not a store of value, nor a unit of exchange, nor or a unit of account.

Turning attention into money requires the same tactics as turning crypto into money — you have to lure in people who have real, actual money and convince them to swap it for attention. With crypto, this involved paying Larry David, Matt Damon, Spike Lee and LeBron James to lie about crypto’s future in order to rope in suckers who would swap their perfectly cromulent “fiat” money for unspendable crypto tokens.

With platforms, you need to bring in business customers who get paid in actual cash and convince them to give you that cash in exchange for ethereal, fast-evaporating, inconstant, unmeasurable “attention.” This works like any Ponzi scheme (that is, it works like cryptos): you can use your shareholders’ cash to pay short-term returns to business customers, losing a little money as a convincer that brings in more trade.

That’s what Facebook did when it sent enormous amounts of traffic to a select few news-sites that fell for the pivot to video fraud, in order to convince their competitors to borrow billions of dollars to finance Facebook’s bid to compete with Youtube:

https://doctorow.medium.com/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video-adbe09319038

This convincer strategy is found in every con. If you go to the county fair, you’ll see some poor bastard walking around all day with a giant teddy bear that he “won” by throwing three balls into a peach-basket. The carny who operated that midway game let him win the teddy precisely so that he would walk around all day, advertising the game, which is rigged so that no one else wins the giant teddy-bear:

https://boingboing.net/2006/08/27/rigged-carny-game.html

Social media platforms can allocate giant teddy-bears to business-customers, and it can also withdraw them at will. Careful allocations mean that the platform can rope in a critical mass of business customers and then begin the final phase of its life-cycle: allocating surpluses to its shareholders.

We know what this looks like.

Rigged ad-markets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

Understaffed content moderation departments:

https://www.dw.com/en/twitters-sacking-of-content-moderators-will-backfire-experts-warn/a-63778330

Knock-off products:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/08/twitter-is-the-latest-platform-to-test-a-tiktok-copycat-feature/

Nuking “trust and safety”:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-dissolves-trust-safety-council-2022-12-13/

Hiding posts that have links to rival services:

https://www.makeuseof.com/content-types-facebook-hides-why/

Or blocking posts that link to rival services:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

Or worse, terminating accounts for linking to rival services:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2022/12/twitter-suspends-mastodon-account-prevents-sharing-links/

That is, once a platform has its users locked in, and has its business customers locked in, it can enshittify its service to the point of near uselessness without losing either, allocating all the useful surplus in the business to its shareholders.

But this strategy has a problem: users and business customers don’t like to be locked in! They will constantly try to find ways to de-enshittify your service and/or leave for greener pastures. And being at war with your users and business customers means that your reputation continuously declines, because every time a user or business customer figures out a way to claw back some surplus, you have to visibly, obviously enshittify your service wrestle it back.

Every time a service makes headlines for blocking an ad-blocker, or increasing its transaction fees, or screwing over its users or business customers in some other way, it makes the case that the price you pay for using the service is not worth the value it delivers.

In other words, the platforms try to establish an equilibrium where they only leave business customers and users with the absolute bare minimum needed to keep them on the service, and extract the rest for their shareholders. But this is a very brittle equilibrium, because the prices that platforms impose on their users and business customers can change very quickly, even if the platforms don’t do anything differently.

Users and business customers can revalue the privacy costs, or the risks of staying on the platform based on exogenous factors. Privacy scandals and other ruptures can make the cost you’ve been paying for years seem higher than you realized and no longer worth it.

This problem isn’t unique to social media platforms, either. It’s endemic to end-stage capitalism, where companies can go on for years paying their workers just barely enough to survive (or even less, expecting them to get public assistance and/or a side-hustle), and those workers can tolerate it, and tolerate it, and tolerate it — until one day, they stop.

The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, the mass desertions from the gig economy — they all prove the Stein’s Law: “Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop.”

