Well, I was just shit posting in a cute way lol 🫣 because I love NOSTR. 

But, I suppose I should back up my words if asked. I would say decentralization fundamentally revolves around control, architecture, and governance. 

Real Decentralization
- Distributed Infrastructure
- Interoperable Standards
- User Ownership
- Resilience Against Censorship

Illusion of Decentralization
- Federated but Centralized Governance
- Control Over Critical Infrastructure
- Opaque Decision-Making
- Dependence on Proprietary Systems

As far as I know Bluesky does use the federated AT Protocol, which is a step toward decentralization because it avoids a single point of control. However, federation alone doesn’t guarantee full decentralization.

In Bluesky’s case, while servers can operate independently, the protocol and its governance are still managed by Bluesky PBC (Public Benefit Corporation). I would say this means that while the AT Protocol provides a decentralized framework, the reliance on a central governing body places Bluesky somewhere between partial and full decentralization.

Real decentralization is about giving users full autonomy over their data, identities, and the underlying infrastructure, eliminating points of centralized control. The illusion of decentralization occurs when platforms appear decentralized but still retain centralized governance or critical control mechanisms. Platforms like Nostr align more closely with true decentralization, while Bluesky’s federated model still has centralized elements to address before it can fully achieve that vision.