Peter Wang vowed to me he’ll “kill Bluesky PBC” if things “really go to shit," launched $1mm fund to build on AT Protocol.

Wednesday, open-source entrepreneur Peter Wang launched a $1mm fund to spark more development on AT Protocol:

“Bluesky has clearly crossed over from serving mostly technical early-adopters into mainstream appeal,” said Wang. “While much has been written recently about Bluesky’s stunning growth, its real power lies in the open protocol (AT Protocol) that the team has pioneered. The Skyseed Fund will accelerate and incubate innovation in that open ecosystem.”

Last month on Bluesky, Wang and I went back and forth on the merits of the claim that Bluesky is “billionaire proof.” Journalists and prominent devs have been making this claim for months without solidifying how that would work. I just started reply-guying anytime I saw the claim on my feed—which was a lot.

In a now-deleted post, Eric Blair wrote, “Bluesky is much more resistant to billionaire takeover than Twitter was,” so I asked if he could clarify. Blair didn’t respond until much later in the conversation, and when he did, his reply was simply, “Protocols, Not Platforms,” like Moses might recite a commandment.

Peter Wang, on a separate thread, did reply. Multiple times. Honestly, I found it refreshing, if for nothing else, he was trying to answer the question.

Here’s what he said in response to my comment:

It’s not about resilience to purchase. GitHub got purchased and you can still move your git repos.

ATP is still a baby protocol, yes. But its design allows different providers at different layers of the stack. Your identity on ATP can never be taken away from you: it’s DNS, and you and I can use it

— Peter W🤓 (@wang.social) Nov 20, 2024 at 5:37 AM

Presumably, to calm my nerves, Wang then vows to kill the company if need be:

I’m planning to put real dollars into ecosystem projects that build alternative front ends and backends. Including one-click ways for people to spin up alternative PDS hosts and relays.

That’s how I’m helping my cause.

And if Bluesky PBC really goes to shit then I will fund a team to kill it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Peter W🤓 (@wang.social) Nov 20, 2024 at 5:51 AM

Big GNX vibes. I like it.