Replying to Avatar Alex Gleason

did:plc is a shitcoin. Let me explain to you why.

On #Nostr, your public key is your user ID. On #Bluesky, although you have a public key, your real user ID is a did:plc.

To generate a did:plc, you must make a POST request to https://plc.directory/

Yes, https://plc.directory/ (the literal URL) is part of the protocol definition. They'll say it's not, but it is.

They'll say it's not, because theoretically you could run multiple plc.directory servers, and people could point at different ones. But there are big challenges around security and UX of that, and let's be real, Bluesky never intends to "fix" it (it's not broken).

Now, if we just put the whole thing on a blockchain that would totally solve that problem. But in fact, did:plc "does not make use of any blockchain". Because the accepted decentralized way to achieve this _would_ be to put it on a blockchain, so they had to make that qualifying statement against it.

So, they needed to use a blockchain, but they don't want to use a blockchain. So they invented their own blockchain: a regular webserver!

And they pretended their regular webserver was a blockchain. And this, is why did:plc is a shitcoin.

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqprpljlvcnpnw3pejvkkhrc3y6wvmd7vjuad0fg2ud3dky66gaxaqydhwumn8ghj7emvv4shxmmwv96x7u3wv3jhvtmjv4kxz7gqyquwr3r6sghg57hzp7refr72p0ck484tt5tk6a2wjtslrl00z4gl54mdxtz

Avatar
Garbage nsec 1y ago

Some remarks on that from their CTO and engineering lead:

"there are multiple longterm options being discussed for plc, but the most well-regarded right now is an neutral ICANN-style org to operate it"

"Technically, Bluesky PBC is still operating the PLC directory (we are actively exploring how to change this). However, there are already independent developers in the ecosystem who are mirroring and auditing the stream of operations from the directory, so any retroactive manipulation would be observed and called out."

That debate aside, nostr is quite magical for the sheer lightness of it all, it's like travelling with only a carry-on and priority boarding all the time, I can't see any other architecture coming close there.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

No replies yet.