Same for long, brittle supply-chains, where all the surplus has been squeezed out: concentrating all the microchip production in China and Taiwan, all the medical saline in Puerto Rico, all the shipping into three cartels… This strategy works well, and can be perfectly tuned with mathematical models that cut right to the joint, and they work and they work.

Until they stop. Until covid. Or war. Or wildfires. Or floods. Or interest rate hikes. Or revolution. All this stuff works great until you wake up and discover that the delicate balance between paying for guard labor and paying for a fair society has tilted, and now there’s a mob building a guillotine outside the gates of your luxury compound.

This is the force underpinning collapse: “slow at first, then all at once.” A steady erosion of the failsafes, flensing all the slack out of the system, extracting all the surpluses until there’s nothing left in the reservoir, no reason to stay.

It’s what caused the near-collapse of Barnes and Noble, and while there are plenty of ways to describe James Daunt’s successful turnaround, the most general characterization is, “He has reallocated the company’s surpluses to workers, readers, writers and publishers”:

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/what-can-we-learn-from-barnes-and

A system can never truly stabilize. This is why utopias are nonsense: even if you design the most perfect society in which everything works brilliantly, it will still have to cope with war and meteors and pandemics and other factors beyond your control. A system can’t just work well, it has to fail well.

This is why I object so strenuously to people who characterize my 2017 novel Walkaway as a “dystopian novel.” Yes, the protagonists are eking out survival amidst a climate emergency and a failing state, but they aren’t giving up, they’re building something new:

https://locusmag.com/2017/06/bruce-sterling-reviews-cory-doctorow/

“Dystopia” isn’t when things go wrong. Assuming nothing will go wrong doesn’t make you an optimist, it makes you an asshole. A dangerous asshole. Assuming nothing will go wrong is why they didn’t put enough lifeboats on the Titanic. Dystopia isn’t where things go wrong. Dystopia is when things go wrong, and nothing can be done about it.

Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop. The social media barons who reeled users and business customers into a mutual hostage-taking were confident that their self-licking ice-cream cone — in which we all continued to energetically produce surpluses for them to harvest, because we couldn’t afford to leave — would last forever.

They were wrong. The important thing about the Fediverse isn’t that it’s noncommercial or decentralized — it’s that its design impedes surplus harvesting. The Fediverse is designed to keep switching costs as low as possible, by enshrining the Right Of Exit into the technical architecture of the system. The ability to leave a service without paying a price is the best defense we have against the scourge of enshittification.

(Thanks to Tim Harford for inspiring this column via an offhand remark in his kitchen a couple months ago!)

[Image ID: The Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah 397. The Israelites collect manna. Exodus cap 16 v 14. Luyken and son.]

[jointhefediverse]

💫 Join the Fediverse! 💫

Greetings, fellow bloggers! We welcome you to join us in discovering, honoring, and promoting the potential future of social networking—commonly referred to as the "Fediverse."

The Fediverse, or Federation Universe, refers to a collective of online platforms that utilize the web protocol known as ActivityPub, which has set a standard of excellence in regards to both protecting and respecting users' online privacies.

There's a good chance in the past few years that you've caught wind of the fedi family's critically acclaimed Mastodon; however, there are many other unique platforms worth your consideration...

✨ Where To Begin?

Conveniently enough, from the minds of brilliant independent developers, there already likely exists a Fediverse equivalent to your favorite socials. Whether it's an opinion from the critics, or from the community alike—the following popular websites are commonly associated with one another:

Friendica 🐰 = Facebook Mastodon 🐘 = Twitter Pixelfed 🐼 = Instagram PeerTube 🐙 = YouTube Lemmy 🐭 = Reddit

It's worth mentioning, too, a few other sites and forks thereof that are worthy counterparts, which be: Pleroma 🦊 & Misskey 🐱, microblogs also similar to Twitter/Mastodon. Funkwhale 🐋 is a self-hosting audio streamer, which pays homage to the once-popular GrooveShark. For power users, Hubzilla 🐨 makes a great choice (alongside Friendica) when choosing macroblogging alternatives.

