What Medium is Our Message?: Best Practices for Decentralized Social Networking with Nick Reynolds

This talk makes the case for a framework of best practices to follow when building decentralized social networks. In particular, I emphasize the necessity of using Open Source and Open Standards in this space. I first briefly explore social networking and identity from a sociological perspective, discuss a subset of some of the important scholars/works in the space (primarily with an eye towards Marshall McLuhan’s work on media theory) and, using insights from these works, present a definition of “Web3” that build’s on Jay Graber’s definition but is inextricably linked to public goods. And, from this definition, non-exhaustively identify key principles and requirements to consider when building in this space. An example of how this could be explored would be to justify the principle of “self-certification” as being core to the Web3 ethos. Then, we identify requirements of “self-certification” from multiple perspectives. Not just the technical requirement of user-controlled cryptography, but “softer”, mission-focused requirements as well. I also explore specific protocols and technologies (from DIDs and Verifiable Credentials, to DIDComm and mirror.xyz, AT Protocol and many more) and show how they fit within a principled framework of Web3. Concluded with a call-to-action for voluntary cooperation (and the specific steps to take to achieve this) between the major players in this space within the Ethereum ecosystem to support the composability that is foundational to the Open Web. Nick Reynolds Protocol Engineer Veramo (veramo.io) / Consensys Mesh R&D (mesh.xyz) I’m a 33 year old protocol engineer and researcher living in Brooklyn (my whole family lives in Denver, though). I work in Consensys Mesh’s Applied Research and Development department, primarily on the Veramo project, a public good (100% free and open source) library for working with decentralized identity and related technologies. https://twitter.com/okay_nick