# Eugen Rochko ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2026-02-12 Eugen Rochko.jpg|400]] Eugen Rochko is a German-Russian software developer and the creator of [[Mastodon]], the decentralized social network. Born in Russia in 1993 and raised in Germany, he began developing Mastodon in 2016 while studying at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, frustrated with Twitter's algorithmic timeline and centralized control. Rochko founded Mastodon gGmbH, a German non-profit company, to sustain the project through donations rather than advertising or venture capital. His vision of a federated, user-controlled social web has made Mastodon the flagship application of the [[Fediverse]]. Following Twitter's acquisition in 2022, Mastodon saw explosive growth, validating Rochko's years of work on decentralized social media. ## Key Contributions | Project | Role | Description | |---------|------|-------------| | **Mastodon** | Creator & Lead | Decentralized social network using ActivityPub | | **Mastodon gGmbH** | CEO | Non-profit company maintaining Mastodon | | **mastodon.social** | Admin | Flagship Mastodon instance | ## Career Timeline - **2016**: Started Mastodon development as a hobby project - **2016**: Launched first public version of Mastodon - **2017**: Mastodon gained early adopters from tech community - **2018**: Founded Mastodon gGmbH as non-profit in Germany - **2022**: Mastodon surged to millions of users after Twitter acquisition - **Present**: Continues as lead developer and CEO ## Philosophy Rochko's design principles for Mastodon: - **No algorithms**: Chronological feeds without engagement manipulation - **User control**: Choose your instance, export your data - **No ads**: Funded by donations, not surveillance capitalism - **Federation**: Interoperability via open standards (ActivityPub) - **Community moderation**: Distributed, per-instance rules ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Rochko - https://mastodon.social/@Gargron - https://www.patreon.com/mastodon ## Related - [[Mastodon]] - [[Fediverse]] - [[ActivityPub]] - [[Open Source]] - [[Decentralized Systems]]