Christine Lemmer-Webber
The reason actually stems from the first centralized DID method that Bluesky supports: did:web.
did:web is centralized, and kinda useless. It just works by a regex rewrite of the DID's name to an https URI and then it's retrieved. Anywhere you use did:web, you could have just used an https: URI
Christine Lemmer-Webber
The other requirement you would expect, based on the name, is that Decentralized Identifiers are *actually decentralized*.
When I got involved in DID work, that was actually the expectation of everyone. Then it was loosened. What? Why on earth?!
Christine Lemmer-Webber
In that sense, I am really glad Bluesky is taking on decentralized identity, as a concept! And DIDs, in a way, are a good signal.
But there are several problems, the first of which is: Bluesky supports two kinds of Decentralized Identifiers and they're both -- you guessed it -- centralized!
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Before we get there, let's talk about what the DID spec was and what DIDs are. The core DID spec is an *abstract interface* for key management which provides a way of representing keys (and some other metadata) which can be created, retrieved, and updated/rotated.
So far so good...
Christine Lemmer-Webber
If what your *goal* is to get off Twitter, then Bluesky has solved it. They solved it by building another Twitter, and this time it's open source, which is cool! And it might have this "credible exit" thing.
But god damnit it's not decentralized and it's not federated stop TELLING people that
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Back in 2017 I wrote a whitepaper: "ActivityPub: from decentralized to distributed social networks" and it also suggested using DIDs https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot5-boston/blob/master/final-documents/activitypub-decentralized-distributed.md
I no longer think DIDs are necessary to solve this, but then and now I think *decentralized identity is important*
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Now as I have said, this is a *design decision*. And remember: most users of Bluesky really *don't care*. Decentralization is not their focus, they're trying to get the hell off the nazi hellscape that Musk's toxic reign of Twitter has become.
Bluesky's architecture, actually, is great for them.
Christine Lemmer-Webber
A lot of data modeling I did in that time was in the W3C Verifiable Credentials group that was working on Verifiable Credentials, zcap-ld (my spec), and, oh hey, Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs, the name is not my fault)
So actually I was pretty excited when I heard that Bluesky was gonna use DIDs!
Christine Lemmer-Webber
I am also sad about the US House of Representatives being shitty to trans people who work there and are just trying to make it through the day
I used to do data modeling contracting for the US HoR on our legal system, true story, which sends me back to a time when I did a lot of data modeling
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Okay, I am back and I am back with tea! I made "black tea with ginger" and I put some whipped honey in it. I also made tea for my spouse
I am drinking out of an oversized mug from @baconandcoconut that says "I'm that person who likes to serve on open source program committees", which is not actually accurate but I do anyway
Christine Lemmer-Webber
And so, it is TEA TIME
Go get yourself a hot beverage. Put honey or agave in it, if you like. Dairy, or perhaps, non-dairy, if you prefer.
=== BREAK TIME! Time for tea! ===
Christine Lemmer-Webber
On that note, again, I am not reading the replies right now because I am (a) afraid to and (b) I'm never gonna finish this and we are a bit over HALFWAY THROUGH the analysis but I have this fear that EVERYONE is mad at me, Bluesky fans, fediverse fans
I am trying to be analytical. I am trying!!!
Christine Lemmer-Webber
I said we are about halfway through and criminy we're halfway through the afternoon, I need a break to get some tea
We have a few big topics left:
- Decentralized identity, how does it work (magnets too, yes)
- The Org is a Future Adversary
- Christine critiques the fediverse
- Wrap up
Christine Lemmer-Webber
But to Bluesky's credit, Twitter's DMs aren't decentralized either! And getting and shipping something that works, now for the influx of Twitter users, again... I am sympathetic
Bluesky's team is doing an INCREDIBLE JOB in that way of scaling to meet the incoming stream of Twitter refugees
Christine Lemmer-Webber
The point is that I have *seen in the wild* people saying "Oh yeah Bluesky added DMs to their decentralized protocol" and augh
I know they aren't claiming this but it's very clear to me that people are reading things as being completely different architecture than it is
Christine Lemmer-Webber
The thing that is telling to me about DMs is that we *have* federated direct message protocols like XMPP which have been around for ages; if Bluesky wanted to they could have tacked that on pretty quickly, E2EE or not. It still would have been decentralized at least
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Now to be completely fair Bluesky is clear about this *in their blogpost announcing DMs*, but just like this thread, I doubt nearly anyone has read that far (am I talking to the void? I don't know, if you actually have gotten to this message reply with "I found the easter egg" or something)
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Yes, I may sometimes seem silly over here, SICP-hugging fangirl, come on we're just trying to build things that *work* over here
Look I'm a lisp lady, I know the realities of "Worse Is Better" more than most, I now the right CS designs don't win
But Conway's Law flows in two directions!
Christine Lemmer-Webber
You know what, we'll come back to "bidirectional Conway's Law", let's talk about Direct Messages for a minute because I think those are telling
Direct Messages in Bluesky, wait how do they work if ATProto is public?
Did you guess?
DMs are centralized! All DMs flow through Bluesky
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Now to be completely fair this is something that Bluesky's devs are interested in potentially changing: there is an open issue to discuss the possibility of private blocks https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/discussions/1131
What I am saying is there are architectural consequences to fundamental design abstractions
Christine Lemmer-Webber
It is ONE thing to be able to block JK Rowling and for you to see that JK Rowling is blocking you.
It is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THING for ANYONE to see who is blocking JK Rowling and who JK Rowling is blocking
This one is shocking to me: this seems like a vector for abusive actors
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Blocking first. Bluesky's decision to have *everything* public means that it is expected that every participating node knows *everything* about who's blocking *everyone*.
"This is consistent with how blocking works on Twitter/X" their paper says
But wait, I'm pretty sure that one's not true though
Christine Lemmer-Webber
Users, clearly, think a lot more of Bluesky is decentralized than it is, and realize less of the consequences than they should. This really worries me. Blocks and DMs are both great examples of this.
Christine Lemmer-Webber
"Oh Christine you're being sensitive"
Maybe, but there are real consequences to this. What if Bluesky/ATProto fails? "Oh well we tried decentralization and that didn't work." If people think something is something that it isn't, then that's a real problem.
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