Reddit co-founder and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian has joined a bid to acquire TikTok, with an ambitious plan to move the social media giant on-chain. The news, announced on Tuesday, has sparked widespread interest in the tech and crypto communities. If successful, Ohanian aims to introduce blockchain-powered tools that give users more control over their data, interactions, and digital ownership.

With over 1 billion active users, TikTok has become one of the world’s most influential social platforms. Still, its future in the U.S. remains uncertain amid regulatory scrutiny and concerns over data privacy. Ohanian, a long-time advocate for decentralized technologies, sees blockchain as the key to redefining how social media platforms operate.

A Decentralized Future for TikTok?

Ohanian’s bid is part of a larger movement pushing for decentralized social media, where users — not corporations — have control over their content, identity, and engagement. Over the years, he has worked on integrating blockchain features into Reddit, such as NFT-based avatars and community reward systems.

“If we’re successful, TikTok will no longer be just a social media app — it will be an ecosystem where users truly own their experience,” Ohanian stated. “Blockchain offers transparency, security, and the ability to redefine how we think about digital communities.”

His plan revolves around empowering users through blockchain tools that allow them to:

• Own their data instead of relying on centralized servers.
• Monetize content directly without intermediaries.
• Ensure transparency in the algorithm that determines visibility and engagement.
• Verify the authenticity of content to reduce misinformation and AI-generated deepfakes.

Unlike traditional social platforms that collect and profit from user data, an onchain TikTok would allow users to control how their data is stored and shared — potentially solving a key regulatory concern that has put TikTok under pressure in the U.S.

Why Blockchain? Addressing TikTok’s Data Privacy Issues

TikTok has faced growing scrutiny from lawmakers in the United States and other countries due to concerns over its ownership by China-based company ByteDance. U.S. officials worry that TikTok’s vast data collection could pose national security risks if shared with the Chinese government.

A blockchain-based TikTok could help alleviate these concerns by offering:

• Decentralized data storage, makes it impossible for a single entity to control or misuse user data.
• Onchain governance, allows users to participate in decision-making processes regarding platform policies.
• Verifiable transparency, ensures that moderation and recommendation algorithms are fair and unbiased.

Blockchain-based platforms have already made strides in social media, with apps like Lens Protocol and Farcaster demonstrating how decentralized models can work. However, integrating these concepts into a platform as massive as TikTok would be a historic shift for the industry.

What Would an Onchain TikTok Look Like?

If Ohanian’s vision materializes, TikTok users could see major changes in how they interact with the platform. Some potential features include:

🔹 NFT-Based Content Ownership: Creators could mint their videos as NFTs, ensuring they receive direct revenue from views, likes, and shares.

🔹 Tokenized Incentives: Engagement rewards in the form of crypto tokens, encouraging authentic content creation while reducing reliance on ad revenue.

🔹 Decentralized Moderation: Instead of opaque corporate policies, content moderation could be managed via community-driven governance models.

🔹 Smart Contract-Based Monetization: Advertisers could use automated smart contracts to pay creators based on verified engagement metrics.

These blockchain-driven features could completely disrupt the ad-based revenue models of traditional social media, shifting power away from corporations and back to users and content creators.

Who Else is Involved in the Bid?

While details on the full investor group backing the bid remain scarce, Ohanian is believed to be working alongside venture capital firms and tech entrepreneurs who share his vision for a decentralized, user-owned social media landscape.

The bid comes at a crucial moment for TikTok. The U.S. government has debated a potential ban or forced divestment of TikTok’s U.S. operations, putting pressure on ByteDance to find a solution that satisfies regulators.

By bringing TikTok on-chain, Ohanian’s bid could offer a compromise — one that maintains the platform’s accessibility while addressing data privacy concerns through blockchain technology.

The Road Ahead: Will TikTok Go Onchain?

If successful, this move could mark one of the most significant blockchain integrations into a major social media platform. TikTok’s massive user base and engagement levels provide an unprecedented opportunity to push Web3 adoption into the mainstream.

However, the bid still faces several hurdles:

• Regulatory approval: U.S. lawmakers will need to determine if this solution adequately addresses national security concerns.
• ByteDance’s willingness to sell: As TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance has been resistant to forced divestments in the past.
• Public reception: While Web3 advocates support decentralization, mainstream users may hesitate to adopt blockchain-based social media models.

Despite these challenges, Ohanian remains committed to his vision of an onchain, user-owned future for social media. If his bid succeeds, TikTok could become a game-changer for Web3 adoption, setting a precedent for decentralized platforms at scale.

Could this be the beginning of a new era for social media? Time will tell. 🚀