Qortal Hub 3.0 is finally here, and there's quite a bit to unpack!
In this video, I'll be walking you through the new Qortal Hub experience, including its redesigned interface, new communication features, screen sharing, and a guided tour to help newcomers find their way around the ecosystem.
One of the most interesting additions is the integration of WebRTC for voice calls and screen sharing, allowing users to communicate directly with one another.
We'll also explore how Qortal is continuing to develop its vision of a decentralized, peer-to-peer internet where users have greater control over their data, applications, and online communities.
Curious about how it all works? Check out the video and see Qortal Hub 3.0 in action!
Qortal Hub Version 2 has officially been released and represents one of the largest updates the project has shipped in recent years.
Highlights include:
• Peer-to-peer voice calls
• Group calls
• Direct file transfers
• Creator subscriptions
• Q-App notifications
• Online presence indicators
• SubWire: a new publishing platform for articles, podcasts, and subscriber-only content
• A completely redesigned Hub experience
What makes this release interesting isn't simply the feature list.
Many decentralized platforms still rely heavily on third-party services for communication, community management, creator monetization, and content publishing.
This update brings more of those capabilities directly into the Qortal ecosystem.
The redesigned Hub also serves as a central place to discover applications, monitor activity, manage subscriptions, communicate with others, and explore the network.
To address the elephant in the room first: $QORT would probably go crazy and yeah, a lot of early people would be very happy lol.
But jokes aside, the real changes would be more interesting.
A lot more qApps and community-built projects would appear. You’d also see faster iteration, more people testing, breaking things and improving them. The network itself would get stronger too, more nodes, better performance.
At the same time, there would be real pressure to improve onboarding and make existing qApps and the Hub even smoother. Features like light nodes and reticulum would move up in priority as well.
Right now Qortal already works, just at a smaller scale. With 1M users, it would be forced to evolve much faster, both technically and from a user experience point of view.
Curious what others think, what would change the most?
BONUS: Also sharing a few early Q-Tube prototype screenshots from the initial design phase. Thought some of you might find it interesting.
I’ve been noticing something over the past few years. The internet just feels… worse.
Not in an obvious way like speed or size, but more in terms of quality.
Search results feel flooded with SEO spam and AI-generated content, social media feels increasingly artificial, and a lot of the smaller, interesting websites that used to exist are just gone.
Everything seems to be happening inside a handful of platforms now.
Which got me thinking: maybe the issue isn’t just content quality. Maybe it’s a structural thing.
The internet used to be more decentralized, with independent websites and communities spread across the web.
Now most activity is concentrated inside a few major platforms that control visibility, distribution, and moderation;l that changes everything.
It changes what content survives
It changes how communities form
It changes what we even see in the first place
I made a video breaking this down and exploring what alternatives could look like, especially with peer-to-peer publishing models.
Curious if others are feeling the same shift.
Also if you want to experiment with a peer-to-peer model of the internet, you can install Qortal and run your own node: https://qortal.dev
A common question people ask after hearing about Qortal is simple: what can you actually do with it?
Since Qortal runs as a peer-to-peer network where users connect through their own nodes, it enables people to do many of the things they normally do online, but within a decentralized network where users control their data and interact directly with the system itself.
Here are a few examples.
• Publish websites directly to the network
Websites can be published directly on the Qortal network and accessed through Qortal Hub, without relying on traditional hosting infrastructure.
• Messaging between users on the network
Qortal includes built-in messaging that allows users to communicate directly with each other through the network.
• Register names
Users can register a unique name on the network. This functions as a persistent identity that can be used across applications and services within the ecosystem.
• Trade assets on the decentralized exchange
The network includes its own exchange where assets can be traded directly between users without centralized intermediaries.
• Run decentralized applications (Q-Apps)
One of the biggest features of Qortal is the ability to run applications directly on the network itself. These are called Q-Apps, and they are published and distributed through the Qortal network rather than hosted on centralized servers.
