Intro (2 minutes)

[Music Intro]

What’s up, folks, and welcome to the second episode of the Digital Dopamine podcast! One of these days, I’m gonna get a sponsor lol and have a quick standard intro for everyone. In due time, in due time 😂. But people who follow me on IG have already seen what today’s episode is gonna be about, and that’s the AT Protocol, or Authenticated Transfer Protocol, atproto. All names are used in the space of decentralized digital identities.

Alright, so we will be covering:

* What the AT Protocol is at a basic-intermediate level so that developers and, more importantly, non-devs can understand what it is and how it works.

* The key features of the AT Protocol and its benefits.

* The Challenges and Limitations of the AT Protocol as of today.

* Why apps built on the architecture (Bluesky, Flashes, and Pinksky) are superior to centralized social apps like IG, TikTok, and X, and what is capable within those apps.

* Discussing a bit about Fanbase and UpScrolled.

* Then, ending the show with a new project I’m starting up related to these apps and content distribution.

After more research on the core tech and architecture of Bluesky, there are some concerns that I actually learned about and will give my honest frustration with it, but they pale in comparison to the issues I have with the likes of IG, TikTok, and X, and I personally see more benefits of using these apps over the others. So let’s get right into it.

Main Story

The At Protocol Overview

*Skip to minute 30:00 if you want to skip the technical deep dive*

So I’ll just start with a quick definition of the AT Protocol: “is a protocol and open standard for distributed social networking services.[3] It is under development by Bluesky Social PBC, a public benefit corporation created as an independent research group within [Twitter, Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter,_Inc.) to investigate the possibility of decentralizing the service.[4]

A distributed social network (not to be confused with a decentralized or federated social network) is a network wherein all participating social networking services can communicate with each other through a unified communication protocol, and all participants are equal.

Okay, technical definitions are over. What is the purpose of switching, and why should you care? depending on what you’re looking for in your social apps and identity will determine if any of this is of interest to you. So far, monetization is the only frustrating challenge I see with these apps, and in a world where influencers are the biggest proponents for people who might want to switch. If they don’t have a way to make money on these new platforms, it’s gonna be hard to get people to transition. That being said, creators can take the extra step and use external revenue channels like Substack, Patreon, or Fanbase in order to generate income from the traffic they get through the platforms. But Bluesky IS planning to add revenue streams to the platform, like a tipping system as well as subscriptions in future feature releases, so hopefully that comes sooner than later. AT Protocol also doesn’t support private content yet. If you need a private account or encrypted DMs, this isn’t your platform yet. But it’s coming. For public discourse and community building, it’s great.

Now this next section is about to get a bit technical and into the weeds so if any of this starts to confuse you or you don’t really care about the good and the bad of the protocol, I’ll try to have a timestamp of where you can skip to and we talk about the apps that stand to be a 1:1 alternative and what they offer.

AT Protocol’s Key Features

The “Speech vs. Reach” Framework

So the core concept of apps built on ATP is “Speech vs. Reach”. This is the heart of what makes AT Protocol different, and it’s the fundamental architectural philosophy of its creation.

AT Protocol deliberately separates two layers: “speech” and “reach” and explains both in detail.

* Speech Layer = permissive, distributed authority. It’s the data repository level where everyone has a voice. Your posts, data, and identity are all stored in signed repositories that you control.

* Reach Layer = moderation and algorithmic curation. This is where platforms decide what you see. It’s about limiting the visibility/reach of content based on preferences, algorithms, moderation policies, etc.

You are basically able to curate what you see on your feed without a central algorithm showing you what it thinks you might like, or force-feeding you rage bait or thirst traps because it tracked how long you paused on the “Suggested Reels” section…Which, for some reason, always has something you’ve clearly stated “See Less” or “Not Interested” multiple times.

You’re able to literally choose moderation services and custom feed algorithms built by community developers. For instance, I have a handful of coding feed algorithms I’ve subscribed to, and my feed rarely shows posts that I wasn’t interested in. IfIi start to see a trend in the wrong direction, I can search for a new algorithm to swap to OR use none if my followers and likes are vast enough for the standard algorithm to know what I actually like. And for context, there are over 50,000 custom feeds that exist on Bluesky. So there’s bound to be a feed that fits your preferences.

Moderation Dive

To dive a bit deeper, Bluesky uses a two-tier moderation system: baseline protections (violence, exploitation, fraud) that everyone follows, then user choice on top.

