Be Wary of Bluesky Be Wary of Bluesky atproto open-protocols decentralization In 2023, Bluesky’s CTO Paul Frazee was asked what would happen if Bluesky ever turned against its users. His answer: “it would look something like this: bluesky has gone evil. there’s a new alternative called freesky that people are rushing to. I’m switching to freesky” That’s the same argument people made about Twitter. “If it goes bad, we’ll just leave.” We know how that played out. The promise Bluesky is built on ATProto, an open protocol. The pitch is simple: your data is yours, your identity is yours, and if you don’t like what Bluesky is doing, you can take everything and leave. Apps like Tangled (git hosting), Grain (photos), and Leaflet (publishing) all plug into the same protocol. One account, many apps, no lock-in. It sounds great. But look closer. Where your data actually lives When you use any ATProto app, it writes data to your Personal Data Server, or PDS. Your Bluesky posts, your Tangled issues, your Leaflet publications, your Grain photos. All of it goes to the same place. For almost every user, that place is a server run by Bluesky. You can self-host a PDS. Almost nobody does. Why would they? Bluesky’s PDS works out of the box with every app, zero setup, zero maintenance. Self-hosting means running a server, keeping it online, and gaining nothing in return. To be fair, migration tools exist. You can move your account to a self-hosted PDS for as little as $5 a month. Bluesky has made this easier over time and even supports moving back. But this only works if you do it before the door closes. If an acquirer disables exports, it doesn’t matter that the tools existed yesterday. And we know from every platform transition in history that almost nobody takes proactive steps to protect their data. The flywheel Here’s the part that worries me. Every new ATProto app makes this problem worse, not better. Each app tells you “sign in with your Bluesky account”, which really means “write more data to Bluesky’s servers.” The more apps that launch, the more users depend on Bluesky’s infrastructure, the less reason anyone has to leave. The protocol doesn’t distribute value across the network. It concentrates it. Developers are building features on top of Bluesky’s infrastructure for free, making it more indispensable with every app that ships. And Bluesky gets to claim the moral high ground the whole time. “We’re open! We’re decentralized! You can leave whenever you want!” Meanwhile, the switching cost goes up every day. The chokepoints It’s not just the PDS. Bluesky controls almost every critical layer: The Relay. All data flows through it. Bluesky runs the dominant one. Whoever controls the relay controls what gets seen, hidden, or deprioritized. Third parties can run their own, but without the users, it doesn’t matter. The AppView. This is what assembles your timeline, threads, and notifications. Bluesky runs the main one. If it goes down or goes hostile, every clien

Source: Hacker News | Original Link