Fracture and Reconstruction in the Digital Interconnected Era

Physical Reconstruction of the Internet's Social Layer

🦋 Summary and Manifesto

In an age of intense digital connectivity, human society faces an unprecedented loneliness crisis. Although Web2 social networks greatly reduced the cost of remote communication, they paradoxically erode genuine interactions in physical reality.

“We swipe past thousands of virtual avatars, yet miss the person right in front of us.”

Existing centralized social giants not only monopolize users' data sovereignty through algorithms, but also commodify users' attention, resulting in the alienation of “scrolling as socializing.” Contemporary social media platforms are built on Client-Server architecture, which is essentially Location-Agnostic(location-agnostic). While it allows us to transmit information instantly to the other side of the planet, it often overlooks potential connections we pass by in physical space.

Butterflyaims to build a new social network driven by “presence.” We do not rely on centralized servers for instant messaging; instead, we leverage mobile devices' edge computing capabilities to create a privacy-first social network that can discover one another without the internet.

🚨 Systemic Risks of the Current Architecture

This architecture not only flattens social experiences, but also brings three systemic risks:

1. Fragility due to infrastructure dependency In natural disasters, network congestion (such as at large music festivals), or remote areas, centralized services that rely on cellular networks or Wi‑Fi can fail completely, resulting in communication outages.

2. Loss of data sovereignty Users' social graphs (Social Graph) are locked in proprietary databases. Users cannot carry their accumulated reputation or network of relationships to other platforms, creating a severe platform lock‑in effect.

3. Mismatch between privacy and value To maintain a free-service business model, platforms must monitor user behavior to target ads precisely. Every user interaction generates value, but that value is captured by the platform instead of being returned to users.

🛠 The Mission of the Butterfly Protocol

We are building the missing social layer for the real world — a decentralized protocol that converts physical “presence” into provable value.

The Butterfly Protocol aims to, by introducing “Proof of Connection (PoC)” mechanisms and a decentralized Bluetooth Mesh network, reconstruct the underlying logic of social networks.

Reconstructing the Social Layer

The Butterfly Protocol is not just a dating app or a chat tool; it is a physical reconstruction of the internet's social layer.

By anchoring digital identity to physical presence (Presence) and leveraging the decentralizing properties of Bluetooth Mesh networks and the Proof of Connection (PoC) mechanism, we transform the physical world's “Serendipity” into immutable digital assets, returning social capital to the hands of users.