Musk’s main concern will be whether he can align his philosophical affinity for decentralization with the need to make Twitter a profitable business. He has previously expressed a desire to make the Twitter algorithm open source in the name of transparency, but relinquishing control over the algorithm (the mechanism by which people are kept on the platform) would be another step, and certainly not. a disaster for advertising revenue.
Musk could use Bluesky technology to create his . partially realizable ambition to turn Twitter into “X, the everything app” – a kind of super app that combines social media with payments and other tools, similar to WeChat. While the AT protocol does not use blockchain, it can “integrate with cryptocurrencies”, Graber has: previously said, meaning Bluesky can help support the payment aspect of the vision. But again, this is all hypothetical.
While there are many questions surrounding its implementation, Bluesky isn’t alone in thinking society would benefit from a more decentralized social media ecosystem, with less power in the hands of a money-driven minority.
Evan Henshaw-Plath, the first Odeo employee (who created Twitter), runs a peer-to-peer social network called Planetary that has a lot in common with Bluesky; both seek to increase transparency around algorithms and give people control over their personal data.
Henshaw-Plath predicts that Twitter will be heavily experimenting with Web3 and crypto-related projects under Musk, regardless of whether Bluesky takes on a starring role. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing,” he says, “but it’s definitely where most of the big changes will happen.”
Henshaw-Plath also says the acquisition increases the chances of Bluesky getting additional funding as Twitter is no longer “constrained by Wall Street,” and suspects Dorsey will return to Twitter in some capacity under Musk.
Once the AT protocol is up and running, the goal is to enable a level of interaction between planetary and Bluesky networks, Henshaw-Plath says, creating a kind of coalition motivated by the shared desire to to overturn the balance of power in favor of users.
This is also the ambition of Stani Kulechov, creator of Lens Protocol, a similar project where users self-host their profiles to create decentralization – an alternative to Bluesky’s cloud-based model. He says this approach “enables people to own their social capital” in terms of both their content and audience, and ensures that social profiles are “always under your care and control.”
But while efforts to minimize companies’ control over how people communicate should be celebrated, there are short-term hazards to be aware of, says Brewster Kahle, creator of the Internet Archive and the Internet Hall of Fame. fame. “If decentralization gave more people local control over how they build their communities, that would be a good thing,” says Kahle. But the concern is that a lack of clarity about the mechanisms of moderation under this new model could lead to the kind of “free-for-all hellscape” Musk say he is determined to avoid. “In the short term, decentralization could mean no content moderation or spam controls at all, giving a few a louder megaphone,” adds Kahle.
For this reason, Kahle says it’s very important to get the right technology, but there are “warning signs of simplistic, absolutistic thinking” among those trying to innovate in the social media space that could jeopardize the whole endeavor.
It’s up to Musk, the “absolute freedom of speech” and the world’s richest person, to propagate the vision for a more equitable, more private, less hostile social media experience. If he decides not to, Bluesky will have to fly out of the nest in search of support elsewhere.
