The growth of the Blockchain space, particularly in the last 12 months, has led many to believe that more innovations could come up in the space. However, Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, believes that it is quite possible to run a decentralized social media protocol that will provide enough privacy like Silk Road, a dark web protocol he currently runs. In his recent proposal, Ulbricht, who is currently in Prison, believes that having decentralized social media platforms in place would fix the issues posed by the centralized and non-privacy nature of the current social media space.
Ulbricht believes Social Media users are currently limited
Ross Ulbricht, who popularly calls himself Darknet Pirate, is currently serving a life sentence in Prison. However, in a recent post by the Programmer on Social media- Twitter, he confirmed that was he not sentenced to life imprisonment, he would have launched a decentralized social media platform. Ulbricht was arrested in 2013 and was indicted on at least seven charges, including money laundering, computer hacking, and drug-related charges. He was found guilty after trials and was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms.
Since then, the Programmer has been in Prison as all appeals to the United States Court of Appeal have fallen on deaf ears. However, Ulbricht, who does not know if he will ever be released, has now shared his plans with his followers on Twitter and Medium. In his post, the Programmer believed that the world should be able to advance to a point where Social Media users can decide whatever they want to do on these websites without being monitored or controlled. He believed that putting all the decisions in the users’ hands ultimately defines what social media is all about.
Ulbricht’s decentralized protocol will enable users to earn from adverts
The Social Media Protocol that Ulbricht was planning to develop, according to the convict, will allow users to manage access to their content with several privacy-focused tools it will be embedded with. The Programmer believes that Social media users deserve to have total control of their contents without social media websites or applications. He confirmed that the Social Media Protocol he was building would block interference between users and service providers, which looks almost impossible.
However, the Programmer concedes that this is something that the world has not seen before, but he hopes he can build the model someday. Ulbricht also confirmed that the Social Media Protocol he hopes to develop, if he’s ever granted a pardon, will also solve the dilemma between social media advertisers and users. He is a firm admirer of users being paid for adverts that come on their timelines and profiles, not only the social media owners. Ulbricht believes that, should his Decentralized Social Media Protocol ever see the light of the day, it will create a proper sharing plan for funds generated from adverts between users who see it and the social media owners.
