Bluesky Social - Open Source Libraries for Federated Social Networks

Jack Dorsey-backed open source and federated, Twitter alternative, Bluesky is now available in the App Store.

Bluesky, the decentralized open source project that originated within Twitter, is available on the Apple App Store as an invite-only social network. Last year, Bluesky was spun off as a separate company, noting that independence was important to the success of the project, and it had added Dorsey to its board.

Bluesky is powered by its open-source social protocol, called the Authenticated Transfer Protocol, or ATP. Bluesky describes it as a “federated social network” where separate networks exist within a single hub. ATP is a protocol for large-scale distributed social applications and holds promise for development for newer social networks that are open with account portability and interoperability.

The AT Protocol is built based on four main ideals

1. account portability

2. algorithmic

3. performance and

4. interoperability.

The framework allows to easily transfer account data to another Bluesky provider and give control over what you see on a network, among other things.

Similar to the ActivityPub protocol that powers Mastodon, AT Protocol offers the means of creating a federated and decentralized social network. However, there’s been criticism of the project from Mastodon and other developers who pointed out that ActivityPub, which a recommended W3C standard, already powers a large and growing “Fediverse” of interconnected servers. Companies including Flipboard, Medium, Tumblr, and possibly Flickr have committed to embracing the ActivityPub standard. The direction of AT Protocol will need to evolve under these circumstances of adoption.

Additional libraries from Bluesky