Peer-to-Peer-Based Social Networks: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

The use of online social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, has grown at a phenomenal rate. These platforms offer services that support interactions via messaging, chatting or audio/video conferencing, and also sharing of content. Most, if not all, of these platforms use centralized computing systems; therefore, the control and management of the systems lies entirely in the hands of one provider, who must be trusted to treat the data and communication traces securely. As a zero-trust alternative, peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies promise to support end-to-end communication, uncompromising access control, anonymity and resilience against censorship and massive data leaks through misused trust. The goals of this survey are threefold. First, the survey elaborates the properties of P2P-based online social networks and defines the requirements for such (zero-trust) platforms. Second, it gives an exposition of the building blocks for P2P frameworks that allow the creation of such sophisticated and demanding applications, such as user/identity management, reliable data storage, secure communication, access control and general-purpose extensibility, which are not properly addressed in other P2P surveys. As a third point, it gives a comprehensive analysis of proposed P2P-based online social network applications, frameworks and architectures by exploring the technical details, inter-dependencies and maturity of these solutions.