Twitter is Decentralising Social Media in Project ‘Bluesky’

Twitter’s plan to create a decentralised social web has progressed with the recruitment of a project lead. Software engineer Jay Graber will take the helm of Bluesky, which is actively recruiting additional developers.

CEO Jack Dorsey said that Graber’s appointment would speed up work to decentralise Twitter:

Graber’s career history includes software development on two crypto-based products: supply chain security and tracking platform Skuchain; and digital currency Zcash. She also founded Happening (happening.net), a site for social event creation and invitations.

Announcing her role in the Bluesky initiative, Graber said:

Over the past year, I’ve been working closely with a group of thinkers and builders from the decentralised social ecosystem. We published an ecosystem review in January, and my next step will be hiring for the Bluesky team.

Jay Graber, Bluesky project lead

What is Bluesky About?  

Back in 2019, Dorsey announced that Twitter would fund a small team to develop an open and decentralised standard for social media with the goal that Twitter would become a client of the standard. 

That idea become Bluesky, which states on its website that it will develop and drive the adoption of decentralised technologies to “re-build” the social web and return control of the social experience to users.

Throughout 2020-21, Twitter brought together people from different parts of the decentralisation community via a virtual forum to discuss the purpose and direction of Bluesky, and develop an ecosystem review. 

While the Bluesky entity is still being set up, it will operate independently from Twitter. 

Other recent examples of how decentralised networks are putting users in control include Dtravel, a platform that facilitates home-sharing, and cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift’s historic move to become fully decentralised, evolving into a community-owned platform.