Oddbean

Can anyone suggest a good high level comparison of ATProto with other decentralised social software protocols like ActivityPub, Matrix or Nostr? One that's technically accurate, without getting too deep into the weeds. One that confirms or debunk's BlueSky's claim that the only thing required to make BlueSky meaningfully decentralised is more vendors participating. Either by hosting PDS, relay and appview services, and/or writing independent ATProto implementations. nostr:nprofile1qqs8d3c64cayj8canmky0jap0c3fekjpzwsthdhx4cthd4my8c5u47spz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qz9rhwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjmcpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wvh8xmmrd9skchd02dz? nostr:nprofile1qqsyvrp9u6p0mfur9dfdru3d853tx9mdjuhkphxuxgfwmryja7zsvhqppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qythwumn8ghj7anfw3hhytnwdaehgu339e3k7mf0qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tch2deau? nostr:nprofile1qqspwwwexlwgcrrnwz4zwkze8rq3ncjug8mvgsd96dxx6wzs8ccndmcpzdmhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2urpvuhx2ue0qyd8wumn8ghj7urewfsk66ty9enxjct5dfskvtnrdakj7qghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnw3ezucnpdejz7l352lu?

@Shreyan Jain has a good write up comparing the two protocols. ATprotocol can be open but it’ll never be permissionless. There is an approval process for each PDS connection to each relay and every kind of content will need its own appview server. The hard enforcement of schema validation means new data types don’t work on the network unless they go through a kind of standards process and then explicit support is added to the client, PDS, and appview amongst other places. Their name system was supposed to be a temporary bridge to an open system, it’s called did placeholder, but they know decided they’re keeping it because they do want a control over usernames. The last bit is that PDS’s control your keys and there is no way to request or move your keys. You can only migrate with a manual process that the PDS provider does on your behalf. If your PDS provider, which is 99.99% of the time Bluesky inc, doesn’t let you go then they own your account and all of your data. Lastly Bluesky isn’t going to do encryption. The dm system is an unencrypted centralized system where Bluesky has everyone’s private messages. They have no plans on changing that or adding encrypted groups. Bluesky has made a bunch of decisions which have helped it grow and in building these systems there are always tradeoffs.

wait what, you sure?? is schema validation really present at every step of the path?? I assumed it was only done on the AppView or something, I mean, people are making new schemas and they don't seem to need to go through any of this approval and implementation headache AFAIK??? and like,, I'm pretty sure allowing people to do key rotation independently of their PDS is one of the main reasons did:plc even exists?

that, and encrypted content and on-protocol DMs ARE on their protocol roadmap!! (https://docs.bsky.app/blog/2024-protocol-roadmap) they don't have a date on them - which, ew. - but like,, they never said they're NOT doing it.