Bluesky has released early code for a decentralized social network protocol. The system is dubbed the authenticated data experiment (or AdX) and is available on GitHub for developers to test. The project was conceived in 2019 and formally incorporated in 2022.

The GitHub repository includes an overview of AdX’s goals and design as well as some experimental code. The code is available under an open source MIT license.

It’s a protocol built around user-controlled’personal data repositories’. It’s supposed to let users transfer social media posts or engagement between networks without eroding the networks’ own moderation options.

Former CEO Jack Dorsey announced in 2019 that Twitter would fund research into a decentralized version of its service. Bluesky was established in February of 2022 as a public benefit company focused on’large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation’.

Twitter could adopt bluesky-created protocols, but the two companies could also run on entirely separate tracks, and Twitter has no direct controlling interest.