We’ve just recently bridged our existing Discord community with the Matrix!
Matrix is a communication platform similar to Discord. However, what sets the Matrix apart is that it’s hosted on a federated, decentralized, and open source network.
What does this mean for our community? This means that with the Matrix, we have more control over our own data and more freedom and security, all while keeping in touch with fellow language learners with ease.
Why We Chose the Matrix
One of the main reasons businesses and privacy-conscious individuals prefer the Matrix is that the platform offers many features that focus on data privacy and security.
Since it’s open source, anyone can write a “client” for it — put simply, you can build another communication platform using the Matrix protocol as the backend, just like how Element, FluffyChat and ShildiChat are all built on the Matrix. This is quite beneficial for organizations that require more customized features and a more secure environment to work in.
Additionally, you can bridge other services such as Discord, Telegram, and many others into the Matrix. In the case of LinguaVirtua, the bridging between the Matrix and Discord means that users from the Discord channel can freely interact with users from the Matrix channel, and vice versa.
Federated Platforms: The Benefits in Communication
Federated platforms, or often called the social fediverse, work on the premise of decentralization. The mainstream internet that the majority of the world population use today uses a centralized network — Discord, for example, is among the many platforms that aren’t decentralized and instead are owned by a commercial entity.
Decentralization offers many benefits to users, including:
- More security: Since it’s open source and community driven, it’s open for auditing, which means that any security vulnerability can be quickly detected and/or fixed.
- More privacy: Most federated platforms have end-to-end encryption (E2EE) set by default, as opposed to being optional in most mainstream platforms.
- More flexibility: Because the network is federated, platforms that are built on the same protocol can freely interact with one another, which prevents censorship and allows for more freedom in communication.
The main challenge with federated platforms, however, is that the user interface is not always as intuitive as with mainstream platforms. Apart from that, it offers more or less the same great features, with added benefits.
___
Bridging the LinguaVirtua Discord channels into the Matrix expands our community and allows each of our members more freedom to join the family through whichever platform they’re more comfortable with (Discord or the Matrix).
If you’re interested to join our online communities, visit linguavirtua.com/about. As of this writing, meetups have been moved online through Discord and/or the Matrix, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.