I am writing these words with Leaflet.
Leaflet is a lightweight writing platform built on the AT Protocol—the same protocol as Bluesky.
These words are stored in a Personal Data Server (PDS), which is currently sitting on a server managed by Bluesky.
If Bluesky shuts down or goes wonkadoodle, I am able to move all my PDS data—including this text, made in Leaflet—to another host. I am even able to move it to my own server, if needed.
In other words, the data can live independently of the platform.
Imagine if Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn shared the same protocol. This is damn near impossible to imagine at the moment because their ownership of our social graphs lock us into their attention-pit platforms. You can’t leave the platform without losing your network.
A decentralized protocol not only changes the game, it redesigns the field of play. Why? In a federated ecosystem, networks—who is following who—are no longer platform dependent.
This post about the AT Protocol (or, atproto) by Dan Abramov is really good. Definitely one of the best overviews I have read:
i wrote about atproto and why it matters
Open Social — overreacted
The protocol is the API.