What Is Peoples Protocol? Inside the Most Promising Decentralized Social Project Reclaiming Data Control From Big Tech

Against the backdrop of Big Tech, which has built billion-dollar empires by selling human attention, Peoples Protocol is gaining ground to deliver on its radical but fair promise. The project claims to let everyone own their data, their engagement and the value they create online. To date, this decentralized socio-economic protocol has attracted over 29,000 like-minded individuals who are itching to flip the system that turned people into products.

Imagine if every time you browsed the internet or social media platforms you were compensated for your activity. Peoples Protocol aims to do exactly that. Users will be able to make money from their digital footprint by sharing anonymized usage data through its network in a secure and trustless manner. Instead of surrendering information and time to ad algorithms, they connect peer-to-peer, verify each other’s contributions and receive rewards for real effort. 

Tracing inspiration to social movements that proved the power of coordinated communities, Peoples Protocol urges users to stop giving their data to Big Tech and their content away for free.

Key highlights:

• Big Tech turns user data into vast profits while leaving people overexposed and excluded from what rightfully belongs to them.

• Peoples Protocol calls time on that imbalance, replacing platform control with AI-assisted (M2A2M), rule-based, on-chain collaboration that rewards participation.

• With a pUSD testnet launch, a $PEOPLES token ICO, and full DAO governance on the horizon, the project aims to make user data ownership the new social default.

The Big Tech Problem: Why Data Control Matters More Than Ever Before

Today’s social web runs on what economists call the attention market. Behind every “free” app lies invisible labor: our likes, movements and reading patterns feed opaque algorithms that are programmed to maximize time spent scrolling and clicking. That time is then converted into behavior data, and that data sends Big Tech revenues into the stratosphere. 

According to estimates from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the digital advertising profits of the largest technology companies represented cumulatively anywhere from 0.6-1.1% of the United States GDP. Consider Meta alone whose ad revenue was over $164.5 billion in 2024. And yet the average user earns nothing despite spending two to three hours a day on social networking. In a nutshell, people create all value and Big Tech hoards it – locked behind closed code. 

Though it has been some time since significant data leaks and privacy violations made the news, these cases also remain ever-present. Digital platforms expose the private information of millions of users yearly. By January 2025, total penalties levied against Big Tech companies for unlawful data transfers had amounted to over €5.88 billion. 

The rise of AI in social media has now brought the situation to a whole new level. AI algorithms consistently learn from user data, much of which is scraped without consent, in order to refine engagement loops and micro-target behavior. Thus, what began as an effort to improve user experience has become the most efficient way for middlemen to manipulate attention and capture value.

But when built for people, AI can act as a mediator of far fairer systems, matching individuals, projects and goals without centralized control. This is the premise behind Peoples Protocol, which envisions a new social web economy where AI assists, but humans make the calls. Instead of exchanging user attention for influence, it encourages participation by rewarding online activity.

Platform

Annual Ad Revenue (2024)

Users (Billions)

Average Revenue per User (USD)

Meta

$164.5B

3.4B

$49.6

TikTok

$23.6B

1.6B

$14.8

X

$1.94B

0.6B

$5.4

Peoples Protocol

–

–

User attention is a rewardable asset, not a free resource

Over decades and across contexts – whether the mass protests in Nepal, the sexual revolution, the GameStop investor uprising or Ethereum’s open-source ecosystem – history shows that when enough people coalesce around a common value, systems crack and new rules emerge.

And if the problem with Big Tech is the extraction and sale of our collective behavioral data, then the solution is collective ownership at the protocol speed. 

How Peoples Protocol Works

As the team states: “Your attention is worth more than a click – it’s a currency of coordination.” Simply put, Peoples Protocol is a set of rules anyone can use to build, team up or earn. There are no hidden guards, just participants agreeing on how to measure and reward value. 

Those agreements live on the blockchain, not on company servers. Every action a user takes – from starting a project to validating someone’s contribution – leaves a transparent record. 

This is how things look, step by step:

1. Users publish intents rather than posts: for example, launch a project, research a topic or build a tool. This intent is defined with a clear goal, deliverable and timeline. Skills, topics and roles can be added so that discovery becomes semantic.

2. The protocol’s M2M2M matching interprets these signals and recommends potential peers, circles or DAOs that might be a match. 

3. Small teams establish roles: lead, contributor, reviewer. Before any work begins, members create what Peoples Protocol calls a light agreement –  a human-readable smart contract that lays out what “done” means and how to validate rewards. 

4. Tasks and progress are auditable by default. When the goal is achieved, peers and designated oracles (trusted reviewers) confirm completion without centralized moderation. AI aids by checking proofs of contribution and flagging inconsistencies.

5. Every verified contribution mints a token that unlocks rewards, increases visibility within the network and demonstrates credibility for future collaboration. Once verified, rewards are distributed automatically.

6. As reputation builds, anyone can become an oracle themselves to govern the next cycle of cooperation.

This way, Peoples Protocol shifts social interaction into a measurable equitable economy. AI does not influence or dictate behavior; it supports people in finding each other, organizing and working efficiently, all while blockchain guarantees trust without masters.

What’s Next for Peoples Protocol and How to Get In Early?

Peoples Protocol crystallizes a growing sentiment: enough generating content for free. The emerging experience of digital sovereignty is transforming our ad-driven social web into a place of data ownership, on-chain verification of work and the ability to earn from everyday online routine.

Unlike Big Tech firms that exploit user attention, Peoples Protocol turns it into a rewardable asset. The transparency of blockchain, combined with AI coordination, creates a new kind of social interaction defined by collaboration rather than surveillance. This is exactly what makes Peoples Protocol one of the most promising developments in decentralized social.

Tens of thousands are already on the waitlist, showing that real change is underway. Those joining today will be the first to receive project updates, development milestones and invitations to test new features before they go public.

The project targets five million users, moving from a pUSD testnet launch before the end of the year to a DataDAO marketplace, full DAO governance and state-level integration by 2026-2027. Through the upcoming ICO early adopters will be able to reap even greater benefits before the masses flood in.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.