Akasha Project, officially unveiled last week, is a next-generation social media network powered by the Ethereum and the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS).

Created by Mihai Alisie, Ethereum’s cofounder, the project’s tech stack is composed of Electron, React with Redux and Node.js, besides Ethereum and IPFS. In a blog post, Alisie explains that the idea was to create a platform that is resistant to censorship and promotes freedom of expression.

“[I]t wasn’t until early 2015 when I first realized that we are about to create the missing puzzle piece that will enable us to tackle two of the most important challenges we face today as a modern information-based society: freedom of expression and creative perpetuity”, Alisie wrote.

The term ‘AKASHA’ is the Sanskrit word meaning “ether” in both its elemental and metaphysical senses. It will enable users to publish, share and vote for entries, similar to Medium and other such platforms, with the difference that the content is actually published over a decentralized network rather than on centralized servers. Moreover, the votes are bundled with ETH micro transactions so if a user’s content is good they’ll make ETH from it.

Alisie explains the whole process about how Akasha Project has evolved. He said that they started working on a decentralized social blogging network as the minimum viable product (MVP), with the goal of creating in the process a product that will empower people from around the world with unfettered freedom of expression.

“We believe that freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy are fundamental human rights that should be respected on the Internet as well as in real life. Moreover, we are a civilization transitioning to an information-based society, and as such we feel that the permanent storage of information for future generations is a critical issue we should be striving to solve as soon as possible”, the website reads.

The platform has opened signups for the alpha release. The alpha version is going to be gradually released for Linux, MacOS, and Windows on the Ethereum testnet over the course of Q2/Q3 2016. The beta version that will live on the Ethereum main network is expected to be launched around Q3/Q4 2016.