Fediverse

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This magazine is dedicated to discussions on the federated social networking ecosystem, which includes decentralized and open-source social media platforms. Whether you are a user, developer, or simply interested in the concept of decentralized social media, this is the place for you. Here you can share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions on topics such as the benefits and challenges of decentralized social media, new and existing federated platforms, and more. From the latest developments and trends to ethical considerations and the future of federated social media, this category covers a wide range of topics related to the Fediverse.

founded 1 year ago

Trying out Lemmy and kbin… And the #fediverse interoperability has lost me 😥 please #help ! (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey All,
I’m an (old 😉) IT guy, very excited by the #fediverse and trying to find my way amongst various services.

As an example, I started gathering topics I like on a Lemmy account. Then, I got tempted to create different accounts on smaller instances and try out kbin.

I’d love that my « subscriptions » follow me, so that I don’t have to scan all my « magazines » and re-register from everywhere.

Can someone kindly help me on how I can achieve that? Apologies if the question is naive, but given the decentralised nature of those services, shouldn’t each user have a « local » trace of what they follow (for example on a local app), no matter the service, so that they get « their view », their « window » on the #fediverse?

Many thanks for the #fedihelp and again my apologies for the probably basic questions!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

What you are alluding to is called "DIDs" = "Decentralized identifiers" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_identifier).
The idea of most of these methods is that you identify yourself using a private key, while a public key is spread throughout the network.
If you want to log into a server on that network, the server would "challenge" your identity by encrypting something (e.g. a random number) using the public key, which you, the holder of the private key, can then decrypt and send back to prove you are who you say you are.

This method is already standardized by the W3C, but only has been for less than a year. You also have to keep in mind that all federalized social network systems (such as lemmy and kbin) are still in early development.