Daniel Supernault, the developer behind open-source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fuel the further development of his apps, Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup. The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, which is powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by Mastodon.

The fediverse has seen significant growth in recent months, particularly after the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk in October 2022. As users sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires, open-source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky have continued to expand their user bases. Even Meta, recognizing the shift, released its own X rival, Instagram Threads, which is integrating with ActivityPub.

Supernault's Kickstarter campaign, which has already surpassed its initial goal, aims to raise $1 million or more to hire a small team and support the continued development of his open social communities. "Help us put control back into the hands of the people!" he exclaimed in a post on Mastodon announcing the campaign's launch.

While Pixelfed has been around for years, it only recently launched its 1.0 mobile app, and Loops is still in alpha testing on Apple's TestFlight. Sup, meanwhile, is set to be released soon. Both Loops and Sup will be made available to Kickstarter supporters. A fourth project, PubKit, is also part of these efforts, offering a toolset to support developers building in the fediverse.

PubKit includes interactive tools and testing frameworks, allowing developers to mock popular activities on their service, set up an inbox for ingesting and debugging activities in real time, and tools to inspect, debug, and verify HTTP Signature implementations. If the campaign is successful, it will also fund a blogging app as an alternative to Tumblr or LiveJournal in the future.

The funds raised will help the apps manage the influx of new users, with Pixelfed.social, the main Pixelfed instance, now boasting over 200,000 users and becoming the second-largest server in the fediverse. The funds will also support the expansion of storage, CDNs, and compute power needed for the growing user base and accelerate development.

In addition, the funds will enable Supernault to dedicate more time to the apps and the fediverse as a whole, while expanding moderation, security, privacy, and safety programs. As part of its efforts, Supernault also plans to introduce E2E encryption to the fediverse, further solidifying the open-source alternatives as a viable option for users seeking greater control over their online presence.

The success of Supernault's Kickstarter campaign could have significant implications for the future of social media, as users increasingly seek out decentralized and open-source alternatives to traditional platforms. With the fediverse continuing to grow, it will be interesting to see how Supernault's apps evolve and contribute to the shift towards a more democratized online social landscape.