What this means: Bluesky maintains community standards, but you decide which additional moderation filters you subscribe to. Community-run labelers create custom labels (”Spoilers,” “Political Content,” etc.), and you choose which ones affect what you see.

This is fundamentally different from Instagram, X, and TikTok:

* Instagram bans you with no explanation or appeal

* X’s moderation is inconsistent and unilateral under Musk

* TikTok’s algorithm removes content opaquely

Bluesky gives you transparency—you know why you were flagged, can appeal, and can choose your own moderation standards.

The key insight: Moderation is part of the “reach” layer (who sees what), not the “speech” layer (whether content exists). This means if you block someone on one AT Protocol app, that block carries across all apps. Your moderation rules work at the protocol level, not just one platform.

You’re not at the mercy of one company’s moderation philosophy, and you set your own standards.

DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers)

Another awesome feature is DID, or Decentralized Identifiers. Instead of your identity being @username.instagram.com, which is tied to Meta’s servers, your identity on AT Protocol is a cryptographic DID that looks like a hash. Example: did:plc:7iza6de2dwap2sbkpav7c6c6 I’ll explain did:plc a bit later.

This DID can have multiple human-readable handles (@alice.example.com, @alice.bsky.social), but the DID stays the same and is portable.

And I think this is one of the most, if not THE most important features within this ecosystem. And that’s the fact that you can’t get banned or straight-up deleted from the devs/company that built the app.

With Instagram, your account exists at the pleasure of Meta. And we have seen how they’ve been moving on IG recently. I’ve experienced it myself, and I’m a nobody on that platform lol. If they ban you, you lose everything—followers, posts, history, pretty much your whole digital identity.

With AT Protocol, your DID (your actual identity) is cryptographically yours. Your posts are signed by you. If Bluesky shuts down, you move to another AT Protocol app and bring everything with you: all followers see your posts, your history is intact, and your identity persists.

Now, how this works is:

Your DID contains your public cryptographic keys, and your posts are signed with your private key. This means you can prove ownership of your account without asking permission from any company, and if it comes to it, you can migrate servers without the old server’s involvement.

So imagine if a big name like IShowSpeed could leave Instagram, take 100% of his followers and posts him to Snapchat or TikTok (if they were on AT Protocol), and his username and followers would be transferred as well and they would still be able to verify it’s him AND he would still be able to have his own verified status come along too. That’s what the AT Protocol enables.

So getting control and freedom of your digital identity would be a great thing for us as a society to do, in my opinion. But that leads us back to some of the major drawbacks and bottlenecks I discovered while researching this.

The Challenges and Limitations

So, currently, the most common DID method is did:plc “Public Ledger of Credential,” and Bluesky runs the single directory service that manages it. There’s no redundancy or independent backup, so if the directory goes down, critical network functions break. Which then raises the theoretical concern of you being banned at the protocol level by Bluesky if they really wanted to be petty 😩 cause that wouldn’t only ban you from Bluesky, it would ban your DID from all apps you’re using with DID. It also contradicts the whole decentralization narrative. But I’m not too concerned about this for a few reasons:

* That would ruin the reputation of Bluesky and the Protocol they built,t which will encourage people to go back to the mainstream apps or switch to a different, more raw decentralized protocol, like Nostr. I won’t dive into Nostr, but I will leave links to the Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostr), the white-paper it released in 2020 (https://fiatjaf.com/nostr.html), and it’s Github README (https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr/) in the script. Also. Very cool protocol, but not as feature-rich to build on as AT Protocol.

* They are already taking steps to migrate away from this single point of failure by supporting the creation of an independent organization to operate the directory. The organization will set policies and rate-limits, hold any related intellectual property, and coordinate future evolution and development of the system. And it looks like this organization will be formed as a Swiss association, which is positive since Swiss law provides good protection for neutral, independent organizations. But this is still a single organization running a single directory. So we kinda get back to the same “single point of failure,” but don’t have to worry about the corrupt systems of America.

* There is already an alternative to did:plc and that’s did:web . This is the best way to go if you are technically savvy and have the time and resources to set up your own PDS (Personal Data Server). did:web, is an alternative identity system that uses HTTPS and DNS instead of a central directory. To set this up, you’ll need to

* Set up your own PDS (Personal Data Server)

* Configure DNS records to point to your PDS

* And if you started with did:plc, migrate your identity from did:plc to did:web (which would break your followers since you will technically get a new DID)

Most people won’t go that route, and I don’t blame them.

