If you do an objective, feature-by-feature comparison of Twitter and the current iteration of BlueSky, the technology advantage is clearly in Twitter’s favour. Long-form threads, attached community-led “fact check” tweets, “Spaces” audio streaming, attached video, message archiving, “Communities” feature, and more are already there on Twitter. BlueSky does not even support direct messaging at this point.
Yet, BlueSky is gaining traction, especially in the comics creator community, and this is both understandable and predictable. There is no point in building the most opulent and beautiful town square if people don’t feel safe when they go there. It is here where Twitter has lost the plot. It’s the “social” part of social media that matters most and, so far, BlueSky has a clear advantage in this realm.
In part, this has been accidental - a byproduct of the tempered ramp-up of BlueSky and the use of invite codes. By definition, if you are just inviting your friends to your town square, that meeting place will feel more friendly. Contrast this to Twitter’s recent blue check debacle, where the “identity verification” system seems to have degenerated into an ineffective, blatant money grab. (Aside: Identity verification is actually very hard, but not impossible, and there is an entire industry built around it. Anyone who has ever dealt with regulation-compliant cryptocurrency exchanges has encountered these tools. But using those third-party services costs money which doesn’t fit the current push to profitability at Twitter.)
But what happens when BlueSky opens the doors to everyone? Can it maintain its “safe place” status? Possibly. And it comes down to the underlying architecture.
The real power and potential of BlueSky as a social media platform is, ironically, not the BlueSky app. Rather, it is the “Authenticated Transfer Protocol,” aka AT protocol underneath it, that is the game changer. In this post, I want to give a high-level overview of the three pillars of the protocol and their implications for comic creators. If you want to do a more technical deep dive, I’ve attached some links at the end of this post. Please note that some of these features are not implemented fully or described in depth yet and are subject to change (or reinterpretation when I get more clarification. Ha!). The “pull quotes” below come from the introductory documentation.
1. Federated Social
Unlike Twitter and its centrally controlled database of Tweets, ATp data can be spread between multiple “instances,” of which BlueSky runs one that is the default in the app.
This has several implications. If the main “host” ever gets overly hostile, someone could set up a separate data host just for specific comic creators. This interconnected silos infrastructure will make it possible for antagonistic parties to have their own groupings of mutuals. Comics Gate creators, for example, could have their own data host. (If this sounds a lot like Mastodon, you are not wrong. Mastodon uses a similar model on the ActivityPub protocol.)
This “separate, safe places” concept is not without its problems. Many of us use social media to promote Kickstarter campaigns, and this model makes it easier to talk to friends but harder to grow an audience beyond these friends. To effectively reach a wider audience, we’ll want to be on one of the larger instances… for example, BlueSky or, one day, possibly even Twitter. (The AT protocol project was actually initially created to host Twitter one day). Does that mean we’ll eventually have to wade back into the bile of battling propaganda bots and enragement politics? Likely, yes, but with better tools.
2. Algorithmic choice
The AT protocol appears to allow developers to create their own moderation algorithms. While everyone is free to post, the protocol enables much more granular, user-selected windows into that data.
“As with Web search engines, users are free to select their aggregators. Feeds, App Views, and search indices can be provided by independent third parties, with requests routed by the PDS based on user configuration.”
It reminds me a little of the elephant in the village parable. In that story, several blind men want to understand what an elephant is like. Each touches a different part of the elephant and forms their own opinion. One believes it is like a wall, another like a spear, another like a snake, and so on. The experience of each observer is unique based on what they are able to observe and experience.
If the accumulated available data of an “instance” is the elephant, how that elephant is perceived and experienced will depend on the apps and algorithms looking in. BlueSky, the downloadable app on your phone, is just the first program of many possible apps that will be able to look at the same dataset but from a different perspective. And within any individual app, there is the potential to incorporate unique algorithms and indices. I can see there eventually being a marketplace for these algorithms. For example, a “Dinner Table” algorithm might try to filter out religion and politics Skeets (the BlueSky equivalent of Tweets).
Early examples of this feature are already available.
This feature will be both a blessing and a curse. Your account could, for example, be included in an “ignore” list algorithm based on a misunderstanding. I have been known to follow the accounts of people whose worldviews are diametrically opposed to my own so I can understand their position enough to argue against it knowledgeably. A “guilty by association” algorithm might accidentally catch my account and do so without my knowledge. All you have to do is look at the comments section of videos by an opinionated comic industry personality like “Perch” to understand that these sorts of labels can be randomly applied and often depend more on the person doing the labelling than the actual content.
