I’ve been involved with Bluesky in some way since before it was announced. I’m a big fan of Jay and Paul and the work that’s happening there. I’m excited about what they’re doing.

I’ve been frustrated at the pace and form of working that bluesky is doing. This is honestly the same critique I’d give for farcaster and lens… and dnsp although the latter’s tech is less interesting.

I think big systems should be created with small pieces loosely joined. That’s how we got the web, open source, linux, etc… I’m not such a big fan of a few folks going off and figuring things out on their own in a closed way.

I pushed for and hoped that bluesky would have more public participation, and work more in the open. And that they'd build a less monolithic system, solving a BIG problem rather than small problem solutions built up. 

That said, I think there are aspects of bluesky's at_protocol which are better designed and built than nostr. I hope that we can learn from each other. I think bluesky got distracted by thinking they had to make a protocol FOR twitter, rather than just for something useful and twitter like apps but many others too.

Central to how twitter grew was because development could happen permissionless at the edges. It's what drives growth of nostr. At the moment, you can't really do that with farcaster, bluesky, or similar more closed open protocols.

I think we need to be learning from lots of projects and collaborating. I also strongly suspect that one protocol will win, and it won't win because it's better designed or has better tech. This is social software folks, it's made of people. People and communities of use are what will decide things in the end. Let's just hope that the communities and tech are structured in the way that help us build a better future and don't repeat the mistakes of the past.