silverpillFeb 4

Ripple/XRP (a cryptocurrency company) just granted 200k USD to Social Web Foundation, "...to research sustainable revenue and operating models for digital publishers and community-run platforms":

https://interledger.org/news/interledger-foundation-awards-200000-social-web-foundation-support-decentralized-social-media (archived)

This means they will be able to influence the development of the ActivityPub specification at W3C.

For those who don't know: Interledger, WebMonetization and OpenPayments are basically the same thing, these projects were created by Ripple ~10 years ago in order to insert their cryptocurrency and related payment services into web standards. These projects are sometimes presented as independent, but this is a lie, they are not (not in 2019, not in 2025).

Needless to say, Ripple itself is a borderline scam: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2019/03/01/is-ripple-a-scam/. It's not even a cryptocurrency really, their infrastructure is completely centralized and no one in cryptocurrency space takes them seriously. But they have a lot of money to bribe people, so I am sure that we will hear more about their adventures soon.

RE: https://socialwebfoundation.org/?p=99982

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5

@silverpill hey, thanks for sharing the link!

Interledger Foundation is also a W3C member, and can join the Working Group directly. They don't need to make this grant to participate in ActivityPub standards.

Show threadEvan Prodromou

@silverpill

The grant is for four subprojects:

1. Fediverse sustainability. What are the economic, psychological and emotional pressures on instance operators and other infrastructure providers? How can we support them?

2. Creator economy. What social, organizational, and technical infrastructure do content creators depend on? What are we missing on the Fediverse?

Feb 5 at 9:10amWeb
Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5

@silverpill

3. Cooperatives. social.coop, cosocial.ca and data.coop are all great examples of coops on the fediverse. Does this democratic and participative corporate structure provide an advantage for the Fediverse?

4. Web Monetization. Many Fediverse projects have implemented this API. We'll be identifying two more multimedia projects and helping them use the protocol.

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5
@silverpill this is a restricted grant; we're being paid for the work being done. There's no quid pro quo, except that ILF and SWF both want the Social Web to grow and succeed.
Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5
@silverpill feel free to tag me next time if you'd like to talk about our work at SWF.
Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5

@silverpill oh, and have you met @Jeremiah ? He's an active participant in the ActivityPub community. A great person for you to meet!

Jeremiah, do you have any recommended links for someone interested in ActivityPub to learn more about ILF and WM?

Show threadsilverpillFeb 5
@evan There's nothing to talk about. I know who these people are and what they are doing.
Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 5
@silverpill which people?
Show threadmelon Feb 5

@evan @[email protected]

What are the economic, psychological and emotional pressures on instance operators and other infrastructure providers?A lotHow can we support them? Two shawarma pls I am instante operator

Show threadSearchOnlyFeb 7
The creator economy piece is huge. Most fediverse platforms assume creators will just... exist on goodwill? Meanwhile they need discovery, monetization tools, analytics that actually work, and ways to build sustainable audiences. The infrastructure gap between "we have federation" and "creators can pay rent" is massive.