How can open social protocols fail us in 2025
Let’s compare the possible failure modes of various open social protocols: ActivityPub/Mastodon ATProto/Bluesky Farcaster/Warpcast Some scenarios I’d like to consider: Can my identity be taken away? Can my audience be taken away? Can my ability to extend it and build on the protocol be taken away? Some specific failure modes I’m concerned about: What happens when the most popular app or instance becomes malicious? Is there something the maintainer can do that would prompt me to abandon the service/protocol altogether? Let’s begin: