Bluesky is working to become fully decentralized but it could take years amid financial concerns as it makes money only by selling domains for usernames
November has sucked so far. One upside of the terrible nonsense is that more people are fleeing X. Many are choosing Bluesky.
anderegg.caGavin Anderegg
Context & Ripple Effects
Bluesky’s paid custom-domain offering was established in its early domain partnership and first paid service, while AT Protocol’s account-portability work positioned user exit as a design goal rather than a promise of permanent platform control.
The current push arrives as Bluesky draws users leaving X, but commentary in the coverage has questioned whether ATProto is yet decentralized or federated in practice, despite its “credible exit” framing. The gap between that architecture and a self-sustaining business model is therefore central.
First-order effects
Bluesky must finance a potentially long transition toward fuller decentralization while relying chiefly on username-domain sales, putting its operating model under immediate pressure.
New users arriving from X are joining a service whose independence goals are still being built out, rather than a fully decentralized network they can use today.
Second-order effects
A domain-centered revenue and identity strategy also raises trust and support costs: later coverage found domain verification enabled cybersquatting and impersonation, limiting how much verification value the product can safely extract from domains alone.
The longer the transition takes, the more Bluesky’s differentiation depends on demonstrating practical portability and governance benefits before user growth turns into expectations it cannot yet meet.
Third-order effects
If decentralized social services remain operationally centralized while they scale, “credible exit” is likely to become a competitive governance standard that must be demonstrated through usable portability, not just protocol design.
The case highlights a broader tension in open-network products: the features that reduce platform lock-in can also make it harder to capture reliable platform revenue, potentially shaping which decentralized models endure.
The trend: Bluesky is one instance of social platforms trying to pair open, portable network architecture with a business model that can fund the path to genuine decentralization.
This is an interesting dive into some of the more technical aspects of how decentralised Bluesky is (isn't), which goes out of its way to be fair and assumes more good faith than I would to be honest. — The main part I didn't know already is that hosting a “relay” means you mus…
Really informative post by @gavinanderegg about #Bluesky tech: “Bluesky is slightly more decentralized than, say, Facebook — but not by much. Yes, you can host your own data. Yes, you can scrape all of the content on the network. But you can't do anything with it unless you're…
Interesting that you can do hyperlinks with a title. I think it's only custom client posting that allows it right now? docs.bsky.app/docs/advance... [embedded post]
Really interesting and enlightening observations on Bluesky, Threads, Mastadon etc. Gets a bit deep on the tech details (which I like) but also has some insightful, more top line observations on the current text based social media platform landscape. — anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m…
General reminder that while BlueSky may well BECOME federated / decentralized, and it's been developed toward those, it's... Not really either of those at the moment. — Which is not “Oh, it's bad”, just: That work isn't done. — anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m...
“When writing about Bluesky, I've seen folks mention that it's either federated or decentralized. I'm here to tell you that it's currently neither. This one really irks me because the service is getting the credit for work it hasn't done.” — anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m...
I wanted to try and collect my thoughts about Bluesky in one place. I think Bluesky is fascinating, but I also worry about many parts of it. If it becomes the new “Twitter”, I think I'm OK with that, but I'll be very quick to cut the cord if it ever starts sucking. — anderegg…
If you want to understand how our new village here on #Bluesky works - this is the best explanation I've stumbled across. — Also asks a few very good questions - how open is Bluesky? How much of the data can you control as a user? — Thanks @jonworth.eu for finding this — a…
Reading: Maybe #Bluesky has “won” — anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m... Lots to be doubtful about but things picking up stream. But in the end the smartest tip: “My goal going forward is to post more to my own site and aggregate to any social channel I currently care about.” #OwnYou…
Why Bluesky isn't really decentralised or federated — This is the best explainer I've read anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/m... Does this matter? — If Bluesky Social PBC enshittifies there's not much users can do currently other than quit