It was more of an idea than an ongoing project.  I think anyone (with the right technical capabilities) could set up a website with a human readable interface that reads messages from ETH or DOGE transactions similar to memo.cash.  The hard part would be getting enough users to communicate this way instead of using Twitter.

But if enough people started "tweeting" this way, it would be an easy way for those who want censorship to use sites that censor to their preference and those who don't want any censorship, to use sites that censor to their preference.

You are not wrong but you are missing the important part.  Sure the front end will be centralized but the back end (most important part) will be decentralized. This idea is not about being able to claim decentralized (misleading thread title) but it is about everyone being able to take part in the discussion.

Think of this more of a way for the future of Twitter to take the political and moral part out of censoring tweets.  If all tweets were created by a transaction on a blockchain, anyone would be able to say what they want.  Twitter may only choose to show the ones that abide by their terms of service but there would be another website which may show all tweets.

It's been awhile since I re-read my original rant and I realized it was not very clear.

I updated the original based on the discussions here. Thanks all for the input so far.

You are correct that Ethereum in its current state would not be a good choice, but maybe the first iteration could be using DOGE transactions? One could argue the small fee is anti-spam protection.

(HEY ELON!!!)


You would not need to download the entire chain to view unless you wanted to verify the chain for yourself.  Most will opt to use other's sites who have done this.


Yes but there will be hundreds of websites serving the same purpose that twitter does now.  Most users will use a centralized page that they like. If the page starts putting up too many ads or god forbid censors someone they don't like, the user is free to host their own site or use someone else's.

I think most of you are missing the strategy on this idea.

It would not create a new blockchain but instead piggyback on an already existing one.  You can attach a message to every ethereum transaction you send.  This idea is simply using existing infrastructure to create a decentralized way to communicate.

People would then be able to create websites like https://memo.cash/posts/ranked that pull all the data. 

The cool part to me is that it would take away all the power from one site and I think you would see a sort of subreddit phonemonema happen where users could make their own sites that pull and sort the data (censor) as they see fit.

Some sites would censor all hate speech, some would censor speech from people they don't like, some would censor nothing at all.

I hope he follows through with it and we see changes.  Free speech is critical to a functioning society.

It's not a coincidence that I posted this the day Elon's 13-F filing came out, so yes I am (was) aware he now has a 9.2% stake in twitter. This is why I bumped the post.

Musk has been known for listening to normies with ideas that interest him, so I'm asking for help in showing this idea to him.  I know he wants to make twitter work but if the requirement for a software/server/company to remain honest could be removed, the issue of censorship goes away.

As far as other social media, nothing I have seen is as simple and clean as the idea I am describing. I want to piggyback on ETH and use it's already secure network.

Bump

How do we get this in front of Elon? A memo.cash version of Twitter on ethereum blockchain is exactly what he’s looking for. If all twitter posts were posted on the ethereum blockchain instead of twitter, no one could be censored, and every user could moderate to their own liking. There could be hundreds of websites people use to read the posts and if the user so desired, they could build their own. Similar to running your own node. This also prevents any one website from having total control of the conversation.

Where did you get this info?

I’d love to share with some friends

How reliable is this data - the sources I find are all conflicting. I show:

BTC : 8k - 50k [ https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/nodes / https://bitnodes.io/ / https://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/charts/software.html ]
XMR: 3k - 10k [ https://monerohash.com/nodes-distribution.html / https://monero.fail/map ]

Well said @BlackHatCoiner. 

I think if an unmoderated message board reached a large enough audience and had a system that allowed upvotes/downvotes like the website I won't name, it could promote good conversation.  But unfortunately the message boards get overwhelmed by one side too quickly and they never reach enough people before turning into a spam fest.

I also recognize that most forums usually end up as a giant echo chambers because people want to hear/read what they agree with.

The majority of people are good - I truly believe that. The problem is we only hear from the loud ones who are usually not so good.

Wow I have not seen this one.  This is very close to what I am looking for.  It claims to use blockchain technology for the backend and the front end is their website but they encourage you to build your own if you want to get around their moderation.

The difference in their project and my idea is they send the "peeps" to the blockchain while I want the blockchain to send the tweets/twats/peeps to the explorer and then the website. But the concept of using the data to build your own interface is spot on.

This is a good one, thanks for the message.

I think this is debatable because you could build the rewards (creation of new token) to change overtime depending on network use.  Example would be DOGE. It is low cost per token, secure, and low cost to send although transactions per second isn't huge. This is a whole separate discussion and since we are just throwing around ideas, its probable not worth debating right now.



