“The dead internet theory is real,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told Digg founder Kevin Rose, referring to the idea that much of the internet isn’t human — it’s mostly bots.
The two entrepreneurs have since teamed up to re-envision how to build a social community in this world where, very soon, it will be hard to tell who’s a real person online.
Earlier this year, the two bought the remaining assets belonging to Digg, the long-shuttered news aggregation site originally founded by Rose that was a staple of the Web 2.0 era.
Now again under Rose’s control, the new Digg is creating a place for people to socialize and connect online within communities, similar to Reddit, but it has different ideas about how such a platform should work at a time when bots are nearly indistinguishable from humans.
Backstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Wednesday, Rose explained that he sees the future of social as being more focused on protected online spaces and “micro communities of trusted users.”
“I just have to imagine that, as the cost to deploy agents drops to next to nothing, we’re just gonna see…bots act as though they’re humans,” he said. “So, small trusted communities, proof of heartbeat — there’s an actual human on the other end…is important.”
But today’s verification methods often involve things like facial recognition, ID uploads, or small payments with a credit card to ensure that someone is a person and not a bot. Not everyone online will feel comfortable doing something like that to access an online social community, of course.
That’s why Digg is looking to use newer technology, like a ZK proof (ZKP) to verify people using its platform in the future.
Says Rose, the ZKP is a “fancy piece of math” which doesn’t expose who someone is, but can verify something essential that would be important for their participation in an online community.
For instance, a moderator of a community for Oura ring owners could use the technology to verify that someone is actually an Oura ring owner before allowing them to post. That identity could stay with them so they’re known as a trusted member, but not necessarily one where they have to go by their real name. This could be particularly useful in communities focused on sensitive topics or health issues, as well.
The idea that moderators should have more of a say over their communities is also essential to the new Digg — and, Rose believes, these founding members should be compensated for their efforts.
“When we first started Digg in 2004 — before Reddit launched — we were very lucky because we had thousands and thousands of people, and eventually millions of people, that would come in and contribute content,” said Rose, during his panel at the TechCrunch Disrupt event. “And they’re not getting paid.”
He said that some Reddit moderators are essentially working around the clock to handle things like spam and fighting, but aren’t receiving any slice of the revenue, nor do they control the audience.
“So you’re talking about something where you’re signing up and creating all this value for a platform, but you can’t port that platform anywhere else. You can’t capture any email addresses. You can’t stay in touch on that platform. You can be ousted [from] that platform,” he said.
Rose also pointed to issues where larger Reddit communities can become trademarked — something that prevented the founder of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit from writing a book using the name of the community they had created.
“If anything, we should be more similar to Substack or Patreon, or some others that are actually giving you much more control of your community,” he said.
