Who Owns Bluesky and Why it Matters

My initial reservations about Bluesky were that it is algorithm-based, it is a closed platform (you can’t run your own Bluesky server), and it was first created by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey.

Reading Cory Doctorow’s Bluesky and enshittification I had many questions. Simple questions centered around Bluesky seem hard to answer. They are hidden under layers of complexity. A question like, “can I run my own Bluesky instance?” is an example.

Laurens Hof over at the Fediverse Report explained it this way:

It turns out that once you start peeling back the layers of the technological side of decentralisation, more and more questions start to arise. This is because ATProto splits up the network into separate components, and makes each component open and accessible for others to use and run. This is good for making the network more decentralised, but funnily enough it makes understanding decentralisation all the more difficult. – Bluesky, decentralisation, and the distribution of power

and

Furthermore, what the protocol affords is not equal to what the average person can actually use. ATProto allows people to take full control of their own data by either self-hosting their PDS or using a hosting provider Doing so currently requires technical knowledge: easy from the perspective of an experienced programmer, but out of reach from the majority of the population.

You can run a PDS (personal data server), but your posts and all that data still get routed through Bluesky. Decentralization is great if you can pick up your data and go elsewhere. Where are you going to take that data if you leave Bluesky? There’s confusion through obfuscation in just about every part of Bluesky. Wikipedia provides clarity on this question. It lists the number of instances of both Mastodon (over 18k) and Bluesky (“mainly Bluesky”).

The obfuscation continued when I just asked the question to myself “who owns Bluesky”? My first stop in this little adventure was the BBC. They claim that:

It is now run and predominantly owned by chief executive Jay Graber as a US public benefit corporation.

Wow, okay! What is a public benefit corporation?

It is a type of for-profit corporate entity whose goals include making a positive impact on society.

Currently, there are no legal standards that define what constitutes a benefit corporation. A benefit corporation need not be certified or audited by the third-party standard.

Who is Jay Graber?

In 2015, Graber began working as a software engineer for SkuChain in Mountain View, California. She then worked in a factory in Moses Lake, Washington, where she soldered together bitcoin mining equipment. In 2016, she began working as a junior developer for the Zcash cryptocurrency. In 2019, she founded the event planning website Happening, Inc.

Next stop, TechCrunch! They claim that:

Decentralized social app Bluesky announced on Thursday that it has raised a $15 million Series A round, following its $8 million seed raise last year.

The Series A round is led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Darkmode’s Amir Shevat, and Kubernetes co-creator Joe Beda.

Who is Blockchain Capital?

In 2013, Pierce joined brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens in founding venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC)

Oddly, Brock Pierce isn’t listed as a co-founder on their Wikipedia page or on their website. Who is Brock Pierce? He’s a childhood star from the Mighty Ducks. He went on the run:

Fifteen years ago, Pierce cofounded a Southern California startup called Digital Entertainment Network. Despite raising tens of millions in venture capital, that company eventually went under. Not long before the company was slated to have its initial public offering in 1999, Pierce and two other cofounders were named in two civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of underage boys. Pierce was never charged criminally.

After the settlement, Collins-Rector, Shackley, and Pierce fled to Spain as a second set of victims filed another lawsuit in California against the three alleging sexual abuse. The three men never responded to the case, and a judge awarded a default judgment and $4.5 million in damages.

Later, he became a cryptocurrency tycoon with Steve Bannon. Yes, that Steve Bannon.

Before he became CEO of the Donald Trump campaign, and before he took over the alt-right media outlet Breitbart, Steve Bannon made his living selling virtual gold on the Internet.

The story focuses on the World of Warcraft marketplace called Internet Gaming Entertainment, where players could pay real money for virtual goods, like gold, in the game. The company was founded by former child star Brock Pierce, and Bannon was an investor.

I’ll continue to use sites like TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads to push my content. Still, I’m not going to build a community there. When it comes to Bluesky I have even more questions, than when I started researching this. I can’t trust that Bluesky won’t become another Twitter. There’s far too much venture capital and questionable alliances/history to feel comfortable there. “Trust us, bro” isn’t enough.