"I think the plan is to spin the directory out into some sort of ICANN like non-profit."
Or instead of reinventing the wheel, they could just use DNS for indentity, like the fediverse does.
Mike Macgirvin's work across Zap/ Streams/ Forte proved that NomadicIdentity can be used in an ActivityPub network. Takahē proved you can support many domains one one AP server. If all AP software supported both, you'd have BYO domain and fully portable accounts in the fediverse, without any of the centralisation of BS.
"many a startup has abandoned such benevolent plans. They do seem like a passionate team though."
Indeed, which is why they talk about a future version of BlueSky as a potential adversary, as discussed in this [detailed rundown of ATProto's pros and cons](https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/) by Christine Lemmer-Webber of Spritely Institute. They know it's vulnerable to enshittification, just like any other centralised platform.
Remember all the big EvilCorp platforms had open APIs when they started, and openwashed this as distributing power to users and third-party app devs. To paraphrase The Matrix, we've been down that road, we know exactly where it leads.
Yeah all good points on the fediverse. I think it remains to be seen, If they do split the directory out under an ICANN like non-profit then it's not the worst solution in the world, I'm not sure how they could pull things back under a centralised roof after that. And if they slowly renege I wouldn't be surprised either. Here's their reply to Christine's piece, interesting back and forth.
https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/entries/Reply%20on%20Bluesky%20and%20Decentralization
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