This was my original question - How could you use existing blockchains to provide a decentralized version of twitter?  The https://memo.cash/ mentioned above does this but poorly.  I will look more into this option as I agree, this is probably the best option.  If I found a blockchain that is secure and cheap to send transactions, maybe I could build a website that reads all transactions in said blockchain and replicates a twitter feed using the messages in each transaction. Could even require the beginning of the message to have a specific key to remove transactions not intended to send message.

Example:
Alice sends x NMC to Bob with message saying "DECTWAT_message here"
Website displays new "tweet" (we need a better word) that is from Alice's address that may or may not be verified to read "message here"
Website does not display any transactions that did not have "DECTWAT" AND was over x NMC.

Thanks again for the feedback and discussion.

Thanks for the feedback.


I know this can easily be done but the centralized website would be for normies to use with clean UX/UI. There could be hundreds of versions that fit each individuals wants. Think of a personalized twitter feed.



Why do you think the tokens (if structured the right way) couldn't drive incentive?  Each token is worth one message. This would have to be well thought out but it would eventually become a "pay-to-tweet" service which is fair because there has to be a small cost for the service. Just as there is a small cost to use any blockchain technology.


Isn't this a risk of any PoW chain?

---

You said it exactly right, but this is a good thing, not a bad thing.  I think you missed the point. 

The user can choose how they use the platform.

The backend is the blockchain that allows a decentralized message system to function without third parties.  The front end is whatever you want it to be.  You can run a full node and verify all messages yourself or you can use someone else's website that does it all for you. 

There is incentive for people to create websites or platforms that read the blockchain because they can then make money on ads, subscriptions etc. 

There is incentive for people to use the chain for the obvious reasons that decentralized blockchains bring.

---

I have seen this but we know that Twitter can't be trusted. Something like this would have to be built by the people for the people.

They are also going too big based on my research of this project - trying to make an entire social media platform.  The idea I am proposing is very simple.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I have a project idea but I'm not sure if it is a terrible idea or if this is already being done, so I figured I'd post and let you animals decide.

TLDR; Use existing blockchain Blockchain (PoW crypto) that allows sending of messages publicly with each transaction to create a decentralized message system that allows centralized websites to easily show the messages by manipulating the block explorer in a feed or however else they desire i.e. decentralized twatter.



This platform would facilitate messages being sent by spending tokens through a PoW protocol.  No person or company would own or moderate. The block explorer, however could be filtered or moderated by each individual user or website.

It would work exactly like any other PoW consensus.  The protocol would allow sending and receiving of tokens and each transaction of tokens would include a message. Just like other protocols you can send a transaction to someone's address. This receiving address would now own the token.  They could then sell the token to a user who wants to send a message or send it as their own. Or even send a message during the sale.  Each transaction would have a new message but the old transaction would be publicly broadcasted on the blockchain.¹

Miners would be incentivized for securing the PoW protocol with new tokens which they could sell for cost of operation. Each new block of transactions would give a reward to the miner who finds the key plus fees for transactions exactly like bitcoin. Difficulty of mining would adjust as needed to keep blocks being mined on set frequency (1 minute?).

It should be easy for someone to set up a website to read all transactions just like blockchain.info and be formatted to a feed like twitter.  It should be easy to update from there for searches or even custom feeds from your followed addresses.  Different users could set up different sites for their own needs.  For example, one site may ban all messages that include certain words or phrases.  Some sites may ban nothing.  Some may only allow verified users on the feed.  You get the picture.

Addresses could be easily verified or banned on individual website.  Each website would be a centralized operation but the blockchain would remain decentralized.

This last part is the best part in my opinion. It allows for a truly decentralized place where anyone can share anything. Some things shared will be hateful and disgusting of course, but because it is open sourced on the blockchain, it will be easy for certain words or addresses to be filtered out on individual websites that read the blockchain.  Each individual can have their own twitter with their own rules.  This will lead to the best content getting the most views and the worst content being hidden by design because most people are good people and do not condone hate speech or ignorance.  



Are there any projects like this?

Could a similar website like blockchain.info be set up to read all messages from a blockchain already?

Thanks for any and all comments.



1: The transactions in theory would not need a minimum amount, but this would be abused of course, so a minimum limit must be created to prevent spam. Other forms of spam prevention would obviously need to be implemented like maximum transactions per time, maximum length of message, etc.  A sliding minimum amount per transaction that updates every X blocks based on some other variable may be useful here i.e. the more you send the more expensive it gets and then resets after some time.