Truth Social Head of Engineering Leaves for Jack-Dorsey-Backed Alternative, Nostr

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., July 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alex Gleason (30), founder of Soapbox Technology, announced his resignation on Monday as Head of Engineering at Truth Social, the Twitter-alternative platform owned by President Donald Trump. In a post on the Soapbox website, Gleason stated that he is leaving to expand Soapbox to the Jack-Dorsey-backed protocol Nostr.

Soapbox was founded in 2019 by Gleason as a front-end for the Fediverse software, Mastodon. In 2021, Truth Social launched using Mastodon and Soapbox. Gleason served as the Head of Engineering at Truth from 2022-2023.

"Centralized social media is not sustainable, but Nostr empowers people to take full control of their lives online," Gleason said. "The funding Soapbox received for Ditto will allow us to connect some of the most powerful decentralized networks, empowering users who currently face an overwhelming number of choices in the Twitter-alternative sphere."

According to the statement, Soapbox received a grant to build the Ditto project from OpenSats, a nonprofit initiative funded by Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey to advance free and open-source software projects, primarily related to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The grant funds the development of Soapbox on Nostr, a Bitcoin-affiliated Twitter alternative touted as "Jack Dorsey's favorite decentralized social network."

OpenSats board member and founder of Nostr, known pseudonymously as '@Fiatjaf,' said, "I'm excited with Soapbox's Ditto project as it has the potential to bring all sorts of people and diverse communities to Nostr."

In February, Soapbox announced the launch of Mostr, a bridge between the ActivityPub and Nostr protocols. The bridge marked the first widespread integration of major decentralized social media protocols.

About Soapbox Technology
Soapbox is an open-source web frontend for decentralized social media. Founded in 2019 by Alex Gleason, Soapbox is used today by over 2 million users worldwide.
Learn more: https://soapbox.pub

SOURCE Soapbox