* Then there is Operation Log Verification. The did:plc registry has a global operation log API endpoint, which can be used to poll for identity updates. Apps can independently verify the entire operation log and rebuild their own cache of DID state. But again, if the directory goes down, you still can’t make new changes. You can just verify old ones.

This is why we should watch AT Protocol’s progress on governance. If the independence handoff happens smoothly, that’s a strong signal they’re serious about decentralization. If it drags on indefinitely, then we might have been got.

The App Ecosystem

Most AT Protocol apps are Bluesky clients, not independent services. They use Bluesky’s data firehose and serve the same data in different interfaces.

Which includes 2/3 of the apps I’m gonna talk about. Those apps are:

* Flashes (photo interface for Bluesky’s data),

* Pinksky (another photo interface),

Skylight, on the other hand, which is a video interface for Bluesky’s data/TikTok alternative, is a standalone app that isn’t dependent on Bluesky’s data firehose. But the drawback to that is, if your followers are not also using Skylight, they won’t see the post you publish via Bluesky. I’m sure they are working on a way to resolve that issue, but I didn’t find anything to support that. theory.

Bluesky

Bluesky is the main course, the original and largest AT Protocol app with 36.5 million users.

Bluesky is what Twitter could have been—a microblogging platform that prioritizes user control and community. Where X has become a megaphone for the wealthy and/or ignorant, and algorithmically optimized for engagement via rage bait or sexually explicit content.

Bluesky gives you back the chronological timeline and lets you choose your algorithm. X is, without a doubt, bigger and more feature-rich with Spaces, Trending Topics, native scheduling, and monetization. If you need reach and advanced tools, X wins.

But Bluesky is simpler and more intentional. It's growing rapidly, mainly with reputable journalists, creators, and politicians who are burned out from the chaos on X or, from a moral standpoint, don’t want to be involved with anything related to X or Elon.

I find myself getting better reports from journalists and updates from campaigning politicians via Bluesky these days. Zohran Mamdani, Aaron Rupar, and Kat Abughazaleh are a few very respectable people who are regularly on Bluesky, and Kat has even completely separated from X.

Most creators are not exclusively on Bluesky. They’re maintaining presence on both X and Bluesky, but posting with more frequency and energy on Bluesky.

So folks are mainly playing both apps: major creators maintain presence on X for reach, but they’re investing emotional energy and engagement on Bluesky because it feels mentally healthier. That should be a good sign of more to come in terms of people hopping over.

Flashes & Pinksky (Dual IG Alternative.)

Flashes — Built by Sebastian Vogelsang and launched publicly at the end of February, Flashes grabbed 30,000 downloads in its first 24 hours as an Instagram alternative (TechCrunch). Users can upload up to four images or a video per post, with videos now supporting up to three-minute clips following a recent update (TechCrunch). Key differentiator: posts on Flashes appear on Bluesky and vice versa.

Pinksky — Built by developer Ramon Souza and available on both iOS and Android, focusing mainly on photo-sharing with user profiles, a feed of photos and videos, and a Stories section TechCrunch. Similar to Flashes but with a slightly different UX philosophy. Both solve the same problem: Instagram users want a photo-first interface, not a Twitter clone.

* Flashes: Portfolio mode, trending feeds, minimalist UI, part of Vogelsang’s app suite

* Pinksky: Stories feature, chronological only, Instagram-familiar UI, standalone

If you ask ‘which should I use?’—it depends. Pinksky if you want the Instagram feel. Flashes if you want the Instagram experience but with the flexibility and customization that comes from being built on an open protocol. But I just suggest using both since you can cross-post automatically within the two apps.

Skylight

Unlike Bluescreen, which is another Bluesky client app with limited TikTok-like features, Skylight is a true TikTok alternative that is standalone from Bluesky and does not depend on Bluesky’s data firehose. It’s got a bit of a longer developer timeline, but it’s had a good start so far. Albeit backed by the likes of Mark Cuban, the app is still open source, and the code is readily available for scrutiny if they start to veer to the wrong side of things. That being said, the app is pretty damn clean for how short a timeline it’s been in development, and if folks are looking for a decentralized alternative to TikTok, this is it!

Founders Tori White and Reed Harmeyer were inspired to create Skylight when they first heard that TikTok was getting banned in the U.S. White, who used to be a travel influencer and is now a self-taught software developer living in Seattle, had backed up her TikTok videos but worried about losing access to her community and comments.

