After nearly a year as an invite-only platform, Bluesky, a micro-blogging platform backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is now welcoming the public.
With about 3 million sign-ups during its invite-only phase, Bluesky is now faced with the challenge of competing with established players like Threads, having 130 million monthly active users, and Mastodon, with 1.8 million users.
Bluesky may resemble Twitter at first glance, but its core lies in its decentralized infrastructure called the AT Protocol for social networking. Unlike centralized platforms, Bluesky’s code is open source, empowering developers to build custom algorithms or even entirely new social platforms on top of it.
CEO Jay Graber emphasized Bluesky’s focus on user experience, ensuring it’s both intuitive and enjoyable. The platform also introduces features like open federation, allowing developers to build separate servers akin to Mastodon, offering users greater choice and flexibility.
Bluesky’s innovative approach extends to content moderation. Users can subscribe to custom moderation services, including fact-checking organizations, enhancing transparency and trust within the community. However, the decentralized nature also poses challenges, particularly regarding harmful content moderation and user responsibility.
Bluesky’s journey began as part of Twitter, envisioned as its future decentralized evolution. However, with Twitter’s changing priorities under new leadership, Bluesky spun off into its own public benefit corporation, competing with Twitter’s new direction under X.
Now, Bluesky aims to enhance social networking by opening its doors to the public, providing an alternative to centralized platforms. The company is set to transform the space of social media, offering users more control, transparency, and customization options in their online interactions.
While Bluesky launches to the public, the conversation about decentralized protocols like ActivityPub continues to evolve. Despite ActivityPub’s rising popularity, Bluesky sees an opportunity to offer a distinct approach to decentralized social networking, embracing experimentation and innovation in the ever-evolving digital sector.
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