That said, even with its flaws, leaving precise “algorithmic choice” in the hands of users is likely the only solution that can work long-term as it is scalable and less associated with any particular corporate political bias.
3. Portable accounts
I’ve been using social media and its antecedents since the days of CompuServe and AOL. One thing you learn very quickly is that your website and e-mail list are critical tools to connect with your fans and friends because these tools don’t suddenly disappear. Any audience you build on MySpace is lost if you close your Myspace account.
With the AT protocol, that is about to change. Now you CAN take them with you. “We assume that a Personal Data Server may fail at any time, either by going offline in its entirety or by ceasing service for specific users. The goal of the AT Protocol is to ensure that a user can migrate their account to a new PDS without the server's involvement.”
If, for example, Twitter eventually does build on AT protocol, all of your tweets and possibly your “followers/following” data could be moved to an entirely new service. (Implication: You can ignore your Twitter feed for now, but I wouldn’t outright close it down just yet as you might eventually be able to move it to a node that supports ATP).
This tool will make moving to a friendlier silo easier, which should increase the likelihood of maintaining civil, albeit insular, discourse.
Beyond ATP - The Business Model
So how does a service make money when users are allowed to be in their own silos and “enragement engagement” is discouraged. BlueSky has already thought about this, and it is very encouraging.
“We believe that there must be better strategies to sustain social networks that don’t require selling user data for ads. Our first step in another direction is paid services, and we’re starting with custom domains.”
Allowing domains as handles is how you end up with @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com or @Tjosvold as BlueSky handles.
This is brilliant. I would probably enjoy Twitter if “What’s Happening” & recommended Tweets didn’t exist as enragement bait, but the need for advertising revenue from “eyeball minutes” makes these essential to Twitter. Selling domains (while making them useful) avoids the need for these features while still providing the revenue needed to keep the lights on.
As a subtle side effect, allowing domains as names discourages bots and trolls with fake id, as there is a credit card purchase and address involved in domain purchases. It’s an 80% ID verification solution.
It is still early days with BlueSky and AT Protocol. With Threads suddenly arriving on the scene, it further complicates how we choose to build a social media strategy for marketing our talents and comics. If the BlueSky teams can deliver the promised features of AT protocol, BlueSky will be a strong contender for a new, safer place for comic creators.
Question: Bluesky uses distributed technology. Does this mean it is on a blockchain?
Answer: No.
While reportedly originally planned as a blockchain project, AT protocol does not explicitly use blockchain. However, do not be surprised if, one day, blockchain-based data repositories join the federated network.
Twitter hired former Zcash core developer Jay Graber to lead BlueSky (Zcash is a privacy coin well-established in the crypto space). Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder and “Bitcoin maximalist,” sits on the BlueSky board.
For more information:
What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the app trying to replace Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2023, from https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/06/what-is-bluesky-everything-to-know-about-the-app-trying-to-replace-twitter/
GitHub—Bluesky-social/atproto: Social networking technology created by Bluesky. (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2023, from https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto
First impressions of Bluesky’s AT Protocol. (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2023, from https://educatedguesswork.org/posts/atproto-firstlook
Bluesky now lets you choose your own algorithm | Engadget. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-now-lets-you-choose-your-own-algorithm-183824105.html
Our Plan for a Sustainably Open Social Network—Bluesky. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/7-05-2023-business-plan
Purchase and Manage Domains Directly Through Bluesky—Bluesky. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/7-05-2023-namecheap
The AT Protocol. (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2023, from https://atproto.com/
The AT Protocol—Bluesky. (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2023, from https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/10-18-2022-the-at-protocol
Threads: How to change your feed to accounts you follow | Mashable. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://mashable.com/article/thread-people-you-follow-feed
Use a custom domain as username on Bluesky—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from
Twitter Names Former Zcash Dev to Head Decentralized Social Network Bluesky—Decrypt. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://decrypt.co/78652/twitter-names-former-zcash-dev-head-decentralized-social-network-bluesky
Jack Dorsey Pledges $5M to Help Bitcoin Core Developers—Decrypt. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://decrypt.co/144932/jack-dorsey-pledges-5m-to-help-bitcoin-core-developers
Decentralized Social Networks vs the Trolls—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2023, from