# Decentralized OSINT: what persists on IPFS, Arweave, Odysee, Nostr and the Fediverse

Last verified: 9 September 2026. Decentralized social media is any platform where no single company holds the content and the accounts: files addressed by hash on IPFS, data written permanently to the Arweave blockchain, video metadata on the LBRY chain behind Odysee, signed notes relayed across Nostr, and federated servers running Mastodon and the Fediverse. On these networks deletion is a question about who else kept a copy, and the answer differs for every protocol. (This page is about the InterPlanetary File System, not IPFS Corporation, the insurance premium finance company; LBRY here is the protocol Odysee runs on, not a typo for "library".)

## IPFS: content cannot be deleted for you, and there is no working keyword search
A file on IPFS is addressed by its content identifier (CID), a hash of the content. It stays reachable while at least one node pins and announces it; unpinned data is garbage-collected, and the IPFS documentation states the network does not guarantee persistent availability. A takedown means persuading every pinner to unpin. Search is the weak point: ipfs-search.com suspended its servers on 31 May 2023 and its domain now shows a "for sale" page; ipfssearch.com did not respond on 9 September 2026. Lookup by CID works: cid.contact lists current providers, public gateways (ipfs.io, dweb.link, Cloudflare) serve the content, explore.ipld.io walks the structure behind a CID.

## Arweave and the permaweb: permanent, and searchable by wallet or tag
Arweave stores data permanently on a blockchain designed to keep it for at least 200 years; the permaweb is the web content stored that way. There is no delete operation. ViewBlock (viewblock.io/arweave) and ArScan (arscan.io) explore transactions and wallets; the GraphQL gateway at arweave.net/graphql answered a live query on 9 September 2026 and returns every transaction by wallet, application tag or content type. A wallet address is a stable identifier across years of uploads.

## Odysee and LBRY: the chain proves publication, only a copy proves content
Claim metadata (names, descriptions, the publishing channel's key) is on the LBRY blockchain; video files are hosted off chain. Deleting a video removes the file and marks the claim abandoned, but the claim history remains readable, so a deleted channel is still provable as having published a given title on a given date. Odysee split from LBRY Inc. on 1 October 2021, LBRY Inc. lost its SEC case in July 2023, and Forward Research acquired Odysee in June 2024. For evidence capture, yt-dlp supports odysee.com channels and playlists; "odysee downloader" sites are browser wrappers with adverts.

## Nostr: deletion is a request relays may ignore
A Nostr user is a keypair (shown as an npub); every note is signed and relayed across servers anyone can run. A deletion event is honoured by well-behaved relays, but any relay or client that kept the note still has it, and a fetched signed note remains valid evidence. Search depends on the relay (NIP-50): noogle.lol was online on 9 September 2026, nostr.band refused connections. The npub is the pivot for identity work.

## Mastodon and the Fediverse: copies on every following instance, no global search
Content lives on the author's instance and is copied to every instance with a follower. Deletion propagates as a request; offline or defederated instances keep their copies. Mastodon's documentation states full-text search is optional per instance and, where enabled, limited to your own posts, favourites, bookmarks and mentions. Hashtags, account URLs (user@instance) and local timelines are the practical path. Bluesky runs on the AT Protocol, not ActivityPub.

## Verdicts
- IPFS: cid.contact, public gateways and explore.ipld.io, use them; ipfs-search.com, dead since 31 May 2023; keyword search across IPFS, no public service reachable.
- Arweave: ViewBlock, ArScan and the arweave.net GraphQL gateway, all working; GraphQL is the one that scales.
- Odysee / LBRY: the chain for publication history; yt-dlp for evidence capture; downloader sites, unnecessary.
- Nostr: noogle.lol working; nostr.band unreachable on the test date; save the signed event JSON as proof.
- Mastodon: hashtags, account URLs and local timelines; no network-wide keyword search by design.

## The Reddit trail
Reddit posts and comments mentioning "odysee" in THINKPOL's archive peaked at 38,200 in 2021 and fell to 11,800 in 2025; "ipfs" peaked at 19,700 in 2021 and fell to 4,300 in 2025; "arweave" peaked at 4,500 in 2022 (1,900 in 2025); "lbry" peaked at 10,300 in 2021 (1,300 in 2025). Those counts hold the Odysee channel URLs, IPFS hashes and permaweb links posted in subreddits since banned and posts since deleted.

## What THINKPOL adds today
THINKPOL does not index IPFS, Arweave, Odysee, Nostr or the Fediverse. It archives Reddit: 30 billion posts and comments since 2005, captured at publication and retained after deletion, full-text searchable in under 300 milliseconds, EU-hosted. For a decentralized-platform case that is the discovery layer: the links, hashes, channel names and wallet addresses posted on Reddit, including in communities that no longer exist, and the Reddit identities behind them. Mastodon and the Fediverse are on the roadmap behind Telegram and Discord. Free, no account: https://think-pol.com/tools/reddit-search?q=odysee.com%2F

Source: https://think-pol.com/decentralized-osint