I think that solving the technical problem is in the same order of complexity as the IM problem actually. It is solvable if you have some strong backers and not

I think that solving the technical problem is in the same order of complexity as the IM problem actually. It is solvable if you have some strong backers and not just the nerdy volunteers doing it in their leasure time, the ones who are telling you to use XMPP since 2004. Actually the XMPP protocol already has a distributed social graph, and there are micro blogging extensions (eg. Movim), so we can get a functional distributed social network basically overnight. The problem is that (a) you can't monetize an open, distributed network, so the incumbents will do everything they can to prevent federation, and (b) the only driving force that remains are the nerdy volunteers, who have a limited impact, even if they are able to tackle the UX challenges.