# Decentralized Social

**Published by:** [AVC](https://avc.xyz/)
**Published on:** 2026-01-21
**URL:** https://avc.xyz/decentralized-social

## Content

Back in 2022, when Twitter was sold to Elon Musk, I tweeted this:Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services.So began my exodus from Twitter, which culminated in a complete departure in May 2024, when I wrote this post. I've tried all of the decentralized social protocols, Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster and have been most active on Farcaster, where USV is an investor. Earlier today, Vitalik Buterin wrote this post using a decentralized social app called Firefly that sends its posts to Lens, Bluesky, Farcaster and Twitter. Vitalik started off his post with this observation:If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools. We need mass communication tools that surface the best information and arguments and help people find points of agreement. We need mass communication tools that serve the user's long-term interest, not maximize short-term engagement. There is no simple trick that solves these problems. But there is one important place to start: more competition. Decentralization is the way to enable that: a shared data layer, with anyone being able to build their own client on top.I could not agree more. I believe in social protocols like Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster. Both the Lens protocol and the Farcaster protocol have changed stewards this week. The Aave team, which founded Lens, has handed it over to the Mask team. And today, the Farcaster founders announced that they are handing over stewardship of the Farcaster protocol (and app) to the Neynar team. Some will look at these events and say that decentralized social has failed. However, I see it differently. Protocols don't die so easily. They are resilient. And as Vitalik said in his post:decentralized social should be run by people who deeply believe in the "social" part, and are motivated first and foremost by solving the problems of social.I don't know the Mask team but I do know the Neynar team. USV is an investor in Neynar, and we have worked with Rish and Manan for over a year now. They are the kinds of people that Vitalik was talking about when he wrote that. If you want to post to X and also decentralized social protocols at the same time, try using the Firefly app like Vitalik does.

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