I love the technical aesthetic of this, but is there a "network" part of it at all? If not, I think I'd rather just self-host something similar and get the same

I love the technical aesthetic of this, but is there a "network" part of it at all? If not, I think I'd rather just self-host something similar and get the same experience without the risk of the service holding all my posts dying or trying to invasively monetize later.