What are the trade-offs in today’s social media platforms, such as Bluesky 
Check our paper:"𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: 𝐀𝐧 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬"
We explore how different architectural choices shape both the technical performance and societal impact in decentralized social networks.
Joint work by CMU and ASU
Preprint Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00071
arXiv.orgNavigating Decentralized Online Social Networks: An Overview of Technical and Societal Challenges in Architectural ChoicesDecentralized online social networks have evolved from experimental stages to operating at unprecedented scale, with broader adoption and more active use than ever before. Platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, Hive, and Nostr have seen notable growth, particularly following the wave of user migration after Twitter's acquisition in October 2022. As new platforms build upon earlier decentralization architectures and explore novel configurations, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these foundations shape both the direction and limitations of decentralization. Prior literature primarily focuses on specific architectures, resulting in fragmented views that overlook how different social networks encounter similar challenges and complement one another. This paper fills that gap by presenting a comprehensive view of the current decentralized online social network landscape. We examine four major architectures: federated, peer-to-peer, blockchain, and hybrid, tracing their evolution and evaluating how they support core social networking functions. By linking these architectural aspects to real-world cases, our work provides a foundation for understanding the societal implications of decentralized social platforms.
