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There Are No Instances in atproto — overreacted
14 hours ago
- atproto does not use 'instances'; instances are a Mastodon concept that conflates hosting and apps.
- atproto separates hosting from aggregation, similar to RSS and Google Reader, where content lives on personal hosting and apps aggregate it.
- In atproto, users can swap hosting freely and build new apps without being tied to a single platform.
- Centralized social media (e.g., Facebook) encloses users in one space, while federated systems like Mastodon use instances that exchange data, creating issues like identity tied to instances and O(n²) scaling.
- Decentralization in atproto is achieved through hosting portability and app diversity, not through the number of instances.
Building on ATProto
5 days ago
- ATProto has the potential to be a base for decentralized applications but is developing in surprising and disappointing ways.
- The author wants to build a suite of review apps that let users own their data and choose between public and private sharing.
- ATProto is currently public-only, and its proposed 'permissioned data' system treats private data as fundamentally different, creating complexity.
- Private and public data are essentially the same data with different access rights; ATProto's approach forces developers to build two separate systems.
- ATProto's Personal Data Server (PDS) is server-based, not like git, requiring custom offline storage and sync, undermining local-first principles.
- Despite flaws, ATProto's identity system is promising; the author hopes for design improvements to make it more developer-friendly.
Bluesky Trademarks ATProto
13 days ago
- Bluesky acquired the trademark for 'ATPROTOCOL' and its variants to protect community usage.
- The trademark is a defensive measure to prevent legal abuse and ensure free use for developers; no fees for most use cases.
- Licenses are required for commercial branding, products, services, events, merchandise, or domain names using the mark.
- Good faith use is encouraged, and the trademark will be transferred to an independent governance organization in the future.
- The approach is inspired by other open-source projects like Wikimedia, Red Hat, and Mozilla to balance legal needs with decentralization.
ActivityPub over ATProto
18 days ago
- The open social media space is often divided into factions, similar to political movements, where people feel compelled to pick sides instead of collaborating.
- ActivityPub could potentially run atop the AT Protocol Personal Data Server (PDS) with some modifications, leveraging ATProto's pluggable identity and signed data repositories for user agency.
- ATProto is a generic toolbox for building social media applications, not just Bluesky, with open standards intended for the com.atproto routes.
- ActivityPub uses actor documents to specify API endpoints via URLs, allowing indirection to point to an ATProto PDS, though issues like XRPC method limitations and identity alignment need bridging.
- Combining ActivityPub and ATProto could break social media siloes by merging ActivityPub's URL-based federation with ATProto's user-centric data control and credible exit guarantees.

atproto

There Are No Instances in atproto — overreacted

Building on ATProto

Bluesky Trademarks ATProto

ActivityPub over ATProto