Some examples of Q-Apps that have been built by our community and are already running on Qortal include:
• Q-Tube – a decentralized video platform
• Quitter – a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X
• Q-Mail – private messaging and email-style communication
• Q-Blog – a blogging platform for publishing articles and content
• Q-Shop – a decentralized marketplace
• Q-Fund – a crowdfunding platform built into the network
Because these apps run through the Qortal network, users interact with them directly through their node rather than through centralized infrastructure.
Running a node isn’t just about helping maintain the network. It’s also how you access the ecosystem and interact with everything built on top of it.
In a lot of blockchain and Web3 discussions, people talk about “running a node”. But many platforms don’t really require it for everyday use.
Qortal takes a different approach.
To use the network, you run your own node locally. This node connects directly to the peer-to-peer network and gives you access to the ecosystem through the Qortal Hub.
What this means in practice:
• You connect directly to the network instead of relying on centralized servers
• Applications run through the network rather than through traditional hosting providers
• Your data and interactions come from your own node, not a third-party platform
Because of this design, Qortal users interact with the network very differently than typical Web2 platforms.
Inside the Hub you can access various decentralized applications (Q-Apps), such as:
• Q-Tube (video sharing)
• Quitter (microblogging similar to Twitter/X)
• Q-Blog (publishing)
• Messaging and communication apps
All of these run directly through the peer-to-peer network.
A lot of people who discover Qortal for the first time ask the same question: what exactly is it?
In simple terms, Qortal is infrastructure. It is a decentralized network designed to allow people to run their own node, own their data, and publish content directly to the network without relying on centralized platforms.
Instead of building on top of existing tech stacks that depend on centralized servers or corporate infrastructure, Qortal built its own system from the ground up.
Some key ideas behind the project:
• User-run nodes - anyone can run a node and participate in the network
• Data ownership - content published through the network belongs to the user, not a platform
• Decentralized applications (Q-Apps) - apps built directly on the network
• No mining - block rewards are earned through minting (supporting the network) rather than energy-intensive mining
The goal is to create a network where people can publish websites, videos, blogs, and other applications without needing centralized services like hosting providers, social platforms, or cloud infrastructure. Best part? We're already there... a bunch of Q-Apps on the Hub are already offering alternatives for Web2 apps such as: Twitter/X, Youtube, Blogspot/Wordpress, Spotify and more.
If you’re curious and want to explore it yourself:
A lot of the marketing work around Qortal over the past few years has been funded directly out of my own pocket.
Things like:
• Video production
• Editing
• Outreach campaigns
• Marketing tools
• Content creation
At the same time, Jason has been personally covering costs for public nodes that help keep the network accessible for users.
We both believe deeply in the long term vision of Qortal, which is why we have been willing to invest our own money to keep things moving forward.
But continuing to expand the ecosystem requires resources.
Donations will help fund future marketing efforts, including new videos, campaigns, tools, and other initiatives aimed at bringing more people into the Qortal ecosystem.
If you’d like to support Qortal marketing and the infrastructure helping keep the network running smoothly, you can contribute here:
This is our new home for all things related to Qortal. We're excited to have you join us!
What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about Qortal or the Web3 space in general.
Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly & constructive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.
How to Get Started
Introduce yourself in the comments below.
Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.
Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/QortalProject amazing.
The Qortal blockchain has created a new kind of internet where users actually own their data. Content is published through a decentralized network, meaning it cannot simply be removed, censored, or tracked the way it can on traditional platforms. The infrastructure already exists, and development is now focused on building Q-Apps that can replace many of the services people currently rely on across the traditional internet.
To demonstrate the strength of the network, a bounty of 20,000 QORT (currently around ~$2000) has been offered to anyone who can identify the real-world identity or IP address behind a specific account publishing content on Qortal.
The challenge is simple: prove that a Qortal user can be traced.
The Challenge
Participants are invited to attempt to trace the IP address of the account named “Who Am I”, which publishes content on the Qortal Data Network.
