How Decentralized Is Bluesky Really?

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

@cwebber This is great. Thank you for taking the time to write it all up.

One thing I like about this space is that people on all sides seem collegial. They acknowledge the issues with their own solution and praise the strengths of others. You don't get that much anymore.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Now look, we're about 1/3 of the way done here, there's a lot more to say, and a lot more said in my article, it's about 24 pages long if you print it out.

This is because in the age of TikTok I somehow have decided to model myself after David Foster Wallace, sorry

"Consider the Fediverse" I guess

[cwebber@social.coop]

But now, I will break for lunch. Enjoy your intermission because I will be back. We still have to get through the remaining 2/3 of the analysis, after all.

======= LUNCH BREAK HERE =======

[cwebber@social.coop]

Okay I am back from lunch, time to resume my analysis thread for "How decentralized is bluesky really?" https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/

I have been receiving a lot of notifications, I am not reading any of them until I finish with this so bear with me, BEAR WITH ME, we're gonna make it through

[cwebber@social.coop]

And before we make it any further can I say that I watched a nice medley of David Bowie and Cher singing, and it was so lovely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPlN8RBP-Ws

@mlemweb said "of course it's very heteronormative despite having two queer coded icons on the stage and ISN'T THAT THE WAY I guess

[cwebber@social.coop]

But where was I? Oh yes. We had talked about why PDS'es aren't enough (blog/google analogy), relative costs of hosting things on ATProto vs ActivityPub, etc etc

But we haven't gotten into the really interesting parts which are the structural analysis stuff, so let's move onto that

[cwebber@social.coop]

Now you may be saying, "Christine, this is really unfair, because you're looking at ActivityPub servers which are only dealing with a small amount of the network, what if it were an ActivityPub mega-node? What are the costs THEN huh?" and "What if we hosted just PART of ATProto?"

What then INDEED

[cwebber@social.coop]

ATProto is not designed for the Relay and AppViews to only hold part of the network, not *really*, and ActivityPub is. We'll get to this in a moment.

But Bluesky actually has good justification for this! I will defend it insofar as Bluesky was making a serious *design decision*

[cwebber@social.coop]

Remember the directive that Bluesky was given: develop a decentralized protocol which Twitter can adopt. That informs a lot of things, and has meant that Bluesky was really very ready for this moment!

If you're an ex-X-Twitter user then by god, you're going to be amazed! It's just like Twitter!

[cwebber@social.coop]

This informs some other things:
- Bluesky's gotta scale BIG and do so FAST (scaling down: not a priority at all)
- It has to be something Twitter can adopt (of course, not anymore, but initially)
- Everything on ATProto is public (yes, everything, including your blocks btw, we'll get to that)

[cwebber@social.coop]

But here's the other thing. People have trouble with the fediverse! All those decentralization decisions get in the way, my god, you've got to choose a server, search doesn't work well (actually it could but it's a cultural thing, different topic), and worst of all:

Sometimes you DON'T SEE REPLIES!

[cwebber@social.coop]

Actually all these critiques of the fediverse are TRUE, these are known challenges, and actually it's not really so bad, but it could be better, and at any rate, Bluesky made a major decision to simplify a lot for new users, and they have. Things seem to just work for people! Incredible!

[cwebber@social.coop]

The thing you often get seen thrown around is "it's amazing, I had no idea a decentralized protocol could just work like that! How on earth did they solve that in a decentralized system and so FAST too!"

It's simple: all those things "just work" because Bluesky is centralized.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Now yes, they are using decentralized techniques. Remember when I said content-addressed storage is a good idea and the fediverse should do it too? IT IS! (And as I also said, it's actually fully possible for the fediverse to do, more on that later.)

But the reality is, it's still *centralized*

[cwebber@social.coop]

In every meaningful way from a power dynamics perspective *EXCEPT* the category of "credible exit" (which I am saying and agreeing is a good idea!) Bluesky is centralized.

MAYBE another big corporation could come along and host all this stuff but that's adding a Bing to our Google

[cwebber@social.coop]

Yes, you can host your own PDS. You can also host your own blog. But try hosting your own PDS and NOT hosting a relay or AppView and you can't do much.

Blogs are decentralized, Google is not.
PDS'es are decentralized, Bluesky is not.

[cwebber@social.coop]

We're getting to the point where we get to why I'm so damn frustrated about this and have been biting my tongue until it nearly comes detached from my mouth: users THINK Bluesky is decentralized because they're TOLD Bluesky is decentralized

AUGH! *That's* what drives me nuts.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Here's an example of this problem in action

fry69: "The working search box was the second thing that impressed me on Bluesky, I thought that was not possible with a decentralized model"

Sorry fry sixty-nine I regret to inform you the reason search works so well is that it's centralized! THAT'S WHY

[cwebber@social.coop]

So hold on, let me set some terms for "decentralization" and "federation" that I think are reasonable.

> Decentralization: the result of a system that diffuses power throughout its structure, so that no node holds particular power at the center.

Pretty reasonable. Do you agree? I hope so!

[cwebber@social.coop]

Okay how about "federation" now because this is a *technical term* that the *fediverse has established* and I'm kinda PO'ed about the goalposts being moved on this one.

A lot of people coming to Bluesky have never heard of "federation" before in a social network so listen up this is important!