Web3 Social Graph

The core principle where a user's social data—connections, posts, and reputation—is stored in a self-custodied wallet or a decentralized data network like Ceramic or IPFS. This enables data portability, allowing users to move their social graph between applications without losing their network or history. It directly counters the platform-locked model of Web2 social media.

The social graph is built as a public good with open standards (e.g., Farcaster FIDs, Lens Profiles), making it composable. Any developer can read from and build upon the same underlying social data layer. This enables:

• Cross-application experiences: A reputation system from one app can be used in another.
• Permissionless innovation: New social clients can emerge without needing to bootstrap a network from scratch.

Social actions and attestations are recorded on a blockchain or verifiable data ledger, providing cryptographic proof of origin and history. This enables:

• Sybil resistance: Linking social identity to a wallet with provable asset ownership (e.g., NFTs, POAPs).
• Trustless reputation: Credentials and endorsements are publicly verifiable and cannot be forged by a central authority.
• Transparent algorithms: The logic for content ranking or connection suggestions can be auditable.

Control over the social graph's rules and content moderation is distributed, often managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or through protocol-level governance. This reduces the risk of unilateral de-platforming or arbitrary policy changes by a single corporate entity. The network's resilience comes from multiple independent nodes or validators hosting the data.

Native digital assets and microtransactions are integrated directly into the social fabric. Features include:

• Creator tokens & social tokens: Fans can invest in or support creators directly.
• NFT-gated communities: Access is controlled by ownership of specific non-fungible tokens.
• Protocol-level revenue sharing: Value accrues to users, creators, and network participants rather than a central intermediary.

Real-world protocols building Web3 social graphs:

• Lens Protocol: A composable social graph on Polygon where user profiles are NFTs.
• Farcaster: A sufficiently decentralized social network with on-chain identity (Farcaster ID) and off-chain data hubs.
• CyberConnect: A social graph protocol focusing on data sovereignty and developer tooling.
• DeSo: A blockchain specifically designed for decentralized social applications.

The core technical promise of Web3 social graphs is data sovereignty. Unlike Web2 platforms, your social identity and connections are not locked into a single application.

• Portable Graph: Users can take their followers and content to new front-end applications.
• Composable Data: Developers can permissionlessly read and build upon a shared social dataset, enabling innovation.

Building decentralized social networks presents unique hurdles that protocols are actively solving.

• Scalability & Cost: Storing high-volume social data on-chain is expensive; solutions include L2s, hybrid storage, and data sharding.
• Spam & Sybil Resistance: Protocols use mechanisms like paid registrations (Farcaster), staking, or proof-of-personhood.
• Content Moderation: Balancing decentralization with the need for community safety through decentralized curation tools.

A Web3 social graph anchors a user's social identity to a self-sovereign identity (SSI) like an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain or a decentralized identifier (DID). This allows users to carry their followers, reputation, and content across different platforms (e.g., moving from Lens Protocol to Farcaster) without starting from zero, breaking platform lock-in.

Social graphs record verifiable actions on-chain, creating a portable reputation system. Key mechanisms include:

• Soulbound Tokens (SBTs): Non-transferable tokens representing memberships, attestations, or achievements.
• Proof-of-Personhood: Systems like Worldcoin or BrightID to combat sybil attacks.
• Attestation Protocols: Frameworks like Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) to issue verifiable claims about a user's identity or actions.

New application categories are built directly on decentralized social graphs. Examples include:

• Social Networks: Lens Protocol (publications, mirrors, collects) and Farcaster (decentralized Twitter alternative).
• Content Monetization: Platforms like Mirror.xyz for crowdfunding and publishing, where subscriber graphs are owned by creators.
• Community Tools: DAO tooling that uses social graphs for governance weight and contribution tracking.

Users own their graph data, stored in decentralized storage (e.g., IPFS, Arweave) or smart contracts. This shifts the economic model:

• Users can permission access to their social data for targeted services.
• Creators capture value directly through native tokens, NFTs, and subscription models without intermediary platforms taking a large cut.
• Data is composable, allowing third-party developers to build new features on top of existing social graphs.

The open and standardized nature of Web3 social graphs (often using GraphQL APIs) enables composability. Developers can:

• Build "social plugins" for any dApp (e.g., social feeds in DeFi interfaces).
• Create cross-protocol applications that aggregate data from Lens, Farcaster, and others.
• Leverage open algorithms where recommendation and curation logic is transparent and customizable, unlike proprietary black-box algorithms.

The infrastructure layer consists of interoperable protocols:

• Graph Indexing: The Graph Protocol for querying on-chain social data.
• Storage: Ceramic Network for mutable, stream-based data linked to DIDs.
• Sybil Resistance: Proof-of-Personhood protocols and stake-based mechanisms.
• Namespace Standards: ERC-6551 for token-bound accounts, enabling NFTs to hold social profiles and assets.

Non-transferable tokens that represent credentials, affiliations, or achievements. Proposed by Vitalik Buterin, SBTs act as verifiable attestations within the social graph, enabling:

• Reputation Systems: Proof of membership, work history, or skill.
• Trust Networks: Mapping real-world relationships and endorsements.
• Sybil Resistance: Helping distinguish unique humans from bots by anchoring non-financial identity.