Bulb.Social

Bulb is a decentralized social media platform inspired by Instagram, utilizing decentralized technologies to provide users with a unique content-sharing and monetization experience. Users can create both public and private profiles, with private profiles offering exclusive content accessible through paid subscriptions in crypto tokens.

The platform employs EVM-based smart contracts for managing profile settings, subscription prices and durations, and fund withdrawals. OrbitDb is used for decentralized storage of post metadata, while IPFS stores photos, ensuring data integrity and security.

Bulb features real-time notifications and a subscription feed to keep users updated on new content from creators they follow. The backend is implemented in Golang, managing interactions with OrbitDB and IPFS. The frontend is a Progressive Web App (PWA) developed with React, TypeScript, and Material-UI, ensuring a responsive and engaging user interface.

Authentication is facilitated through mobile wallets like Metamask, providing secure and user-friendly access. Additional technologies include Privy for simplified authentication, Flow for smart contract deployment, and ENS for enhanced profile verification.

By integrating these decentralized technologies, Bulb offers an innovative social media experience, empowering content creators to monetize their work while providing users with control over their data and interactions. This project represents a novel approach to social networking within a decentralized ecosystem.

Sponsor Section:

• Privy offers a variety of authentication methods, including email, SMS, Wallet (Metamask), and passkeys. It abstracts complexities for newcomers holding wallets, providing a transparent and seamless experience while minimizing the perceived intricacies of cryptocurrency.
• Flow facilitates quick and easy deployment of Solidity smart contracts, regardless of their original development on other major chains. The platform ensures scalability, connecting our target audiences to our new digital ecosystem and paving the way for widespread adoption.
• When combined, Privy and Flow provide our Progressive Web Application (PWA) with a distinct advantage, delivering a seamless and refined experience when expertly integrated into compelling use cases, thereby significantly enhancing the user experience we offer.
• ENS offers a competitive edge over traditional Web2 solutions by enabling users to complete their profiles before their first connection. This approach not only implements a practical use case for L2 primary names but also enhances trust with a verified checkmark next to the profile name.

Side Techno used to build the project: Decentralized Data Storage: All user content and metadata are stored on IPFS and OrbitDB, ensuring data is not controlled by a single entity. This infrastructure enhances security and resiliency by distributing data across multiple nodes. Censorship Resistance: By leveraging IPFS and OrbitDB, content remains accessible even if individual nodes go offline or are censored. This resilience maintains content availability in diverse network conditions. User Privacy & Ownership: Users retain complete control over their data, which is stored in a distributed manner and referenced by cryptographic hashes. This setup ensures user ownership and privacy, allowing users to have full control over their personal information and content. Extensible API: The Go backend offers a clean, RESTful API surface for front-end clients and future integrations, making it easy for developers to build upon and extend the platform's capabilities. Persistence & Reliability: Data is pinned on IPFS and OrbitDB uses a persistent directory structure, ensuring that content remains accessible and is not lost during service restarts. Modular Architecture: Each service within Bulb is containerized and communicates over a Docker network, making deployment, scaling, and maintenance straightforward and efficient. Easy to Use and Accessible: Bulb is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to everyone. It supports secure authentication through mobile wallets like MetaMask, allowing users to access their profiles and app functionalities seamlessly. Additionally, Bulb is installable as a Progressive Web App (PWA), providing a native-like experience on mobile devices without requiring blockchain or wallet setup. This approach makes decentralized social networking available to a broader audience. Bulb offers comprehensive features for content creators, including the ability to deploy personal profile contracts to manage public and private content. Creators can set subscription prices and durations for private profiles, monetizing their exclusive content effectively. They can withdraw accumulated subscription funds and update subscription details to adjust their monetization strategy. Users can subscribe to private profiles by paying the specified crypto token amount, gaining access to exclusive content. They receive real-time notifications for new posts from followed creators, ensuring they never miss new content. The backend server connects to local Kubo IPFS nodes and OrbitDB instances, ensuring robust data management and storage. The frontend features allow users to connect their mobile wallets, view feeds of followed creators, create and manage posts, and subscribe to exclusive content.