I'm trying to imagine how a situation analogous to Gab vs Mastodon may arise and play out here, or if the setup is different. Like would they just live side by side, with various frontend aggregators that present one or the other world to you?
> Cryptography, basically.
How do I, the user with a browser verify that? Do I need to use a different client program, or a browser extension? The aggregator site can show me a green checkmark or whatever, but that's just a claim by the aggregator. Am I expected to fire up a terminal window to compute signature validations to check if Alice really put a like on that comment?
Ah, I see. Yeah, you could build alternative clients that only show you part of the network if you want. Or run your own separate copy of the entire network. Because the two models work differently, there’s not an exact analogy.
You could also use one of the various PDS browser websites to go check their PDS, or a terminal tool, sure. I will be honest and the details of exactly how the cryptography stuff works is not my strongest point when understanding the protocol, maybe someone else can chime in and give you a more detailed description here.
I'm trying to imagine how a situation analogous to Gab vs Mastodon may arise and play out here, or if the setup is different. Like would they just live side by side, with various frontend aggregators that present one or the other world to you?
> Cryptography, basically.
How do I, the user with a browser verify that? Do I need to use a different client program, or a browser extension? The aggregator site can show me a green checkmark or whatever, but that's just a claim by the aggregator. Am I expected to fire up a terminal window to compute signature validations to check if Alice really put a like on that comment?