A Blockchain Enhanced Framework for Social Networking

Abstract

Social networking sites have given users unprecedented opportunities for the generation and dissemination of content. A variety of social networking sites exist for different purposes, to afford users a range of anonymous and non-anonymous options for self-expression, and the ability to be a part of a virtual community. These “affordances” enable users to create and share content; however, the ability to partially or wholly detach user identity from the content has resulted in unique challenges for content access and content attribution. This paper proposes a framework for secure, trustworthy social networking that also creates value for user-generated content by using a blockchain-enhanced framework for social networking. This work explains the application of such a framework for collocated spaces of robots and IoT devices and identifies key challenges that result as a consequence of merging social networking sites and blockchain technology.