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diff --git a/posts/2022/atproto_good_for.md b/posts/2022/atproto_good_for.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1d9e3de..0000000 --- a/posts/2022/atproto_good_for.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,98 +0,0 @@ -Title: What is atproto.com good for? -Author: bnewbold -Date: 2022-11-23 -Tags: tech, dweb -Status: draft - -Bluesky released early documentation for the ["AT -Protocol"](https://atproto.com) (atproto) a few weeks ago, and I've been -noodling around with it. Technically, it strikes an appealing balance between -rigid cryptographically-signed content-addressable storage on the one hand, and -familiar web-friendly schemas and integrations on the other. But at an -ecosystem level, there are already a bunch of existing open social media -projects. Does atproto bring anything interesting to the table? How might it fit -in compared to other similar protocols? - -First, as quick background, atproto is a dweb social media protocol which -aspires to replace Twitter as a centralized platform. Bluesky, the organization -developing it, is a small company with history intertwingled with Jack Dorsey -and Twitter itself. The folks there also have ties to more established dweb -tech projects like IPFS, Scuttlebutt, and dat. - -What sets atproto apart from other dweb and fediverse projects is that it is -explicitly trying to support some of the “big world” features of Twitter. This -means global discovery and “leaderboard” metrics (“likes”, “followers”), and -also means “broadcast” content that gets rapidly replicated to millions -(billions?) of users. It also supports, to some degree, the ability to -redistribute and discuss pieces of content outside of their original context -(“context collapse”). - -I myself mostly dislike these properties for social media, but I do think they -have positive social value in some cases. For example, short-form official -announcements (eg, local weather warnings, flash flood alerts, public transit -disruption), or short-form journalism (eg, as live blogging breaking events). -I do not have a Twitter account, but some of the use cases that I personally -still end up going there for today include local breaking news (what is that smoke -cloud in my city, what is happening at a protest); seeing what “anybody” is -saying about a project (eg, search by project name or domain name); checking if -people or institutions are A Thing (what do they say in public feed, who is -interacting with them); and generally what individual people or institutions -are up to. These are all "big world" use cases that can't be met by the circle -of folks a couple social hops from me. - -It does feel to me that some these use-cases were well served by older web and -indieweb tech, like (micro)blogs and RSS. Especially for the last case (“what -are people up to”), which depending on the person may best be found on a -homepage or blog. Maybe if social platforms were more open and had better -sitemap tech then generic search engines could provide the big world features? - -But many current dweb/fediverse projects try to specifically steer away from -“big world” aggregations, and instead focus on “small world” in-community -discussion. They do provide the technical ability to engage across communities -and with the broader public. But I suspect many want to avoid rapid -aggregation, leaderboards, and global discovery. - -My take is that atproto should explicitly double-down on these use cases, -because others are not. The project should also try to support existing -(indie)web protocols like RSS and (possibly) ActivityPub. I don’t think they -should directly try to support private messaging (leave that to Signal and -Matrix, maybe with some identity/contact level interop), or forum-like -small-world discussion with community-level norms (leave that to Discourse for -web-index-able stuff, or SSB, or Mastodon). - -Speaking of ActivityPub, I see two main contrasts against atproto. The first is -that atproto specifies how user content should be canonically **stored**, while -ActivityPub specifies **event notifications** between servers. An analogy is -that ActivityPub is more like RSS (in which content may be truncated or -otherwise non-canonical in an RSS feed) matter much), while atproto is more -like a git repo (original content is transferred in canonical form; there is -some awkwardness about large blobs/media). I think the atproto way makes it -easier for an ecosystem to be interoperable in the long run, reduces the stress -and obligations of hosting content on servers (because it is easy to backup and -migrate), and empowers individual users. The other big contrast is -full-strength account migration support in atproto, which works even without -any participation by former hosting providers. - -This last feature, building on [decentralized identifiers -(DIDs)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_identifier), is in my view -the least mature and riskiest part of the currently proposed system. DID is a -W3C specification, but really feels like it comes from the blockchain/web3 -world. did:web does exist and should work fine, but itself is a big nothing -burger because it does not enable the interesting account migration features -that a true DID would. It should be possible to implement something like -[Certificate -Transparency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_Transparency) to do -global-trusted and rapidly resolvable DIDs without wasteful proof-of-whatever, -but that would require an effort and institution like Let’s Encrypt did for SSL -certificates. It is unclear if or when that might actually happen. As it stands -today DID has a pile of good intentions and standardization scaffolding, but in -reality is just blockchain and vaporware. - ---- - -As part of noodling around with the protocol, I wrote a simple partial -command-line tool and personal data server (PDS), -[adeonsine](https://gitlab.com/bnewbold/adenosine). You can check out the -minimal web interface at the examples -[pierre-manard.robocracy.org](https://pierre-manard.robocracy.org) and -[voltaire.demo.adenosine.social](https://voltaire.demo.adenosine.social). |