1/IMPORTANT thread about Bluesky funding and origins. Many folks know that it was seeded by Jack Dorsey around a libertarian vision of a magical network that wouldn’t need moderation because it would be decentralized and baked into a protocol (somehow).
The people who aided Dorsey in pursuing this vision were other libertarian/post-rationalists connected with effective altruism and other online anarchist movements.
2/One network called TPOT (‘that part of Twitter’) was instrumental. It carried over into Bluesky’s founding DNA.
Someone made this visualization in 2023, showing the TPOT/EA network quite clearly. EA as you know is part of TESCREAL and the belief systems that have driven Sam Bankman Fried and Elon Musk. SBF also put money into Musk’s Twitter buy.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/tpot-postrat
Attached: 1 image For some reason people fleeing the sinking #Twitter / #X ship for #BlueSky don't seem to be aware of the fact that crypto bros at #BlockchainCapital bought a huge stake in the company just a few weeks ago. Like these are basically the same crypto bros who just helped #ElonMusk buy Twitter. They might even be literally the same people (I strongly suspect they are but I'm too lazy to check). Either way #BlockchainCapital was co-founded by #BrockPierce, who also brought you #Tether, AKA the company that Trump's transition team chairman manages $120 billion for. Pierce is also a friend of the #Netanyahu family. You don't have to take my word for it. Here's the official press release: https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-24-2024-series-a Moving to BlueSky is not an escape. Growing a base there is just putting in a bunch of work to create a platform that will be co-opted by crypto bros as soon as X breaks in half. p.s. crypto bros (#a16z) also own #Substack #crypto #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #USDT #Trump #DonaldTrump
6/Possibly Bluesky can address this by discussing their funding in detail, the expectations of the funders, and whether the TPOT/PostRat community is still a principal driver of the vision for the "company." But this all points to another rug pull in progress, and a lot of credulous people hurt.
While it is reasonable that the company acknowledged that Dorsey's vision of "moderation by protocol" was unfeasible, it sets up a highly centralized model that is now subject to capture.
7/And the next investment they took was from anarchocapitalist cryptobros with ties to Russia? Doesn't add up.
For those interested, here's the original post I shared here back in 2023 re: the TPOT DNA and origins of the network.
https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/884cb1c001cd48e79aca92232bd24a04
8/From Bluesky's press release:
"[Blockchain's] Kinjal Shah will join our board. Kinjal shares our vision for a social media ecosystem that empowers the people who use it, and we are glad to have her support as we invest in driving the adoption of decentralized social."
@julieofthespirits @RandomDamage @Moss @davetroy Anarcho-capitalism is a thing, but the "anarcho" part doesn't align well with what, say, the anarcho-syndicalists uphold. The former believe in the pursuit of unfettered self-interest in the competitive arena of an unregulated market, the latter in organizing around shared wants and needs - collective bargaining, unions, co-ops, mutual aid etc.
In the popular imagination, "anarchism" is synonymous with lawlessness, civil disorder, even terrorism.
@simon_lucy @[email protected] @RandomDamage @Moss @davetroy Yeah, that was kinda my point, only I'm currently labouring under the Tyranny of the Austere Character Limit!
I wonder how many disagreements a person has that hinge entirely on the participants using variant definitions of a single word? An example would be one party defines "gender" as natal sex, the other as a social identity. Dictionaries support both senses, so they're stuck in a linguistic dispute, talking at cross-purposes.
@ApostateEnglishman @julieofthespirits @RandomDamage @Moss @davetroy
Exactly so. It is a bête noir of mine. It operates in all areas of discourse but it destroys social media because terms are never agreed.
It's almost like footnotes are needed (not community notes). But who is qualified to make such Solomonic Judging, apart from you and I and the Good Folk that agree?
@julieofthespirits @ApostateEnglishman @RandomDamage @Moss @davetroy
In this case, I agree with you about anarchy as a category being misused though I'd probably admit to being a cooperativist.
@julieofthespirits @simon_lucy Have you had extensive professional training on navigating gender identity in social and healthcare contexts? Until recently I worked for the British NHS, and for many years before was senior support lead for adults with complex needs.
Have you read any books or studied any of the recent literature on the evolving science of sex and gender? What would you say is sufficient to determine biological sex? Chromosomes, gametes, hormones, neuroanatomy?
Something else?
@julieofthespirits If you say so.
I hope that between typing out an average of 40 - 50 posts per day on Mastodon (more than 29,000 since only mid-2022, all of which are constructive praxis, of course!), you can find the time to be that model activist you measure everyone else against. The one you portray yourself as being online.
The world needs you, after all. 👋
Dave Troy 
Moss Wizard
Random Damage 🌻
Antipope Superstar
The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉
Simon Lucy