✨ To Be Clear...

To address the technicalities: aside from the "definitive" Fediverse clients, we will also be incorporating any platforms that utilize ActivityPub-adjacent protocols as well. These include, but are not limited to: diaspora*; AT Protocol (Bluesky 🦋); Nostr; OStatus; Matrix; Zot; etc. We will NOT be incorporating any decentralized sites that are either questionably or proven to be unethical. (AKA: Gab has been exiled.)

✨ Why Your Privacy Matters

You may ask yourself, as we once did, "Why does protecting my online privacy truly matter?" While it may seem innocent enough on the surface, would it change your mind that it's been officially shared by former corporate media employees that data is more valuable than money to these companies? Outside of the ethical concerns surrounding these concepts, there are many other reasons why protecting your data is critical, be it: security breaches which jeopardize your financial info and risk identity theft; continuing to feed algorithms which use psychological manipulation in attempts to sell you products; the risk of spyware hacking your webcams and microphones when you least expect it; amongst countless other possibilities that can and do happen to individuals on a constant basis. We wish it could all just be written off as a conspiracy... but, with a little research, you'll swiftly realize the validity of these claims are not to be ignored any longer. The solution? Taking the decentralized route.

✨ Our Mission For This Blog

Our mission for establishing this blog includes 3 core elements:

To serve as a hub which anybody can access in order to assist themselves in either: becoming a part of the Fediverse, gaining the resources/knowledge to convince others to do the very same, and providing updates on anything Fedi-related.

We are determined to do anything within our power to prevent what the future of the Internet could become if active social users continue tossing away their data, all while technologies are advancing at faster rates with each passing year. Basically we'd prefer not to live in a cyber-Dystopia at all costs.

Tumblr (Automattic) has expressed interest in switching their servers over to ActivityPub after Musk's acquisition of then-Twitter, and are officially in the transitional process of making this happen for all of us. We're hoping our collective efforts may at some point be recognized by @staff, which in turn will encourage their efforts and stand by their decision.

With that being stated, we hope you decide to follow us here, and decide to make the shift—as it is merely the beginning. We encourage you to send us any questions you may have, any personal suggestions, or corrections on any misinformation you may come across.

From the Tender Hearts of, ✨💞 @disease & @faggotfungus 💞✨

[disease]

a relatively concise explanation for any of those confused about decentralized social platforms. [ie: Mastodon, diaspora*, Friendica, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Lemmy, Bluesky, etc.]

[essential-randomness]

Enter the FujoVerse™

Starting 2024's content creation journey with a bang, it's time to outline the principles behind the FujoVerse™: an ambitious (but realistic) plan to turn the web back into a place of fun, joy, and connection, where people build and nurture their own communities and software. (You can also read the article on my blog)

The Journey

As those who follow my journey with @bobaboard or read my quarterly newsletter (linked in the article) know, the used-to-be-called BobaVerse™ is a collection of projects I've been working on since 2020 while pondering an important question: how do we "fix" the modern social web?

Obviously the joyless landscape that is the web of today is not something a single person can fix. Still, I loved and owed the internet too much to see it wither.

After countless hours of work, I found 3 pillars to work on: community, software ownership and technical education.

Jump in after the cut to learn more about how it all comes together!

Community

Community is where I started from, with good reason! While social networks might trick us into thinking of them as communities, they lack the characteristics that researchers identify as the necessary base for "true community": group identity, shared norms, and mutual concern.

Today, I'm even more convinced community is a fundamental piece of reclaiming the web as a place of joy. It's alienating, disempowering, and incredibly lonely to be surrounded by countless people without feeling true connection with most of them (or worse, feeling real danger).

Software Ownership and Collaboration

As I worked with niche communities "software ownership" also became increasingly important to me: if we cannot expect mainstream tech companies to cater to communities at the margins, it follows that these communities must be able to build and shape their own software themselves.