So, White began documenting Skylight’s development on TikTok, which helped bring exposure to the product and build a following of potentially interested users, and her @buildwithtori TikTok profile has nearly 50,000 followers.

Skylight proves you can build a full-featured alternative to TikTok on AT Protocol without being limited by a single company’s infrastructure decisions. By leveraging the AT Protocol, Skylight is nearly impossible to ban or shut down — a significant advantage as regulators around the world scrutinize centralized platforms.

Bluescreen vs Skylight:

* Bluescreen: Bluesky client, uses Bluesky’s firehose, 1-minute video limit, dependent on Bluesky

* Skylight: Standalone app, own video infrastructure, 3-minute videos, independent

PostKit - Creating My Own Distribution Tool

So for the content creators out there, once I’m building up to be at this point, there are plenty of tools that you can use to manage the social profiles that help you ship them all in one go. None of these tools is free, though, and they all fall back onto a centralized server controlled by a company whose main goal is to make its shareholders money. That’s why I’ve decided for my next project, I’m going to build my own synchronous distribution tool 😄.

PostKit will be a tool built with Python for synchronous content distribution across multiple AT Protocol-based platforms, as well as Substack. Once I get it working i plan to extend it to also publish to Fanbase and UpScrolled. Unlike the AT Protocol apps, these are easier alternatives to switch to as they offer the monetization solutions for creators, well, Fanbase does at least. UpScrolled is just a more privacy-focused IG replacement for those who don’t want to make the jump into the ATP apps.

In phase 1, I’m building PostKit to solve a real AT Protocol creator problem: managing content across a decentralized ecosystem. Instead of post-and-pray hoping your followers see you everywhere, PostKit lets creators schedule and distribute content intelligently across Bluesky, Flashes/Pinksky, and Skylight from one dashboard. It’s coming soon and will be open source.

Then, in phase 2, I’ll be expanding beyond AT Protocol. We’re adding Fanbase—which has immediate monetization—and UpScrolled—which has private messaging and features AT Protocol doesn’t yet support.

The creator economy is fragmenting. AT Protocol is great for reach and algorithmic choice. Fanbase is great for revenue. UpScrolled is great for privacy and DM-based community building. Instead of forcing creators to pick one, PostKit bridges all three. You’ll be able to write one post, optimize it for each platform, set monetization gates on Fanbase, schedule it across all three, and track performance in one dashboard. That’s infrastructure for the decentralized creator economy.

I’ll briefly touch on both of these apps, but will link their web pages in the script for more context if you need.

Fanbase

Fanbase is a next-generation social creator hub that allows any user to earn money from day one, with diverse monetization options including subscriptions, tipping, and exclusive content.

Monetization Model:

* Subscriptions range from $2.99 to $99 per month for exclusive access

* Love (tips) with real-world value of half a penny per love

* Live audio rooms for direct fan engagement

* Creator subscriptions with direct monthly recurring revenue

In January 2026 alone, due to the major censorship and banning on TikTok, Fanbase added 400K+ net new accounts (22% increase compared to all of 2024), 350% spike in monthly active users reaching 589K, and 142% increase in unique creators to 110K. And with their migration feature, you can migrate all of your IG content over, and they recorded 7.2 million pieces of content migrated to Fanbase during this surge.

Fanbase is like an all-in-one tool that shares similarities with IG, TikTok, and OnlyFans, allowing monetization from day one + discovery in a creator-focused community.

UpScrolled

Not much to say about UpScrolled other than it exists to put some fairness back at the center of social media, with no shadowbans, no hidden throttling, and no pay-to-play favoritism, while offering clear rules applied evenly and explainable ranking systems.

Unlike ATP apps, they DO have private content sharing and features

* Private accounts ✅

* Direct messaging ✅

* DM media sharing ✅

No monetization yet, but they are planning to add that in the future.

Outro

So that about wraps up this episode, and hopefully nothing got too boring for y’all in the middle section of the show. I’m figuring out the best ways to keep the technical stuff digestible, but ultimately, I did say this was going to be a podcast for the tech-savvy and dev community. Nonetheless, I hope you learned something and will consider checking out these new apps that can help us break away from the grip these big players have on us. I know I plan to use these apps for pushing my content more and will still stick with the solid centralized apps like Substack, Fanbase, and UpScrolled. I’ll probably do a video podcast next to showcase the completion of phase one and how it works in a live demo. So make sure to follow me on your preferred platform….or all of them, to stay informed on when that will drop. As always, take care of yourself and take care of your loved ones. Until next time, Peace.

Editors Note

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