Recently, a lot of noise has been made by the appearance of a new social network application in the AppStore - a decentralized competitor of Twitter called Damus. The project received support from the founder of the famous social network Jack Dorsey. What is a "decentralized social network" and how does it differ from the usual one?

Decentralized social networks have a number of advantages over traditional centralized social networks. They give users more control over their personal data because it is stored decentralised on the network, making them less susceptible to data leaks.

Decentralized social networks are also more secure and provide greater privacy, since users can create accounts without being tied to real personalities. In addition, such networks support freedom of speech, since no central authority can control or censor content.

Another advantage is the ownership of personal data and content, since users retain the rights to their content and have the opportunity to receive remuneration for it.

Decentralized social networks can also be managed in a decentralized manner through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), giving users the ability to make decisions about the direction and development of the network.

However, decentralized social networks also have a number of disadvantages. It is difficult for them to attract a large user base, since most people are used to using large centralized social networks.

In addition, the lack of moderation in these networks can lead to the spread of political disinformation, cyberbullying and criminal activity.

Finally, the technology underlying decentralized social networks is still evolving, and there are many technical challenges that need to be addressed, such as scalability and the cost of hosting and maintaining decentralized nodes.