I would like to receive some feedback on this idea I have been kicking around, and see if others might be interested in contributing. I have a basic prototype that proves out most of the technology, but not much beyond that.

The basic general description is an Iroh based identity layer for the open web. This platform would serve three primary functions:

Preserve and consolidate social graph data in an encrypted local storage vault, allowing for import, display, and management of media and posts from both walled garden platforms and open platforms.
A "universal translator" across open platforms, allowing for seamless connection between activitypub, AT protocol, and rss subscriptions. You are able to link mastodon, Lemmy, pixelfed, loops, and blusky accounts and your legacy social media imports can also generate RSS subscription feeds for your previous Instagram or YouTube (among other platforms) subscriptions, with all this content showing up in a single filterable fleed.
Identities can be linked to any unique URL, using an umbrella DID. That URL can be any location the user chooses, including an indieweb page, a spacehey.com profile, or any other site the user controls and is able to host the corresponding DID document for cross platform identification.

There are many more details and features I have in mind that this architecture could facilitate, but this is the overarching basics of what I had in mind. I am very open to critique or analysis of this architecture, potential issues and limitations, as well as ideas for modification.

I would also welcome collaborators and contributors if there is interest, and I can open up the project for whoever may be interested. Let me know!

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[–] lavember@programming.dev 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Can you give more detail on how Iroh would viabilize this? I'm unfamiliar with it

[–] robert.meyer86@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Sure. Iroh facilitates local storage and direct device to device encrypted connections. So basically, it allows you to store your online data on your own devices, encrypted with a secure key, that can be sent to a variety of different end points.

So for example, you import your mastodon profile, it downloads that data to a local vault, and the vault can then be viewed on any other platform that is able to visit your profile. So if a user signs up to the proposed Bytescape platform using a bluesky account, they could search for your mastodon handle, view your posts, and even be updated of your content, thanks to the Iroh syncing of the users local master vault and the cloud storage for their social accounts. This could be shared either through cloud relays for reliability, or you could retrieve it directly from the users local vault via direct p2p connections.

[–] tuckerm@feddit.online 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Iroh to understand what exactly this is, but point #3 sounds interesting. Does this mean that, if a user has linked their identity to this service (and the other special media sites they are using support it), would I be able to see all of a user's posts across multiple social media sites? E.g. filtering the feed by a certain user, and it shows all of that users' posts on Mastodon and Pixelfed?

[–] robert.meyer86@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago

Yes, that's the goal. It would be like an external facing version of emissary or bridgey fed, so you could set up a web portal for all of your social media presence, if you want. Iroh is just a p2p encryption protocol that allows data to be stored and transferred independently of central servers (although relay servers can and likely would be used for reliability and discoverability). So you can have a master copy of all of your data stored on your phone or PC or cloud hosting service or self hosted server, and display that data in one place for your reference/management or for others to view.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

If I'm getting it right, sounds like a more refined and self-hosted form of Linktree, a.k.a. a hub for your social medias so people can find you more easily. Is that it?

[–] robert.meyer86@piefed.social 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

That's kind of it, but it's more behind the scenes than linktree. What I am proposing would be a new platform, like Lemmy or mastodon, that allows you to link in all of your identities and view them all in one place. Other users can then link to your personal website or whatever link your identity is tied to (could be a default Bytescape "profile" page), with all social media handles you have linked to that identity. These could either be simply linked like a link tree, or shown on a profile feed display page so users and yourself can view all of your activity across the web on one place.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I think I get it.

Personally, I like the idea.

And something that comes to mind, Mastodon, Lemmy and PieFed all have methods of account migration. Perhaps such Bytescape tool could integrate to those too?

And further on that, apparently Piefed doesn't import info that it doesn't federate with, e.g. Kbin.Social since iirc it can't be reached (correct me if I'm wrong pls). Also maybe that happens with Mastodon and Lemmy but haven't checked. But if I'm right on that, it would also apply to active but defederated instances. So maybe such potential integration could be used to preserve information that would otherwise be lost as it's not imported?

[–] robert.meyer86@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

This would definitely integrate with data migration tools of all sorts, it already works with meta and bluesky data export/access systems. Activitypub is next on the list. I'd like it to be as seamless as possible, something like an oAuth login. It would be especially useful in cases where users want to move to a totally local storage solution. The goal is not to replace existing platforms per se, but to give users the ability to have a complete locally available copy of their data at all times. Whether that data is mirrored or distributed elsewhere on the web is ultimately up to the user.

With regard to displaying defederated content, this would put that choice in the hands of the user as well. It should take the headache out of seeing the content you want to see, but should also obviously have some level of moderation and safety in place at a basic level.