Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO,unveils new app, Bluesky Social

A few months after stepping down as Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey announced the launch of a social media app he calls Bluesky Social.

Dorsey first started the creation of the new decentralized social network in 2019 and the app went independent in February 2022 after receiving $13 million worth of funding from Twitter.

Dorsey’s new app hopes to let social media users have control over their data and be able to move their personal details from platform to platform without permission.

During the introduction Bluesky made in May 2022, it noted it will be using the ADX – “Authenticated Data eXperiment” (ADX) protocol which aimed to utilize “self-authenticating data,” a model that would enable operations on a network to be certified independently without a centralized host or authority.

The ADX protocol has been renamed to Authenticated Transfer Protocol – AT protocol which still allows users to move their details from one platform to another without losing data.

The AT protocol is described as a “protocol for large-scale distributed social applications” and basically, will allow users to port accounts, make algorithmic choices, interoperability and performance.

While conducting a survey for the app, Dorsey had considered some social applications that store data on a blockchain or use cryptocurrency as a form of monetization like Steemit and Peepeth with non-blockchain protocols such as ActivityPub and XMPP.

The final product, however, still does not have a blockchain feature but the shared values of decentralization and user control embedded in the app would likely appeal to the crypto community.

The app has been built to allow users to have more control over their engagements on the app like what they see and who they contact on social media platforms using the protocol rather than the aspect of being controlled and manipulated by a single corporation.

Much details about the new app’s features have not been made public but Dorsey says there will be a “rapid launch” of the platform. Currently, users have been allowed to sign up on a waitlist to participate in beta testing of the app.