Understanding Twitter's Web3 - Bluesky in 5 Minutes

Introduction

Following the internet revolution of the late 20th century, the 21st century ushered in an era of information. In this era, people can share insights without stepping out of their homes, constantly discovering novelties online. However, the rapid growth of the internet is a double-edged sword. The information silos of the big data era have trapped many in closed information channels, where they only see what they want, rendering internet users passive consumers of content. With algorithms eliminating any “private space,” the quest is on to build an efficient, seamless platform that preserves users’ individuality.

The idea for Bluesky emerged in 2019, introduced by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Originally just a small five-person team, the objective was to build a decentralized social media system to serve internet users via a protocol, rather than acting as a corporation like Twitter. Embracing the principle of “meticulous craftsmanship,” the team developed rules for the decentralized system over the years, and today, Bluesky operates independently.

(Image sourced from the internet)

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a public conversation system open to all online users, integrating elements of Email, blogs, and phone numbers into a single social network. Within this ecosystem, users communicate freely through these open channels. This fully decentralized social network allows users and developers to choose and create tools according to their needs, moving away from the traditional tools mostly owned by centralized companies. Users no longer have to register different accounts on different platforms.

Bluesky’s inception can be traced back to 2019 when Jack Dorsey’s five-member team proposed creating a decentralized public internet protocol. This marked the official establishment of the Bluesky project. A year later, Bluesky launched its forum community, opened its source code, and invited anyone interested to participate. By December 2021, Bluesky initiated a technical competition to register digital identities and link online spaces. This helped the team discover a method to connect to the internet with simple digital identities without platform support.

2022 was a rapid growth year for Bluesky. In April, they achieved their objective of implementing the protocol from top to bottom through a “self-authenticating social protocol,” giving Bluesky its preliminary model. By October, Bluesky further iterated its social networking protocol and introduced the new AT protocol.

In 2023, Bluesky expanded its functionalities and reach. In March, they launched a beta version of their APP for select users to preview. That same month, the team registered the first custom domain on Bluesky to test and enhance users’ control and trust in their social identity. By July, Bluesky made domain purchases available, allowing users to buy and manage their online social accounts via domains registered on Bluesky. Notably, these domains aren’t locked, allowing users to resell them.

Bluesky’s disruption of traditional social networks lies in its push to transition from platforms to protocols. Like the internet, as long as one is connected, anyone can search and access information, no longer confined to a particular platform or product. Users also won’t need to worry about account deactivation or data loss due to the departure of a provider.

Features of Bluesky

Portability

As the name suggests, portability allows users to freely transfer their information and data. In the vision of Bluesky, users need only one identity (a single account) to share all their information with other users and developers within this social network. There is no need to tediously register different accounts to verify personal information when switching between products from different developers.

Taking email as an example: Traditional social communication typically adopts a unified social protocol where different providers offer different email addresses. If you switch providers, your address must change; otherwise, you’ll lose connection with the relevant account. This conditions users to significant limitations from different servers. However, what Bluesky aims to achieve is to allow users to freely switch the services they need without relying on suppliers and servers. This sets Bluesky apart from other social media platforms or apps. Developers can transfer content saved within the AT protocol data and use this method to export a copy of the repository. For non-developers, tools are still being built to make this process simpler.

Scalability

Bluesky doesn’t intend to be just a niche community. The team wants as many people as possible to join worldwide. Within it, one can freely form a niche community without affecting most Bluesky users, much like today’s major social platforms. Decentralized networks bring new features for scalability. Conversations and interactions can be preserved using distributed storage, moving away from the traditional social platforms where centralized entities hold data. Bluesky’s team is creating a Web3 network based on a decentralized network, enabling users worldwide to freely communicate through the social network protocol and permanently retain data.

Customized Social Interaction

Bluesky emphasizes that moderation is an essential feature of the social space. It retains its applications as invite-only and undergoes review before the final part of the open alliance, prioritizing user safety. Bluesky’s moderation methods allow for a third-party provider ecosystem to realize a composable, customizable review section. Users can design their filters to manage their content experience. Bluesky is building an open, composable tagging system that allows anyone to define and apply tags. Services or individuals within the network can then choose how to use these tags to determine the end-user experience.

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What is the AT Protocol?

As a developer, when you try to create a new application, you often have to build a social graph from scratch. If you attempt to build on the APIs of existing companies, the moment they shut down those interfaces, you could lose all your progress, resulting in the need to invest significant time to rebuild your audience base. Even if you succeed, when the platform changes its rules, developers could lose access to their audience again. The AT Protocol seeks to change this.

The AT Protocol is a web technology introduced by Bluesky, designed to support the next generation of social applications. Its core features are divided into three components: federated social networks, algorithm choices, and independent accounts. The federated social network allows users to connect with others on the AT Protocol. Algorithm choices curate information resources based on individual user habits and preferences. Independent accounts empower users by giving them complete control over their accounts.