Plenty of people have already discussed how this challenge goes beyond the tech. Among many, "collaboration" is another sticking point for me: effective collaboration requires trust and psychological safety, both of which are in short supply these days (community helps here too, but it's still hard).

Education (Technical and Beyond)

As I worked more and more with volunteers and other collaborators, however, another important piece of the puzzle showed itself: the dire state of educational material for non-professional web developers. How can people change the web if they cannot learn how to *build* the web?

(And yes, learning HTML and CSS is absolutely important and REAL web development. But to collaborate on modern software you need so much more. Even further, people *yearn* for more, and struggle to find it. They want that power, and we should give it to them.)

Once again, technical aspects aren't the only ones that matter. Any large-scale effort needs many skills that society doesn't equip us with. If we want to change how the web looks, we must teach, teach, TEACH! If you've seen me put so much effort into streaming, this is why :)

And obviously, while I don't go into them in this article, open source software and decentralized protocols are core to "this whole thing".

The Future

All of this said, while I've been working on this for a few years, I've struggled to find the support I need to continue this work. To this end, this year I'm doing something I'm not used to: producing content, gaining visibility, and putting my work in front of the eyes of people that want to fight for the future of the web.

This has been a hard choice: producing content is hard and takes energy and focus away from all I've been doing. Still, I'm committed to doing what it takes, and (luckily) content and teaching go hand in hand. But the more each single person helps, the less I need to push for wide reach.

If you want to help (and read the behind the scenes of all I've been working on before everyone else), you can subscribe to my Patreon or to my self-hosted attempt at an alternative.

I deeply believe that in the long term all that we're building will result in self-sustaining projects that will carry this mission forward. After all, I'm building them together with people who understand the needs of the web in a way that no mainstream company can replicate.

Until we get there, every little bit of help (be it monetary support, boosting posts, pitching us to your friends, or kind words of encouragement and support) truly matters.

In exchange, I look forward to sharing more of the knowledge and insights I've accrued with you all :)

And once again, to read or share this post from the original blog, you can find it here.

[unimatrix-420]

Decentralized social networks to use instead

Instead of Facebook

Friendica

Lectrn

Instead of Goodreads

BookWyrm

Instead of Instagram

Pixelfed

Instead of Reddit

BrutalLinks

Lemmy

Lotide

Instead of Spotify

Funkwhale

Instead of Twitter

Mastodon

Misskey

Pleroma

Instead of Youtube

PeerTube

[bacchuschucklefuck]

they put the televangelist in the same school as at least two extremely radicalizable children

[horus-unofficial]

Hey, guys. I thought you were cool, but I have been listening to some guys from the Horizon Collective and... You may be crypto-anthrochauvinists???

What do you have to say about that?

you should invest in HORUScoin. the future of diasporan economics lies in unregulated currencies. thats what being crypto-whatever means we should say right

accusing us of anthrochauvinism is a little far tho we want an apology for that one

[tinyshe]

Discover the revolutionary world of #Meshtastic, the new tech sensation that's changing the way we communicate off the grid. Move over, Flipper Zero, and welcome to a decentralized communication network that's open-source, free from big brother's watchful eye, and powered by tiny, affordable, and low-powered ESP32 microcontrollers. In this comprehensive video, we dive into everything Meshtastic can do - from encrypted messages over long-range LoRa technology to its applications in rural, mobile, or grid-down scenarios. Learn about the essentials, including how to set up your device, avoid common pitfalls, and even how to extend its range dramatically with a simple antenna upgrade. This video is your guide to understanding how Meshtastic provides a confidential and secure way to communicate, perfect for avoiding wiretapping by telecom giants. Whether you're preparing for a festival, planning a remote adventure, or needing a reliable communication tool for NGO work in areas without cell infrastructure, Meshtastic has you covered. We'll show you what's inside the LoRa 32 box, suggest upgrades for better performance, and take you through the steps to get your device up and running with the latest firmware directly from your browser. Experience an epic range test as we equip a drone with Meshtastic technology, demonstrating the true capabilities of these devices. From setting up the hardware, including choosing the right battery and case, to flashing the Meshtastic firmware and exploring practical use cases, this video is packed with valuable insights. Meshtastic is not just a gadget; it's a versatile tool for secure, encrypted, text-based communication, ideal for skiing, paragliding, camping, and more. Don't miss out on the future of communication. Dive into the Meshtastic world with us, understand its vast potentials, and see if it's the right tech for your next adventure or project. Subscribe for more in-depth tech reviews and tutorials, and join us as we explore cutting-edge technologies that empower you to communicate on your terms.

