ActivityPub co-author on Bluesky and ATProto being neither decentralized nor federated, and how Bluesky is building a good X replacement with a “credible exit”
Recently due to various events (namely a lot of people getting off of X-Twitter), Bluesky has become a lot more popular …
The disagreement matters because Bluesky is competing to be a viable X alternative while its technical design is also being measured against Mastodon and the wider fediverse.
First-order effects
The co-author’s argument challenges the labels attached to Bluesky and ATProto, distinguishing a user “credible exit” from a genuinely federated or decentralized network.
Users, developers, and prospective server operators gain a more precise basis for assessing what control over identity, data, and network participation Bluesky’s design actually provides.
Second-order effects
The comparison raises the burden on Bluesky to explain how its architecture differs from ActivityPub-based federation, rather than relying on federation as a broad marketing category.
Mastodon and other ActivityPub advocates can sharpen their differentiation around independently operated services and interoperable governance, while Bluesky’s X-like product experience remains a separate competitive advantage.
Third-order effects
If social platforms increasingly promise portability alongside centralized product control, “exit” may become a distinct model from federation—not evidence that the two are interchangeable.
The durable contest is likely to center on which technical safeguards make user choice credible in practice while preserving moderation, reliability, and a coherent social experience.
The trend: Social networking is splitting the idea of decentralization into separate questions of portability, server autonomy, interoperability, and platform governance.
What great timing that @cwebber's incredible blog post on this topic would show up in my feed! Thank you so much for writing this, Christine! — If you're interested at all in #ActivityPub, #atproto, #bluesky, and #mastodon, you should do yourself a favor and find the time to r…
@cwebber in a *very* detailed technical analysis of Bluesky, says that it isn't currently decentralized or federated. Instead, “...this should actually be the way Bluesky brands itself, which I believe would be more honest: an open architecture (that's fair to say!) with the pos…
This is the best comparison of the Bluesky and Fediverse protocols and their pros and cons. Very technical, though. I certainly didn't follow all of it. [embedded post]
I thought this was a great piece with a fair approach to Jay and the team's pragmatism in prioritizing cloning Twitter over launching a fully decentralized system. [embedded post]
“This is all to say: blogging plus feed readers started out a lot more decentralized than Bluesky has, and having one big player [Google] enter the room and then exit effectively killed the system.” — dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec... by @dustyweb.bsky.social
This is superb post sets out to ask how decentralized Bluesky is but goes far deeper into the different models at play in decentralized social networking. Required reading for anyone who cares about the space. #Fediverse
“Bluesky is not meaningfully decentralized and that it is certainly not federated according to any technical definition of federation we have had” — Great deep dive digging into the technical nuances of the ATProtocol where decentralized federation is still aspirational. — du…
OK, so I really like #BlueSkye, getting loads of new papers and tools and funnies, but I am pessimistic about the future. BlueSky may be run by good guys now, but it is centralized (and will probably stay that way). And they will have to start earning money. — dustycloud.org/…
BY THE WAY if you are reading this, I am dual-posting here and on the fediverse simulataneously, dual-wielding social media “platforms” social.coop/@cwebber/113... Why not follow the same thing in two places at once I guess [embedded post]
This is an important read if you care about how Bluesky works and if is designed to replace centralized systems then we need to make sure this new commons isn't also enclosed. — Bluesky is amazing and powerful but there are risks in how it works. — dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec…
How Decentralized Is Bluesky Really? dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec... A technical deep-dive, since people have been asking me for my thoughts. I'll expand a bit on some of the key points here in a thread. 🧵
pretty fair breakdown of bluesky's lack of decentralization. i tend to agree with christine's takes here: bluesky can't really lay claim to being meaningfully decentralized, but embracing ideas like “credible exit” and the company as future adversary are good steps. dustycloud.…
This is by far the best criticism of bsky/atproto I've seen so far: dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec... I mean that in the sense of “fair” and “understands what they're talking about” as well as a more traditional “makes good points”.
Okay I am back from lunch, time to resume my analysis thread for “How decentralized is bluesky really?” dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec... I have been receiving a lot of notifications, I am not reading any of them until I finish with this so bear with me, BEAR WITH ME, we're gonna m…
An insightful (long) read, by one of the key architects of #activitypub (on which the current #fediverse is built). Detailed dive into the (technical) definitions of decentralization and federation and the difference choices and designs of #bluesky and #atproto — dustycloud.or…
A great discussion by @dustyweb.bsky.social comparing the architecture of ATProto (Bluesky) and ActivityPub (used by Mastodon), and pain points of each - especially with “decentralizing” Bluesky dustycloud.org/blog/how-dec...
The co-author of ActivityPub has done a tear down of how decentralised Bluesky is. The answer: not very. — In fact, the protocol relies almost entirely on Bluesky to operate and many of the current leg-ups it has over the fediverse are because of that centralisation. — dusty…