[kwlug-disc] Matrix clients

[Doug Moen]

Matrix and IRC are decentralized chat rooms.
Mastodon is decentralized Twitter.
Diaspora is decentralized Facebook.
Peertube is decentralized YouTube.
There are a bunch more.

All the programs I just mentioned use a type of decentralization called Federation. There is a client-server architecture, but you can choose a server, or run your own. For example, in Matrix or IRC,  multiple servers can participate in a single chat room. In Mastodon, you can follow people on your own server, or on other servers.

The universe of federated social media services is called the Fediverse.

Other architectures for decentralization: peer to peer, and Blockchain.

IPFS is a peer to peer alternative to HTTP. Internally, it's like a mashup of BitTorrent and git. Files are identified by hashes and are downloaded from the nearest peer rather than a centralized server.

A Merkle Tree is a data structure used by many decentralized systems, including Blockchain, Git, IPFS, Matrix. It is essentially a tree of hashes.

A Blockchain is a decentralized, publicly viewable, append-only database or ledger. It doesn't have to be used for cryptocurrency, you can store anything in a blockchain. Like NFTs. NFTs were originally intended to be decentralized Patreon, where you can donate to an artist and have a Blockchain record of your donation. Then NFTs were co-opted by grifters, who created a market for NFTs, based on the false claim that you were "buying" an artwork. Actually you are buying a character string containing a URL that points to an art work. If the URL stops working, maybe your NFT becomes worthless.

On Sat, Jun 18, 2022, at 1:10 AM, Chris Frey wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 10:41:25PM -0400, Doug Moen wrote:
>> Matrix is real time chat, like a modern version of IRC. Conversations take
>> place in specific "rooms".
>> 
>> Mastodon is decentralized twitter. You are broadcasting short messages to all
>> of the people who follow your message stream.
>
> I think Matrix is also supposed to be decentralized too, if
> I understand correctly.
>
> - Chris
>
>
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