Jack Dorsey Previews Decentralised ‘Bluesky’ Social Networking Initiative, ‘Authentic Transfer Protocol’ Revealed

The latest AT Protocol of the Bluesky initiative integrates ideas from the latest decentralised technologies into a simple, fast, and open network.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 19 October 2022 12:09 IST

Jack Dorsey Previews Decentralised ‘Bluesky’ Social Networking Initiative, ‘Authentic Transfer Protocol’ Revealed

Photo Credit: Twitter/ Bluesky

Jack Dorsey first announced the Bluesky initiative in 2019

Highlights

Bluesky in still under development
It aims to give users more control over their data
The release date of Bluesky remains unknown

Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder and former CEO of Twitter has shared new updates on the decentralised ‘Bluesky' social networking initiative that he is working on. The protocol, which is currently under development, is testing features like account portability, algorithmic choice, and interoperation. This more developed phase has been named the ‘Authentic Transfer Protocol' or the AT Protocol. As per an official statement, the AT Protocol of the Bluesky initiative integrates ideas from the latest decentralised technologies into a simple, fast, and open network.

The AT Protocol will enable users to identify themselves by compatible domain names like ‘@alice.com', which would then map to cryptographic URLs. This capability will essentially secure the account and data for each user, a blog post by Bluesky explained.

Bluesky is building a social protocol. We released “ADX” (the X stood for Experiment) in May. Now that the design is starting to solidify, we're renaming it to the “Authenticated Transport Protocol” — the “AT Protocol.” https://t.co/Q0XUF8OhVD
— bluesky (@bluesky) October 18, 2022

The features that are being added to the Bluesky protocol, are intended to give people more control over various aspects of their data.

With ‘Account Portability', users will be able to move their accounts from one provider to another without risking loss of their data. With this feature, Dorsey aims to strip big corporations of their control on people's online identities.

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With ‘Algorithmic Choice', the Bluesky will move away from the present-day trend of algorithms dictating what we browse and reach on social media and instead, present an open market of algorithms for people to choose from. Users will also be able to choose ‘no algorithms' for the content on their feeds.

“We must have control over our algorithms if we're going to trust in our online spaces. The AT Protocol includes an open algorithms mode so users have more control over their experience,” the blog explained.

The interoperability feature from Bluesky's AT Protocol will use a schema-based interoperation framework called ‘Lexicon' to finetune coordination in connected services.

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Bluesky was first announced by Dorsey in 2019. Elaborate details on the decentralised social networking protocol remain undisclosed for now. The launch plans for Bluesky also remain unclear.

Currently, its allowing users to join a private waitlist for beta testing, CoinTelegraph said in a report.

Recently, a bunch of leaked messages between Elon Musk and Dorsey indicated that the duo had been dabbling in the idea of moving Twitter to the blockchain, eliminating its dependency on government controlled, centralised systems.

Discussing how ideal Twitter should be, Dorsey suggested an ‘open source model' that is handled by a foundation, that contributes to the protocol without having any owning rights on the platform.

At the time, Musk had validated Dorsey's proposal calling it a “super interesting idea”.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Jack Dorsey, Bluesky, Decentralised Social Media, Twitter

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More