Social media in the browser using DAT

[glensimister]

Hi. I stumbled across Cliqz yesterday. Sorry to hear that the project went down. So is this really the end of the road? I'm sure there are many ways to appeal to a larger audience.

I was looking for a web browser that supports the DAT protocol because I'm interested in the possibility of adding social media functionality to the browser itself. The Brave browser now supports IPFS, but i'm concerned about immutable data as I want people to have as much control over their data as possible. The reason why I won't use Beaker browser is because they won't support extensions, which is an absurd decision IMO. It's not in alignment with the ethos of openness and decentralisation. I understand that there are security concerns associated with browser extensions, but you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Here are some videos that demonstrate what I'm trying to achieve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lG37usSwoo - Decentralised social media / personal data stores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v83KDHyyNjg&t=3s - Decentralised governance

After reading some of the info on the Cliqz website, it seems as though you guys have a similar vision.

I want a browser with the following features...

• An in-browser personal data store which exposes an API for other apps to interact with.
• The ability to like, dislike and comment on webpages (or anything for that matter).
• Decentralized search engine that is user driven (based on likes and dislikes - similar to YouTube).
• Very basic functionality but with great support for extensions. I want it to be as modular as possible.

The last point is very important, as this is what will enable the browser to evolve. There was a project that I was interested in several years ago called Breach (https://github.com/breach/breach_core). It was an entirely modular browser. The project is now dead but I thought it was a great idea.

As a business model, perhaps you could charge a small amount of money for validating the extensions (including updates). If I made a browser extension, which I thought people would use, I'd happily pay a small fee to have it published. Adversaries would be discouraged by the fee, and users will feel better knowing that the extensions have been properly tested.

I really think it's possible to come up with something fresh and useful. Even the ability to rate and comment on content would be huge! I've heard about Dissenter, but it's still not technically decentralised.

Anyway, most people ignore me but I just thought I'd chime in, for what it's worth.

Don't give up, innovate!

Thanks
Glen