On Wednesday Twitter’s decentralized open-source social media project Bluesky released its first batch of code for a decentralized social network protocol.

The code is known as Authenticated Data eXperiment (ADX), which was released through a Thursday blog post titled “Working in Public.” ADX is a protocol built around user-controlled “Personal Data Repositories” that social network developers could choose to support. It contains a software developer kit, including implementation and basic commands like creating posts and liking others' posts. For developers to test this code is available on GitHub. Bluesky also committed to content moderation on the network.

The Bluesky team stated that the process of developing the platform will be publicly shared by “releasing work before it’s complete, but also giving ourselves time to workshop new directions at early stages.” The project is still in a very basic stage. Some things are missing in the project, and are going to change. Developers are now free to experiment with the network architecture. The team behind Bluesky pointed out in a tweet that there is no app or network. There is only a command line for testing."

Jay Graber was a former core developer of privacy coin Zcash who was later appointed CEO of Bluesky. The team has yet to give much indication of whether its decentralized standard will utilize a token or blockchain network. As per Bluesky CEO Jay Graber ADX will be the start of a semi-public development process.

There are certain basic elements of this project.

Firstly, at this stage, self-authenticating data will be utilized by the ADX protocol. Self-authentication data is a model that enables operations on a network to be certified independently without a centralized host or authority. The goal of this project is to give the individual users control over their own data and can move it from platform to platform network for which no permission is required. It is an idea central to the Web3 movement. The current iteration of Web 2.0 social media apps, Twitter among them, are company-controlled.

Secondly, as per Bluesky having a usable social network without moderation is not possible. Hence, it is intending to build a moderation model for the network with two separate layers ‘speech’ and ‘reach’. The speech layer can be as neutral as publishing a website. What gets amplified across the network determines through the reach layer.

As per the Bluesky team, the release of the code at such a stage is part of its commitment to "work in the open and share our progress."

The project was conceived in 2019 and was first announced by Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. With the publication of an ecosystem review of various decentralized technologies and applications, that includes blockchain-based InterPlanetary File System and Ethereum microblogging platform Peepeth, the project made progress in 2021. It was formally incorporated in early 2022. In the month of February after receiving $13 million worth of funding from Twitter the project went independent where Dorsey is a member of the board. Cryptocurrency and Web3 run in Bluesky's veins.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA