Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, has recently expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. operations and integrating it with blockchain technology. On March 4, 2025, Ohanian announced via X that he has joined a consortium, known as “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” led by billionaire Frank McCourt under Project Liberty. The goal is to purchase TikTok U.S. and transition it “on-chain” using the Frequency blockchain protocol, which is built on Polkadot’s infrastructure.
This move aims to give TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users greater control over their data and content, aligning with Ohanian’s vision of empowering creators and decentralizing social media. Ohanian has emphasized that “users should own their data” and “creators should own their audience,” suggesting that blockchain integration could make TikTok more transparent and creator driven.
Decentralized social media refers to platforms built on distributed technologies, like blockchain or peer-to-peer networks, where control isn’t concentrated in a single entity (e.g., a corporation like Meta or X). Instead, data, governance, and operations are spread across a network of users, aiming to enhance privacy, user ownership, and resistance to censorship. The idea ties into Alexis Ohanian’s recent proposal to put TikTok on the Frequency blockchain, but it’s part of a broader movement.
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The Frequency protocol is intended to serve as the backbone of this redesigned platform, prioritizing privacy, security, and digital independence. This isn’t Ohanian’s first venture into blockchain; Reddit previously experimented with Ethereum-based “Community Points” and Polygon-based NFT avatars, though some of these initiatives were scaled back or discontinued.
Unlike centralized platforms where a company stores your data on its servers, decentralized social media uses protocols where: Data Ownership: Users control their content and personal info, often stored on distributed ledgers or personal nodes, not corporate databases. Interactions happen directly between users via the network, reducing reliance on a central authority. Many platforms use cryptocurrencies or tokens to reward creators, incentivize moderation, or fund development (e.g., Steemit with STEEM).
A federated network of independent servers (instances) where users can host their own communities, interoperating via the ActivityPub protocol. It’s not blockchain-based but decentralized in structure. Ohanian’s pitch to move TikTok to Frequency (a Polkadot-based chain) fits this trend. Frequency is designed for high-throughput social data, claiming to handle large-scale interactions while keeping things decentralized. The idea is to let TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users own their digital identities and content, potentially using tokens or NFTs to represent value. It’s ambitious—TikTok’s centralized infrastructure is a speed demon; porting it to blockchain would require massive reengineering.
The bid comes amid ongoing pressure from the U.S. government on TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations due to national security concerns. While the proposal is ambitious, challenges remain, including the technical feasibility of adapting TikTok’s massive platform to blockchain infrastructure and navigating regulatory hurdles. Ohanian’s involvement reflects his long-standing interest in decentralized digital ecosystems, but whether this vision will come to fruition is still uncertain as the acquisition process is in its early stages, competing with other potential buyers like Microsoft and Oracle.
Decentralized social media has been hyped for years (remember Diaspora?), but adoption lags. Mastodon has about 1.5 million monthly active users, a fraction of X’s 400 million or TikTok’s 1 billion+. Tech hurdles, like blockchain’s transaction costs and latency, plus user inertia, keep centralized giants dominant. Still, with figures like Ohanian pushing it, and regulatory pressure on apps like TikTok, the concept’s getting fresh momentum. Whether it’s practical or just Web3 buzz remains the big question.