Rishi Balakrishnan is the lead engineer on Acorn, Blacksky's soon-to-be-released platform for letting communities run their own moderated spaces on atproto. Jim and Alex talk with him about how Acorn came together and the design choices that went into building a landing page that doesn't mention a PDS, relay, labeler, or Lexicon. Acorn is built for communities that don't necessarily know what atproto is but want a space that isn't owned by a tech giant.

Rishi walks through a bit of the history of Blacksky, starting as a custom feed, then a moderation service, and now a full alternative implementation of the protocol with rsky. Acorns is the next step, turning the infrastructure Blacksy built for itself into a service for other communities to use.

Links and references

Listen and read more at atproto.com/off-protocol/blacksky-as-a-service-a-first-look-at-acorn