Matthew hosts this week, joined by Kris and by Bailey Townsend, an AT Protocol community ambassador who builds tools for the atmosphere. AT Proto is the protocol underneath Bluesky, and this is a conversation about what it actually is beyond a social network.
Matthew moved his own account onto a personal data server he runs himself, which is how Bailey first turned up in his replies asking whether he meant to delete his rotation keys. From there the pair expand on what a PDS is: your data, your identity, and your own way of doing authentication. Along the way there is Tangled, Leaflet, Hubble quietly mirroring 24 million repositories, and the reality that it's just a giant, web scale database.
We've got supporter content, of course! This week that includes a report from AT Protocol Community Day at the Recurse Center, the difference between a Bluesky feed and a list, Matthew confessing he has never liked a single post, SDKs and notorious OAuth, and why warranty history should be on an open protocol. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today!
If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GelJdfqWrtU.
No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show.
Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!
Table of Contents:
- Prologue (00:00:00)
- Chapter 1: How Matthew Ended Up Running His Own Server (00:02:19)
- Chapter 2: What AT Proto Is, and What Bailey Builds On It (00:04:37)
- Chapter 3: Owning Your Data, and Taking It With You (00:08:17)
- Chapter 4: Beyond Bluesky: Tangled, Leaflet, and Owning Your Posts (00:11:30)
- Chapter 5: One Identity, Every App (00:15:09)
- Chapter 6: Auth for Free, and the Login That Was Never Bluesky (00:18:32)
- Chapter 7: One Database Everybody Shares (00:22:48)
- Chapter 8: Apps Come and Go, the Data Stays (00:25:24)
- Chapter 10: Hubble, a Backup of the Whole Network (00:28:54)
- Chapter 11: The Best Parts of the Internet, and What Centralizing Cost Us (00:32:18)
- Chapter 12: Spaces: Private Data Without the Encryption (00:34:24)
- Chapter 13: How to Get Into AT Proto (00:36:56)
- Chapter 17: From Markdown Files to Records (00:38:47)
- Chapter 18: Identity Without Records: The Wedding Site Login (00:40:01)
- Chapter 19: The Best of Sign In With Facebook, Without Facebook (00:42:06)
- Chapter 21: Closing Thoughts, and Where to Find Bailey (00:45:31)
- Epilogue (00:47:46)
Hosts
Socials:
- (00:00) - Prologue
- (02:19) - Chapter 1: How Matthew Ended Up Running His Own Server
- (04:37) - Chapter 2: What AT Proto Is, and What Bailey Builds On It
- (08:17) - Chapter 3: Owning Your Data, and Taking It With You
- (11:30) - Chapter 4: Beyond Bluesky: Tangled, Leaflet, and Owning Your Posts
- (15:09) - Chapter 5: One Identity, Every App
- (18:32) - Chapter 6: Auth for Free, and the Login That Was Never Bluesky
- (22:48) - Chapter 7: One Database Everybody Shares
- (25:24) - Chapter 8: Apps Come and Go, the Data Stays
- (28:54) - Chapter 10: Hubble, a Backup of the Whole Network
- (32:18) - Chapter 11: The Best Parts of the Internet, and What Centralizing Cost Us
- (34:24) - Chapter 12: Spaces: Private Data Without the Encryption
- (36:56) - Chapter 13: How to Get Into AT Proto
- (38:47) - Chapter 17: From Markdown Files to Records
- (40:01) - Chapter 18: Identity Without Records: The Wedding Site Login
- (42:06) - Chapter 19: The Best of Sign In With Facebook, Without Facebook
- (45:31) - Chapter 21: Closing Thoughts, and Where to Find Bailey
- (47:46) - Epilogue
