Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has endorsed the use of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology for “likes” on Farcaster, an Ethereum-based decentralized social media protocol.
This suggestion came in response to an announcement by X engineer Haofei, revealing that user likes on X will be private.
Buterin argued that this approach would address the issue of “preference falsification,” when individuals conceal their true preferences due to social pressure.
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ZK technology, a cryptographic method, allows users to prove they liked a post without revealing their identity, thereby preserving privacy.
Buterin recommended using ZK technology from Zupoll, a tool developed for his Zuzalu decentralized city project. Zupoll enables anonymous voting and decision-making, aligning with Farcaster’s focus on user privacy, censorship resistance, and autonomy.
The post that inspired Buterin’s suggestion announced that X is making user likes private and explained that public likes incentivize “wrong behavior,” making people feel discouraged from liking the content they want.
The community’s response to this decision was mixed, with some advocating for extending privacy measures to other features like the “Following” list.
Others, like @WallStreetSilv, opposed the update, saying:
The number of likes visible is a great indicator on whether something is worth reading or watching. I thought X was trying to encourage more engagement. You are taking away the critical signals of engagement and high quality content.
It wouldn’t be the first time that changes on X have been criticized by the community. Ripple CTO David Schwartz has previously challenged Musk’s policy to charge new X users, saying it contradicted his proclaimed advocacy for absolute freedom of speech.
Nonetheless, Buterin’s suggestion to implement ZK likes on Farcaster aligns with his broader efforts to enhance privacy and decentralization.
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