Stephen Downes

This is a long and detailed overview of Bluesky's ATmosphere Protocol (ATProto) including the types of servers involved and how they interoperate. Many of the individual bits have already been discussed in OLDaily before, including several of the documents listed at the end of the article, but it's worth seeing it all put together. I've commented before that ATProto is impressive in its ambition, and in theory a distributed fediverse is supported. But it might be like so much of the technology we've seen over the years: overbuilt for its intended purpose, and ultimately undermined by the voracious appetites of its VC backers. Still, in many ways it's a work of art and I invite readers to admire it.