By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 24th, 2024
The initiative is expected to provide a decentralized answer to Twitter and to ensure that users have control over their data and then move across platforms without permission.
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has finally launched an iteration of its social protocol and a new Bluesky Social app after announcing the initiative in December 2019. It has been noted that the protocol has been renamed from ADX” to “Authenticated Transfer Protocol” (AT Protocol).
“Since May, we’ve been doing protocol work in a public repository on GitHub, but we’ve mostly been quiet on our blog and Twitter,” wrote the Bluesky team.
The initiative is expected to provide a decentralized answer to Twitter and to ensure that users have control over their data and then move across platforms without permission. Interoperation enhanced performance, and the “algorithmic choice” as key features of the protocol would enable users access to an open market of algorithms. In this case, they would have control over what they see and who they reach on social media. An interoperation framework called Lexicon has been developed by the team to foster connectivity between different apps and networks built on the AT Protocol.
“The world needs a diverse market of connected services to ensure healthy competition. Interoperation needs to feel like second nature to the Web,” said the Bluesky team.
Dorsey earlier envisioned his group’s potential, stating that “the goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard.”
Last month, court documents produced in the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) founder Elon Musk and Twitter lawsuit disclosed an exchange of texts where Dorsey asked Musk to operate Twitter as an “open source protocol, funded by a foundation.” He explained the dangers of operating social media platforms on a profit-based model, a similar case he made when announcing the creation of Bluesky. He believes that governments and corporations could have access points to control discourse when it is made to have an advertising model.
“If it has a centralized entity behind [it], it will be attacked,” Dorsey wrote.
The content moderation model of Bluesky would occur in multiple layers throughout the system.
“There’s no one company that can decide what gets published; instead there is a marketplace of companies deciding what to carry to their audiences,” according to Bluesky.
Dorsey has also clarified that users have the option to choose “no algorithm”. Users are currently allowed to join the private waitlist to test the beta version of the social app. Recently, Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus described Dorsey as honest and one of the few Bitcoin maxis he likes.
