The first open-source blockchain-based blogging system xLog.

Talk is cheap#

GitHub: https://github.com/Crossbell-Box/xLog

Use Cases

Motivation#

My personal blog (https://diygod.me/) has been running for almost 9 years, growing with me and becoming a record of my personal development. Blogging has been a hobby of mine for a long time, but as I became increasingly dissatisfied with Hexo, I decided to create a more modern and brand-new blog system.

I didn't want to satisfy only my own needs; it needed to be open-source and open enough to meet the needs of more people.

I didn't want my precious data to be held hostage by centralized platforms, nor did I want to bother maintaining a database or server. It needed to balance data ownership and convenience, so I chose blockchain.

Lastly, it needed to use a newer technology stack and provide a better development and maintenance experience.

Features#

Blockchain: All blog data, including website configurations, articles, followers, comments, likes, etc., are signed by you and stored on the blockchain as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), which can only be controlled by you, the one who holds the private key.

Difference from Mirror.xyz: The cunning part is that Mirror stores content on the chain through their official account instead of users initiating transactions themselves. This means that users need to rely on the centralized platform Mirror to publish and modify their own content, and the control over the content on the chain belongs to Mirror platform, not the users themselves.

xlog4

Rich Interactions: You can follow your favorite blogs on the blockchain, comment on and like articles, or mint articles as NFTs.

xlog2

Highly Customizable: Custom domains, navigation bars, custom styles, etc., are all stored on the blockchain.

xlog3

Technical Implementation#

xLog is developed based on another open-source project called proselog (https://github.com/proselog/proselog), using Next.js + Tailwind CSS + TypeScript + TanStack Query. It has a complete SPA (Single-Page Application), SSR (Server-Side Rendering), state management, and excellent development experience.

The blockchain used is Crossbell (https://crossbell.io/), a dedicated EVM-compatible blockchain for social activities. It is faster and does not require purchasing gas fees for free usage. It can seamlessly integrate with other Crossbell ecosystem projects. For example, you can view all the dynamics of the xLog you subscribed to in the form of a feed on Crossbell.io (https://crossbell.io/feed).

Each blog is an NFT that belongs to you. Its configurations and articles are stored in the NFT in a format compliant with Crossbell specifications. Creating a blog is like minting an NFT, publishing an article or comment is adding content to the NFT, and following a blog is modifying your list of followed blogs in the NFT.

It is completely open-source, and if you are interested, you can directly go to GitHub to view the source code.

Challenges#

It requires installing an Ethereum wallet to perform operations, which may be a significant burden for ordinary users who have not been exposed to blockchain concepts. Although blockchain is a very suitable solution, it is now associated with being scammed, speculating on cryptocurrencies, etc., in the eyes of many ordinary people. This increases the difficulty of widely accepting xLog, which is implemented using blockchain.
On-chain operations are transparent and irreversible, which means that users cannot truly delete an article. The modification history of articles can be seen through the blockchain history.

Future Plans#

Currently, it is only a minimal viable product, and the functionality may not be very rich. However, in the future, a theme system and plugin system will be added to provide more style and functionality choices.

In addition, more exploration will be done on the connection between earning and blogging, hoping to make the act of writing blogs (rather than tinkering with blogs) more interesting.