

Unfortunately, matrix doesn’t have a viable plan for federation, meaning that you’d better onboard on matrix.org or else.
People saying self-hosting mastodon is hard never had to touch matrix. It’s not hard, the protocol is literally broken to the point where starting again is not an option.
I’m all in for ditching discord, but matrix is at most mediocre in almost every aspect. It’s wild how much easier it used to be with xmpp.
This is the best answer. Your router protects you from the outside, but a local firewall can protect you from someone prodding your lan from a hacked camera or some other IoT device. By having a firewall locally you just minimize the attack surface further.