Bluesky builds a decentralized foundation for apps

The Future. The Twitter-backed Bluesky project — which is trying to create an entirely decentralized social app — is giving the public a taste of the tech that will power it. Dubbed the AT Protocol, the tech will allow developers to build their own apps on the same ethos as Bluesky. With Elon Musk all but certain to take control of Twitter, don’t be surprised if he taps into Bluesky’s innovations to either redesign Twitter or build that rumored X superapp.

Visible hand
Bluesky project is giving its decentralized software its first test flight, per The Verge.

• Bluesky is opening up its AT Protocol in beta for developers.
• The protocol is an underlying technology that can be used to build apps on top of its decentralized, fully transparent social network.
• So, that means third-party apps could function on the same tech as Bluesky’s eventual social platform.

What are the benefits of that? According to Bluesky:

• Users can run several apps on top of a single service — a concept called “federated social.”
• Users can choose what type of algorithm they want their profile to run on, so they can better control the information they see.
• Users can move content or social graph from one app to another and not lose any of the data — the same concept behind an avatar that can move between multiple metaverse spaces.

There’s still no firm release date for AT Protocol, but the developer community is surely keeping tabs.