Those can't register trademarks, of course.

> that also runs the only viable instance?

This is false, both in the framing ("instances") and in the viability of running alternative infrastructure.

How do you mean? As in you can run different instances or as in it's a false open protocol?

Read the recently frontpaged "There are no instances in ATProto" by dan abramov <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48599515>

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herrkanin 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

ATProto is closer to how RSS works than ActivityPub. In the same way talking about "RSS instances" makes little sense, the same goes for "ATProto instances".

	▲	notpushkin 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It makes sense to talk about “RSS aggregators”. Especially it makes sense to talk about “RSS aggregators that speak a specific vocabulary on top of RSS, host 99% of content using that vocabulary, and if you host your own RSS feed with said vocabulary they’ll show it in their aggregator but can ban it any minute”. Did I just describe Apple Podcasts? Huh. Regardless, yeah, there’s no “ATProto instances” technically, but there are ATProto apps and the single biggest one now owns the trademark to the protocol name.

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zoul 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But it’s true in the general idea of Bluesky being highly centralized and dependent on a single for-profit entity.