Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) is a decentralized protocol for social network platforms. Āhau is a client built on top of SSB focused on indigenous heritage and data-sovereignty. But other clients, such as Manyverse, are also useful as alternatives to corporate chat and social networking and can also guarantee data-sovereignty when used with care.
Manyverse SSB mobile client (soon available for Desktop)
There are also browser clients, desktop clients and federated clients that all interface with this distributed social-network where follows and blocks put users in control of what feeds they choose to see and replicate, enabling subjective digital experiences.
The main differences from Āhau are that public data is not encrypted, private groups have a limit of participants and files have a 5mb file size limit. But that will likely change once clients have caught up with each other.
A big problem for p2p over the Internet is NAT transversal, or that devices don’t have public ips to address each other over the Internet. Hypercore deals with that using NAT hole-punching and signaling servers. SSB also uses signaling servers known as pubs (that persist data) or rooms that are purely signaling servers. Just recently ssb-rooms2 came out with a admin dashboard to help onboard new users and enable moderation of the digital territory, puting more control on the hand of whichever community is using it. Learn more:
The option to join the network through the browser is also a great for onboarding community members that usually have their phone storage full and might not want to install a new app. Here’s a SSB browser instance I’m running.
Together with AlterMundi we intend to create a SSB browser client with an user-experience focused on communities, their territories and their culture. Communities who might be seeking data-sovereinty on communication tools have a lot to contribute to the research and design of such a client, so reach out if interested. We’ll be looking for funding through the SSB Access fund.
Learn more about SSB at https://scuttlebutt.nz