May 09, 2023 06:00:00

What is the decentralized SNS protocol “AT Protocol” used by the popular SNS “Bluesky”?

The SNS '

Bluesky ', which is attracting attention as a potential candidate for switching to Twitter, is developed using the decentralized SNS protocol ' AT Protocol ', which aims to break away from the existing centralized SNS. The development team explains the main services included in AT Protocol.

Federation Architecture Overview - Bluesky
https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/5-5-2023-federation-architecture

Bluesky is an SNS that allows users to ``post short messages and images,'' ``follow users they like,'' and ``like and repost posts'' with a similar operation to Twitter, and is attracting attention both domestically and internationally as a potential candidate for switching from Twitter. are collecting. You can understand what kind of SNS Bluesky is by reading the review article below.

``Bluesky'' account creation procedure & review like this when you actually use it, it's very similar to Twitter, so it's a good place to transfer or move - GIGAZINE

A major feature of Bluesky is that it is not only similar to Twitter, but is also developed using the decentralized SNS protocol 'AT Protocol'. AT Protocol is a protocol that aims to break away from existing centralized SNS, creating an environment in which ``many unique SNS using AT Protocol exist on the Internet, and users can freely join and migrate to their own SNS.'' Development is progressing with this goal in mind.

At the time of article creation, it is possible to ``establish an SNS using AT Protocol,'' but it is not possible to ``cooperate between SNS using AT Protocol.'' The development team plans to start testing the collaboration function soon, and in the first test, it tested ' Personal Data Server (PDS) ', ' Big Graph Service (BGS) ', and ' App Views ' among the various services included in AT Protocol. He says he will focus on it.

An overview of PDS, BGS, and App Views is as follows.

・PDS
PDS performs processes such as ``hosting user posted content in each user's Data Repository ,'' ``executing login processing,'' and ``storing account mute information, etc.'' Bluesky is also one of PDS. . PDSs other than Bluesky such as ' boobee.blue ' already exist on the Internet.

・BGS
BGS collects information from each PDS, performs processing such as ``calculating the total number of likes and reposts'' and ``curating posts,'' and then outputs it as one huge stream.

・App Views
App Views reads the stream output from BGS, takes into account the total number of likes and reposts, and the curation results, and displays each post on the timeline. The image below is an image of App Views created by the development team. In addition, users can also develop their own BGS with a curation method etc., but large-scale resources are required to operate BGS.

In addition to the services mentioned above, there is active development of ' feed generators ' that pick up posts from streams under arbitrary conditions, and ' labelers ' that do not require arbitrary labels for posts and users.