It would certainly exclude people initially but there are self-hosting "operating systems" emerging that enable users running a raspi to download and run pre-configured Docker containers as easily as an App Store app (e.g.
https://getumbrel.com).
A federated Mastodon-like instance might be the move, but I have a way of providing Sybil resistance so could probably have an open p2p relay network. This is why I was asking for reading. I want to make sure I understand all the options.
For more context, I want to decentralize https://stacker.news which is basically an HN clone with Sybil resistance (costs bitcoin to post/broadcast) and karma is withdraw-able as bitcoin. The community is very fond of decentralization for obvious reasons plus I think it'd be a fun challenge.