What is Mastodon… and will it kill Twitter? - Episode 320 - by cryptohunt.it

What is Mastodon… and will it kill Twitter?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto… and now also some other cutting edge news. As always: In plain English.

There's been a lot going on over at Twitter in the last few weeks - Musk took over and users as well as advertisers have not been happy.

Musk, you have to understand, said he acquired Twitter to protect free speech. But his actions seemed to contradict that - within days of each other, he blocked popular journalists' accounts and then forbid anyone to link out to other social media services.

That was the last straw for many users, including such popular people as tech investor Paul Graham, who's been singing Elon's praises until then. The rallying cry to move to a Twitter alternative has been getting very loud.

That alternative? It's called "Mastodon", and it's principles are inspired by blockchains. And, maybe not surprising to you... it kindof looks and feels just like a clunkier version of Twitter. What's different though, is how it works under the hood.

Mastodon is actually not operated by a single company, like Twitter, but is essentially just a computer program anyone can run on their own computer. In doing so, they spin up their own Mastodon space using their own internet connection and users can freely roam between those spaces.

The Mastodon everyone is talking about is actually one of those spaces, and you can find it at Mastodon.social.

This operating principle is called decentralization, and has the same goals as Bitcoin and co: To let the community operate the service, so that the community is in control. Nobody can just ban users or change rules - unless the majority decides.

Kindof cool right? We think so, and 2 million monthly active users seem to agree. Still a far cry from Twitter’s 450 million, but who knows? Things have just started to happen.

And tomorrow, we'll talk about what Twitter could have been - according to the dreams of its founder, Jack Dorsey.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.