(Image sourced from the official website)

The AT Protocol is a public conversation protocol and an open-source framework for building social applications. It allows users to transparently understand its construction methods and the content under development. This protocol establishes a standard format for user identity, follows, and data on social apps, thereby ensuring the interoperability of apps and the free movement of users. It can be seen as a unified network with account portability. To illustrate, whenever you create an account on a social platform, it’s like moving to a new city. Here, you make friends and create posts, just as you’d furnish a new house with your furniture. However, on centralized social platforms, once you leave, you lose contact with all your friends, as if you couldn’t take any furniture when leaving a new house. This makes it very challenging to leave a centralized site and start afresh.

The goal of the AT Protocol is to ensure users don’t lose their original data and profiles when switching between different products, known as portability, one of the major differences from centralized networks.

(Image sourced from the official website)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Bluesky

Advantages of Bluesky

• Customizable Audits and User Security: Bluesky prioritizes user safety by keeping the application invite-only and conducting audits. This approach aids in curbing malpractices and safeguarding user privacy.
• Audit Flexibility: Bluesky’s auditing method permits a customizable and combinable audit segment within the third-party provider’s ecosystem. Users can filter and manage their content experience according to their needs and preferences.
• Open Tagging System: Bluesky is developing an open and combinable tagging system, enabling anyone to define and apply tags. This facilitates enhanced control and customization of user experiences.

Disadvantages of Bluesky

• Incomplete Features with Many Still in Development: As of now, Bluesky appears to be in its developmental phase. Consequently, there needs to be more information available about its actual usage experience and effectiveness, making it challenging to evaluate its true impact.
• Limiting User Growth: By maintaining an invite-only status, Bluesky might be curbing its user growth and potential network expansion.

Differences Twitter and Facebook

• User Security and Audits: Bluesky places a strong emphasis on user safety and flexible audits. In contrast, Twitter and Facebook might have fewer measures in this regard, especially as they’ve faced criticism in the past for content management and privacy concerns.
• Moderation in the Social Sphere: While Bluesky underlines moderation as an essential feature of its social space, platforms like Twitter and Facebook are more open, permitting relatively freer content posting. This openness, however, can lead to controversies and undesired behaviors.
• Open Tagging System: Bluesky’s open tagging system offers users better control over their content experience, whereas content filtering and categorization on Twitter and Facebook are typically determined by the platform itself with limited user involvement.
• User Base: Twitter and Facebook operate globally, boasting a vast user base. In contrast, Bluesky might cater to a smaller demographic due to its invite-only nature.

In summary, Bluesky stands out for its emphasis on user safety, audit flexibility, and an open tagging system. Still, it’s in its developmental phase. When compared to Twitter and Facebook, Bluesky focuses more on moderation in user safety and content management, along with offering more adaptable content filtering and tagging systems. However, given its ongoing developmental stage, Bluesky’s user base might be smaller than the latter two platforms.

BlueSky’s Future Plans

BlueSky, a philanthropic company, is devoted to developing and promoting permissionless decentralized public social media platform technology, aiming for goals beyond mere profit. Nevertheless, sustaining team development and operations necessitates financial backing. After completing an $8 million seed funding round, BlueSky may rely on domain name sales as its primary revenue source.

Unlike Web2 social media platforms, BlueSky doesn’t utilize direct advertising to boost its revenue, thereby avoiding the negative implications of excessive commercialization. The company will explore new business models in the future, such as offering more personalized tailored services. This includes custom user information, domain name resale updates, and data retention management to offset the absence of traditional advertising revenues.

As the project matures and gains more users, BlueSky will expand its domain registration scope, granting more users the opportunity to utilize the BlueSky platform. Concurrently, BlueSky is actively recruiting experienced teams and gradually open-sourcing its code to construct an open, organic community.

Decentralized Identity and blockchain technology applications will be focal points in future developments. This will enable users to enjoy convenient services within an open web space while safeguarding their privacy. In the future, we might witness BlueSky applications comprising various platforms where users can easily access services through a single domain, eliminating the need for account registrations or submitting personal data.

Conclusion

BlueSky represents a decentralized social media system, striving to establish an open, portable, and freely communicative public dialogue social network. Contrary to conventional centralized social platforms, BlueSky transitions the platform into a protocol where users and developers can select and create different application tools based on their needs. Its features emphasize portability and scalability.

Portability allows users to effortlessly transfer information and data without registering separate accounts on different platforms. Scalability, achieved through distributed storage and a decentralized network, preserves user conversations, enabling free communication and permanent data retention within the Web3 network. The emergence of BlueSky and the AT protocol indicates a growing demand for decentralized social networks and highlights concerns about user autonomy and data control. However, being in its nascent stage,

BlueSky’s widespread development will take time and effort. It faces technological hurdles, user adoption, and competition with existing centralized social platforms. Therefore, BlueSky’s future trajectory and popularity will hinge on its ability to meet user demands, introduce innovative features, establish a superior user experience, and attract broader participation and support from users and developers.