[mxuribe]

I actually think that mastodon, scuttlebutt, and other platforms and protocols (ActivityPub, etc.) represent the beginning of an evolution/revolution towards more decentralization - ok federation in some cases. And, the next versions of these platforms will either begin to converge...Or, there will be yet a new platform that will combine the best aspects of each of these. I can imagine a platform that has a neat UI like mastodon, leverages ActivityPub while online, and scuttlebutt when offline, etc. I'm excited about the work going on around all of this...so for now, your question is valid. But eventually, there might be less and less differences.

By the way, to answer your question, both mastodon - and other platforms that leverage the ActivityPub protocol - as well as scuttlebutt are similar in that they're either federated or decentralized; basically do not need to rely on any centralized controlling entity. They differe in numerous ways, but the biggest would be that mastodon - and other ActivityPub servers -expect to operate online, while scuttlebutt takes the "offline first" approach. Sure, there are other differences like UI, etc...But that might be the gist you're looking for.