Jack Dorsey has launched the beta version of BlueSky Social, a decentralized social network

The social media sector is experiencing a period of change. To the news of the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk or of Parler by the singer Kanye West, there is now the launch of a beta version of Blue Sky Social, a new social media space based on blockchain behind which is a team led by jack dorsey, Founder and former CEO of Twitter.

Initially, Bluesky launched under Dorsey’s leadership in 2019, with the aim of building a decentralized social networking protocol that could eventually connect to Twitter, making it interoperable with other networks unrelated to the company. In order to maintain the independence of the microblogging network, Bluesky has established itself as an independent entity that produces non-proprietary open source work. As reported by The Verge, Bluesky was formally organized as a public benefit LLC (limited liability company) led by software engineer Jay Graber in late 2021.

Recently, the company has presented and released what it calls AT Protocol, a network technology created to drive the next generation of social applications and that will serve as the basis for what BlueSky defines as “a new federated social network”. As they explain, this will integrate “insights from the latest decentralized technologies in a simple, fast and open network”.

“What is a “federated” network? It is a way for servers to communicate with each other, like email. Instead of one site running the network, you can have many sites. It means you get to choose the provider, and people and businesses can self-host if they want“, they explain from BlueSky on their website.

Although it is not yet clear what BluekSky will ultimately look like or how it will work, the idea behind this future social network is a kind of decentralized communication system that allows multiple sites to support the same network. Thus, the intention of the company is that “AT Protocol” serves to enhance interoperability by creating a global identification for users that can exist between different platforms by relying on blockchain cryptographic systems to provide security.

Furthermore, BlueSky details four fundamental pillars of its nature on the AT Protocol page:

• Account portability: The firm believes that a person’s online identity should not be the property of corporations without responsibility to their users, and in this sense, they ensure that thanks to their protocol, accounts can be moved from one provider to another without losing any of the data.
• Algorithmic choice: at BlueSky they understand that, in a context in which algorithms dictate what we see and who we can reach, users must have control over them in order to trust online spaces. “The AT Protocol includes an open algorithms mode for users to have more control over their experience.to”, they explain.
• Interoperability: the company argues that the world needs a diverse market for connected services to ensure healthy competition and therefore interoperability must be essential on the web. “The AT Protocol includes a schema-based interoperation framework called Lexicon to help solve coordination challenges,” they comment.
• Performance: BlueSky claims to have made performance and fast charging at scale a priority.

In this sense, the BlueSky application, which has already been launched in beta version and has obtained more than 30,000 subscriptions, it will be the “gateway” to AT Protocol. “The word “Bluesky” evokes a wide open space of possibilities. It was the original name of this project before it took shape, and it is still the name of our company. We call the application we are building Bluesky because it will be a portal to the world of possibilities on the AT Protocol”, they comment from the company.

Despite the promise of the idea behind BlueSky Social, many say that the future application faces some of the challenges associated with decentralized networks, such as the debates linked to content moderation, and the problems related to the selection and definition of algorithms by users. Similarly, many are questioning how it will manage one of the biggest problems for a platform that intends to operate without corporate intervention, which is who decides when changes to the protocol are required.