1.6 KiB
Data
Data Structures
Shared data structures enable interoperability.
Solid - Solid's data structure is RDF. RDF uses URIs to name the relationship between things, allowing structured data to be shared across different applications. RDF could potentially be a barrier to adoption, due to its complexity.
Matrix - Matrix transports messages using JSON, and tracks conversation history through DAGs.
Mastodon - ActivityPub uses streams of JSON-LD. Mastodon was formerly compatible with OStatus, which used RSS.
IPFS - IPFS uses a custom data structure, IPLD, designed to treat hash-linked data structures as subsets of a unified information space.
Ssb - Ssb uses append-only logs of signed JSON.
Mutability
Federated applications allow users to edit and delete content, handled at the server level. Content may not be guaranteed to be deleted across the entire network in some cases - protocols should require applications to honor delete messages.
P2p applications have more variance around mutability.
Ssb & Hypercore - Messages added to the append-only logs used by ssb and hypercore are immutable. Applications can choose not to display messages indicated as deleted, but the data cannot be overwritten.
IPFS - Once added to a network, content is discoverable by its hash. If a copy remains stored on the network, it is re-discoverable by this reference.
Aether - "Stale" threads that have not been referenced for 6 months get dropped by the network. This design attempts to make posts more ephemeral in a p2p setting.