Bluesky built a protocol for decentralized social networks and is working on an app that uses it.
Yes, progress with Bluesky has been super slow (a bit like Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid) but at least we now know what protocol it will use, which will help explain a bit more about what could be expected.
The AT Protocol website is still fairly sparse, but it offers three reasons the decentralized future of social might be the right one: “federated social,” which allows users to use many apps on top of one service; “algorithmic choice,” which lets them decide how that information is presented; and “portable accounts,” meaning you could move your stuff from one app to another without losing your content or social graph.
Don’t hold your breath for the app and protocol to hit your social sphere, though. Bluesky continues to move fairly slowly and is trying to do its work publicly. As Dorsey said when the project launched, “The work must be done transparently in the open, not owned by any single private corporation, furthering the open & decentralized principles of the internet.”
Yes, thinking about, I’m also not seeing what is really different. AT protocol is decentralised, but so is ActivityPub. I can see Nostr has done something really different with relays and own identity, but AT is not doing that. They do allow you to set a domain name as a handle and that may move across servers, but we have not actually seen other servers yet.
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I still don’t understand why they don’t use the existing functional activitypub instead of trying to reinvent the wheel?
Yes, thinking about, I’m also not seeing what is really different. AT protocol is decentralised, but so is ActivityPub. I can see Nostr has done something really different with relays and own identity, but AT is not doing that. They do allow you to set a domain name as a handle and that may move across servers, but we have not actually seen other servers yet.
Probably so they have more control over every part of it
Unfortunately that’s the most likely conclusion I drew too
AT Protocol just makes me think Of GSM.
That’s the Hayes command set for serial modems since 1981.