The social media company BlueSky–founded in 2019 by Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey–was initially a research initiative for Twitter to investigate the feasibility of decentralization. However, after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022, the company severed all legal and financial ties to BlueSky, allowing it to operate as an independent microblogging application. Since becoming open to the public in February of 2024, it has since grown to more than 21 million users, with many former Twitter (now X) users finding its content enforcement mechanisms more robust.
In addition to its moderation capabilities, BlueSky also its own protocol for verifying and delivering content, an early version of which was made open-source in 2022. Dubbed ATProtocol, the technology uses a duel identifier system to verify access and posting: an immutable decentralized identifier (DID) and a mutable domain name handle. By default, this handle uses a subdomain of the BlueSky domain (bsky.social) for a user’s handle, but users can assign their own validated domains to the DID, customizing their validated presence in a way that Twitter used to do with their Blue Check system.
The ATProtocol is still under development, but all indications are that this system will find further purchase both on BlueSky and other microblogging applications that may come later.