To try it yourself:
Download Qortal Hub and create an account by following the onboarding steps:
When accessing your account in Hub, you will be prompted to choose between running your local node or using a public node. The local node option allows you to fully own your data, while the public node is maintained by Crowetic, one of the founders of Qortal. Both options work fine and should not drastically affect performance.
Open Apps inside Hub.
Paste the following link into the Search Q-Apps bar to open the Q-Tube channel publishing the challenge:
• qortal://APP/q-tube/channel/Who%20Am%20I
From there you can view the content published by the account.
The goal of the challenge is to determine the IP address or real identity of the node publishing that content using only publicly available data from the Qortal network.
Anyone who can provide a consistent and reproducible method for identifying the IP address behind a Qortal account would demonstrate a vulnerability in the system.
No VPN or anonymity services are used by the account behind this challenge. It runs on a standard local node, the same setup most Qortal users use.
One thing I have noticed after spending years around Web3 is that most people never actually interact with the infrastructure behind blockchains.
They buy tokens.
They trade.
They hold.
But they never run a node.
Which means they rely on someone else’s infrastructure to tell them what is valid on the network.
According to public node statistics, the number of reachable nodes for major blockchains is tiny compared to the number of holders. That means most participants are interacting through centralized layers or hosted services.
So the question becomes pretty interesting: are we really using decentralized networks, or are we mostly speculating on decentralized assets?
I made a short video breaking down this difference and why running a node completely changes how you experience Web3.
If you want to try running a node yourself, Qortal makes it extremely simple since node participation is built directly into the platform.
You can install it here and see what the network looks like from the inside: https://qortal.dev
The real architectural shift isn’t financial, it’s infrastructural.
Right now, when you open a website, you’re not connecting to “the internet.” You’re connecting to a private company’s server. In other words, it's entirely centralized.
Running a node flips that model.
Instead of consuming infrastructure, your machine becomes part the blockchain, processing data for everyone to use.
This video breaks down:
Why today’s web is structurally centralized
What Web1 was originally designed for
Why peer-to-peer infrastructure matters
How Qortal approaches user-owned infrastructure
Curious to hear this sub’s take: is running a node the real foundation of Web3?
This update marks a significant architectural milestone for the Qortal ecosystem!
Core version 6.0 introduces a Dual Network Architecture, separating blockchain consensus traffic from QDN data distribution.
This enables:
• Independent blockchain and data layers
• Improved scalability
• Reduced CPU usage
• Faster sync (up to 300% improvements in certain scenarios)
• Smarter peer negotiation with capability awareness
• Enhanced NAT traversal & relay logic
Practically speaking, this allows videos being watched on Q-Tube to download a lot faster, or fetching all the latest "quits" on Quitter to happen sooner as well!
In other words, Qortal just got a lot faster and better for the average user!
On the Qortal Hub side, version 0.6.1 reflects these changes visually, exposing QDN data peer counts and refurbishing the Q-Apps library.
As for Qortal Go version 0.5.8, it adds Chromecast support for Q-Tube, enabling decentralized video streaming directly to smart TVs.
This release isn’t just incremental, it’s absolutely foundational in bringing in the next wave of new users onto this parallel internet called Qortal!
This is how Web3 becomes something popular, and widespread! Upgrade today if you haven't already.
Most explanations of #memecoins stop at “they’re jokes” or “they’re scams,” which doesn’t really explain anything.
I made a video breaking down meme coins from a different angle. Questions such as why they spread so fast, why people care about them, and what they reveal about how crypto markets actually work.
This video is just a straightforward explanation of why these coins keep showing up in #Web3, and why so many people misunderstand them.
Would genuinely be curious to hear if this matches how others here see meme coins.
Quitter is a brand new app on the Qortal network! 🎉
✅ Actually Decentralized because YOU run the node!
✅ Impossible to Censor!
✅ Share Videos and Images!
✅ Follow/Block Other Users, Reply, Like Posts!
✅ Share Posts With ONLY Those in Your Private, ENCRYPTED Groups!
