March 1, 2023
Bluesky, Jack Dorsey’s Twitter alternative, has launched as an invite-only app on the App Store.
Dorsey announced Bluesky’s development as a decentralized social network in 2019. By decentralizing control over social media infrastructure, the platform aims to address the shortcomings of centralized social media networks such as Twitter.
Bluesky’s launch comes after two years of work by a team of experienced developers on building the decentralized protocol. The invite-only app, which has limited features, is currently available for iOS devices.
Users can follow others, send messages, and form groups, but the platform’s full functionality is not yet available. Bluesky is expected to give users more secure and private control over their data and information. The protocol is based on blockchain technology, which is used to power cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to reports, the Bluesky app has features similar to Twitter, such as a home timeline of posts from people you follow, a discovery tab, and a feed of recently posted Bluesky updates. Posts can be commented on, liked, and reported.
Instead of relying on a centralized authority, the decentralized infrastructure would allow users to control their own data and social media presence. Bluesky’s goal is to develop a decentralized social media protocol that can be used by any social media platform, not just Twitter. It remains to be seen whether Bluesky will gain enough traction to compete with Twitter and other centralized social media platforms.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechCrunch.
