The Fediverse has exploded in discussion of Bluesky, now that it’s launched a beta and harvested a few celebrities. Quite a lot of Fediverse voices have been angry and hostile, pointing out that several years of intense effort have produced a working ActivityPub-based federated monopoly-resistant conversational social network, and asking who are these dweebs ignoring that work and re-inventing the wheel, probably in an attempt to enrich Jack Dorsey?!

I have a lot of sympathy with those opinions. Having said that, the assertions are not all fact-based. So, here are facts (and a few opinions) about Bluesky, as of late April 2023.

[If you disagree with any of my “Facts”, please send evidence and I’ll correct.]

Fact: Bluesky is run by its CEO, Jay Graber.

Opinion: Jay is a decent and smart person.

Fact: Bluesky is a Delaware Public Benefit Limited Liability Company.

Opinion: It’s not 100% clear what that means but you should research a bit before having opinions on the subject.

Fact: Bluesky has disclosed that its directors “include” Jay Graber, Jeremie Miller (the XMPP guy), and Jack Dorsey. We don’t know if there are any more and if so, who they are.

Fact: Bluesky may be looked up at the Delaware Division of Corporations by searching for “bluesky pbllc” — If you have a state-of-Delaware registry account and $20 you can find out more, but I don’t have such an account. If you do, please let me know what you find out.

Opinion: My impression, from what’s on the record and having been in the Bluesky conversation until mid-2022, is that it’s really wrong to say that Jack runs or controls Bluesky, or is even involved that much.

Fact: Bluesky’s goals are said to include:

1. Selectable algorithms (including moderation), not necessarily per-instance.

2. Digital identity based on the Decentralized Identifiers (DID) spec, not tied to the instance you’re using.

3. Multi-instance federation.

Opinion: The DID standard is immensely complex and feels sort of ramshackle and not nearly proscriptive enough. I distrust some of the people who worked on it. But there are smart people who like it.

Fact: Things that Bluesky has not yet implemented:

1. Blocking.

2. Federation.

3. Selectable algorithms.

Fact: Bluesky received $13M in funding sometime in 2022.

Opinion: That is not nearly enough to build an Internet-scale social media service.

Opinion: Bluesky might become VC-investable if they can exhibit insanely-fast MAU growth and the ability to attract and retain celebrities.

Opinion: If they did get VC investment they’d be dead to me (and probably pretty soon just dead).

Fact: When Bluesky was announced, Jack Dorsey said that Twitter would be a client for the protocol.

Opinion: This was the biggest reason why Bluesky was interesting.

Opinion: Jack don’t work there any more and I wouldn’t bet on Elon… well, I was going to say “following through” but then I can’t think of anything I would bet on Elon for, so let’s leave it there.

Question: Is Bluesky interesting? · Opinion: Not very, until they actually have Federation and selectable-algorithms in place and shown to work at scale, and be useful. And that, as an organization, they can be worked with.