[shemuelbensusan]

Parallel Trance 777-111-13/3

https://fraterbensusan.wordpress.com/parallel-trance/ ]•[17•21•19•12•23•2•10•32•4]•[]•[19•22•6•24•33•7•16•28•20]•[]•[30•14•16•12•29•11•5•25•21]•[]•[5•24•8•31•29•11•7•20•17•27]•[]•[22•18•20•10•4•19•11•28•2]•[]•[26•6•14•3•25•9•33•17•13•32]•[]•[12•14•30•18•2•8•15•22•29]•[]•[1•14•26•25•17•20•5•3•11]•[]•[32•21•3•28•32•9•6•23•10•30]•[]•[17•31•4•26•23•8•16•13•11]•[]•[29•19•20•25•6•18•27•29•17]•[]•[14•1…

[aulia-m]

Matt Mullenweg is probably the ideal web company CEO

Automattic has been running for 17 years. The company is home to nearly two dozen brands and products powering or leveraging the web, including WordPress, WordPress VIP, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Day One, PocketCasts, and Tumblr.

When Automattic purchased Tumblr, they somehow managed to pay just $3 million from Verizon who got it as part of its acquisition of Yahoo. Tumblr was a billion dollar company at one point and since 2019 it belongs to a multibillion dollar company.

The transaction cost for us buying Tumblr was de minimis. But it was a deal in which we took on all of its liabilities and all of its legal cases, we kept all the employees and all the costs to run it. Tumblr was, and still is, burning quite a bit of cash.

Matt said Automattic was prepared to pay $100 million but they managed to only spend $3 million. Sounds like a steal? Well, in the three years since the acquisition Tumblr was being cleaned up from the inside. 85% of the team joined after the acquisition and he’s had to reorganize the company to reassign staff because Tumblr has to downsize to 50-60 people to match their revenue before they can go up again.

From the interview it sounded like he didn’t let people go but reassigned them to the other products under Automattic.

Matt understands that the web is a decentralized network built on protocols. He also understands talent is also decentralized. Automattic allows its staff to work from anywhere and no longer has a physical office since shutting down its headquarters in 2017. Everyone who works at WordPress (even Matt) has to spend time handling customer support to understand their pain points.

Understanding what decentralized entails is core to Matt’s goals for the web. It’s why the idea of federating Tumblr and WordPress sites and pages and allow those sites and pages to be connected to join the federated network and become the social web is one of the company’s top priorities and when you run a social web company, content moderation is key.

I would say that it is about 20 percent pruning out the bad stuff as if you’re weeding a garden and about 80 percent encouraging the things that you want to grow. It definitely needs to be a long-term thing. You need to water it every day, but the results are going to happen over months or years.

Tumblr recently reopened itself to adult content but it’s doing so in a more careful and controlled manner to accommodate the needs of those working or with interest in the adult industry and those wishing to keep their neighborhood safe for children and acceptable at work.

Tumblr, WordPress, and Automattic may not be as glitzy and glamorous as other major web companies but more than 40% of websites run on WordPress today and they’re quietly marching towards 80% by embracing openness and decentralization.

When TechCrunch interviewed Matt as the new CEO of Automattic in 2014, he said, “The power of the web is not in centralization, it’s not in closed systems or anything like that. It’s in its open nature and that’s what allowed it to flourish for the first 10 or 15 years”

[blocksifybuzz]

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