> At every layer, the answer is "anyone can run their own." At every layer, almost nobody does.

And at every layer except for maybe the PLC directory, there's nothing stopping anyone from fixing that “almost nobody does” problem. The fact that such a thing is even possible, and that it's seamless to move from one to the other, gives ATproto a massive leg-up compared to even other federated systems, let alone its non-federated predecessors.

Yeah they're describing a real problem, but the cause of that problem—a seamless centralized sign-up funded by VC money—is the reason bluesky took off to begin with.

Bsky offers an on-ramp to a more decentralized experience, but most people won't pay the money and experience the friction to move take that ramp. Platforms like Mastodon are entirely decentralized, but that means the friction of decentralizing happens immediately upon sign-up. The people who don't want to self-host PDSes never signed up for Mastodon to begin with.

I try to be skeptical, but I feel like bsky (or something like it) is the best way can do re: bringing decentralization to the masses.

>And at every layer except for maybe the PLC directory, there's nothing stopping anyone from fixing that “almost nobody does” problem.

If there's nothing stopping anyone from fixing a problem, and yet nobody fixes it, then there's something is stopping them.

Might not be a technical impossibility, or a gun in their head. Could be as simple as inertia or addiction.

But saying "the problem is totally solvable" just because there's a solution available, is pretty naive. Solutions have costs themselves, and not all are created equal or equally feasible.

It's really the defaults that need to be fixed and anyone cannot change those.

How would they fix it?