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Fedi.Tips

This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky.

BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board:

bsky.social/about/blog/10-24-2

The board member is a bitcoin researcher involved with NFT analytics.

BlueSky describe the tie-up with Blockchain Capital as a "natural partnership" and says the blockchain company has "a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation".

(via @jwz)

BlueskyBluesky Announces Series A to Grow Network of 13M+ Users - BlueskyBluesky now exceeds 13 million users, the AT Protocol developer ecosystem continues to grow, and we’ve shipped highly requested features like direct messages and video.
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Justin ⏚

@vintprox @FediTips @jwz Every time a journalist repeats the claim that BS is "decentralized" I rant about it to whomever is nearest to me at the time.

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sourencho

@JustinH can you elaborate or point me to a resource please? Very curious

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Possibly a Dog

@JustinH @sourencho

fyi I wrote up a semi-technical bit on BS’s so-called decentralization here

beige.party/@possibledog/11336

And it hit hackernews here

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4

which actually has some good back-and-forth with some actual #BlueSky devs and others. I think the #BlueSky devs and #ATProtocol hobbyists have some good ideas and good intentions, but they’re also being used by a company that’s owned by assholes and driven by greed.

beige.partyPossibly a Dog (@possibledog@beige.party)So, you know how Facebook is a corporation with a lot of spread-out servers that talk to a centralized database and algorithm that controls and manages all your posts, opaquely, for profit. And so is Xwitter. And so is LinkedIn. And so is TikTok. And so is BlueSky. 😲 BlueSky's big claim is that they're "decentralized" with "no algorithm". And yeah, technically, ironically, everything's an algorithm, but I'm not well-actuallying that word. Their current default feed algorithm is not The Algorithm; it lets you see all the posts from all your friends and that's great. It also lets you block at will, and won't shove spam on your feed, or shadow-ban your friends' political posts. It's not evil (yet). It's fine. But. It's not decentralized. #BlueSky is a centralized corporate app, running a theoretically-decentralized network protocol that currently has only one (1) active node on the network: BlueSky. The other minor members of the ATP network are just piggybacking on BlueSky's 13 million captive users for auth and reach. It (allegedly?) uses #ATProtocol to pass messages between its edge nodes. But all its central features are still centralized, and the protocol allows "reach" to be centrally managed separately from "speech" (to enable centralized blocking, and goosing and filtering in various feeds), and the protocol isn't even fully implemented as designed. For example, ATP allows for "DID"s for identity portability, so if you later want to switch to a hypothetical GreenSky competitor, you won't lose your followers and blocklist and post history. But the actual BlueSky app does not implement DIDs. It's called "did-placeholder" on their github. It's a stub. It's TBD. It's not a feature, it's a feature request. And guess who just bought a seat on BlueSky's board with a $15M Series A round? That's right, a crypto vulture named Blockchain Capital. Their general partner Kinjal Shah -- whose cryptocurrency-fueled career has careened from Bitcoin to NFTs to DAOs to VC -- is now on the BlueSky board, and methinks the press release doth protest too much when it defensively claims, with just a pinky promise, "the Bluesky app and the AT Protocol do not use blockchains or cryptocurrency, and we will not hyperfinancialize the social experience (through tokens, crypto trading, NFTs, etc.)." Go ahead and enjoy BlueSky. It's better than Facebook. It's easier than Mastodon. It's sassier than TikTok. It's not motherfucking Xitter. But it's not decentralized. links: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/10/bluesky-now-owned-by-crypto-grifters/ https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-24-2024-series-a https://github.com/did-method-plc/did-method-plc
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Justin ⏚

@possibledog @sourencho Well said, that's my experience too. Not to keep repeating myself but that aspect (the well meaning people) also reminds me of a lot of crypto.

Thanks for sharing! I will give it a read.

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solo

@sourencho @JustinH it's not really decentralization if 99.99% of users are on a single central service. that's called a centralized service with some rounding errors

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Justin ⏚

@solonovamax @sourencho Right, BlueSky's structure increasingly reminds me of that of cryptocurrencies (not surprising considering Jay Graber and Dorsey).

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solo

@JustinH @sourencho though dorsey has left bluesky due to them implementing moderation (lmfao) for an even more fascist and crypto-centered place

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Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋

@solonovamax @JustinH @sourencho There is literally nothing fascist and very little crypto about Bluesky

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Justin ⏚

@mackuba @solonovamax @sourencho Eh, Bluesky is a for-profit company that controls a centralized service that is claimed to be decentralized, while the reality of its structure is obfuscated via an intentionally complicated protocol intended to stymie journalists from deciphering and reporting on its actual nature.

Ya kinda have to admit the parallels to crypto!

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