# Macha Federated Network

## Understanding Federated Networks

A federated network is a network model in which a number of separate networks or locations share resources (such as network services and gateways) via a central management framework that enforces consistent configuration and policies.

Here are some characteristics of a federated network:&#x20;

* Semi-autonomous nodes: Each node can make its own decisions about granting data access.
* Common infrastructure: Federated networks are supported by a common infrastructure with harmonized interoperability standards and tools.
* Heterogeneity: The storage, computational, and communication capabilities of the devices that are part of a federated network may differ significantly.

## Federated Network for Social Layers

Data in decentralized ecosystem is usually indexed in a centralized system and deliever to clients using APIs and SDKs for faster queries. But this limits the ecosystem from leveraging this data from multiple sources.&#x20;

Imagine a potential of the network which has indexed social data from all the prominent social layers like ENS, Lens, Zora, Farcaster, and Poap. And with the evergrowing exposure of decentralized networks for identities, social graphs, NFTs there will be more and more projects that will find the need to access these datas together.&#x20;

A federated network for the social layers will allow each actors to publish their live data to nodes under the same structured format and governed by the same framework.&#x20;

Social layers mostly create three forms of data:

* Identities
* Content&#x20;
* Connections&#x20;
