Bluesky Opens to the Public: Inside Jack Dorsey’s Decentralized Social Network

On February 6th, Bluesky, a decentralized alternative to the social network X, backed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, opened to the public following a beta test involving over 3 million users.

You can now sign up for Bluesky without an invite! ?https://t.co/rUyMjYVEkt pic.twitter.com/PaT4Z6hJnu

— bluesky (@bluesky) February 6, 2024

“When you enter Bluesky, it may seem familiar — user interaction should be simple. But inside, it is designed to put control [over the feed] back in your hands. Here, your online experience is not at the mercy of a single company. Whether it’s the timeline or content filters, in Bluesky you can easily customize your personal social experience,” states the project’s blog.

An Alternative Approach

The interface and functionality of the social network indeed resemble early Twitter. The platform’s logo is a white butterfly on a blue background.

However, according to the developers, Bluesky’s algorithms and moderation mechanisms differ significantly from those of its competitors. The project is built on the decentralized AT Protocol, which is “virtually uncensorable and does not collect personal data.”

According to a Bluesky press release, February will see the introduction of an experimental feature called “Federation,” allowing users to connect to private servers within the platform’s ecosystem.

The “Federation” architecture comprises three main components:

• Personal Data Servers (PDS);
• Relay;
• App View — the content displayed to users.

“The AT Protocol is designed on the principle of ‘a big world with small fallback options’ as the most open network. On the internet, individual computers upload content online, and then all this content is broadcast back to other computers. Similarly, with our protocol, we send messages to a much smaller number of large aggregators, which then pass them to PDS,” the developers explained.

Personal Data Servers send the received information to the relay, which then filters content for specific users. Suitable posts are then displayed in the feed as the so-called App View.

User Experience

Upon registering on the social network, users are immediately prompted to select several areas of interest in the form of tags. Based on this, the algorithm suggests suitable accounts to follow.

Additionally, Bluesky features a system of feed channels that relay content on specific topics.

The social network’s personalized moderation mechanism, where algorithms and users themselves tag specific content, allows for its display to be customized in the feed.

“In the coming weeks, we will introduce tagging services that will allow users to add more filters to existing settings. This will enable other organizations and individuals to launch their own moderation services to account for additional industry information or specific cultural norms,” emphasized Bluesky developers.

Jack Dorsey first announced the project for a decentralized social media platform in 2019. In February 2022, the organization Bluesky PBLLC was established.

In April, following Twitter’s decision to sell the social network to billionaire Elon Musk, Bluesky reiterated its independence.

Later, Dorsey’s project raised $8 million in a seed funding round led by Neo.

From January 25 to February 3, 2024, the number of active users on the Web3 platform Farcaster increased ninefold — from 2,700 to 25,000. The number of content creators on social applications based on the protocol rose from 2,400 to 19,100.