> What is the incentive of someone to create an app and just pay for all the hosting involved?
If you're creating a social app, website, or whatever, you still have to host all your users' data regardless. This is just about the protocol you use which enables universal compatibility, meaning users have the choice to store elsewhere.
> Also, does everyone need to have their own domain name in order to have an identity cuz that seems like a non-starter.
Not really. Bluesky is a good example; when you first sign up it does it for you under their own top domain by default iirc, but the great thing is you can actually use your own domain.
If you're creating a social app, website, or whatever, you still have to host all your users' data regardless. This is just about the protocol you use which enables universal compatibility, meaning users have the choice to store elsewhere.
> Also, does everyone need to have their own domain name in order to have an identity cuz that seems like a non-starter.
Not really. Bluesky is a good example; when you first sign up it does it for you under their own top domain by default iirc, but the great thing is you can actually use your own domain.