We’re Open Sourcing our TikTok Alternative, TAO Social

(a.k.a. Dropping the Code + the Mic)

Apr 23, 2025

We’ve been in stealth. We’ve been in build. We’re about to be in closed beta.

Now we’re cracking open the vault.

Because TAO Social (the platform built by the people, for the people, with the people) is going fully opensource the day the app releases to the public.

Not in six months. Not once we fundraise. Not an ambiguous "eventually."

The day anyone can download TAO from the app store.

We’re in closed beta now and will progress to invite-only in the coming weeks. Give us a little while to work out the bugs and kinks, and the app will be fully available this summer.

@humanexperienced @TAO Social is the only social media platform that cannot sell out by design. We will always remain in the hands of the people we were designed to serve: YOU! Closed beta this month —> invite-only in a few weeks —> full, hard launch likely this summer

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🔓 Why?

Well, sure, we could gatekeep. Hoard the code. Talk a big game like “We’ll open source…eventually” while keeping it locked behind glass.

But the truth is this: The code is not what makes TAO special.

What sets TAO apart is this:

Everyone can build a TikTok clone on a decentralized protocol. You could start today and be up in six weeks. But here’s what nobody else in this space is doing:

Decentralizing power.
Decentralizing profits.
Phasing in DAO governance so this whole thing actually belongs to you.

Skylight? Fanbase? ThreeFive? Neptune? All answer to shareholders — their founders and investors.

TAO will answer to the People.

@humanexperienced Replying to @amber jean @TAO Social will be governed by its users with all profit reinvested into the community

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We’re not just using tech to build a better social platform…we’re using it to redistribute the whole damn system. We’re building a digital commons where the profit doesn’t exit out the top. It circulates.

Like breath.

And blood.

And sunshine.

And life.

Like all the regenerative cycles of nature.

Because if we’re serious about being a platform for the people, we’ve gotta walk the talk.

💡 The Team Made the Call (Full Rationale):

The Strategic Reason:
Once TAO’s in your hands, the value is no longer in the code: It’s in the community. That’s why we go opensource the day the app is live in the public’s hands.
The Ethical Reason:
We’ve been building on top of open-source infrastructure from Bluesky. If we benefit from an open ecosystem, we contribute back to that ecosystem. It’s only right.

That’s not just software logic: That’s the ethos we’re committed to.
The Existential Reason:
If we don’t make it through crowdfunding (because this is a LIFT and we need massive numbers to pull it off) we still leave something behind.

A full GUI for a TikTok-style frontend on Bluesky, free for anyone to fork and build on.

Not a graveyard. A garden.

🌀 Because Sharing > Hoarding

This is not just a platform. It’s a provocation. A challenge to the old paradigm of “winner-takes-all.”

We believe cooperation is stronger than competition.
We believe open beats closed.
We believe you should own the tools of your expression…and share in their rewards.

We’re not here to build the next unicorn.

We’re here to build the mech suit for the people vs the Systems that serve none of us.

So yes.

We’re open sourcing TAO as soon as possible.

TAO Social