Dipper
Dan GillmorBlueSky wants you to trust them, but they raised $100 million from a crypto fund almost a YEAR AGO and didn't tell anyone.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/bluesky-announces-100m-series-b-after-ceo-transition/
Mat Wright@dangillmor you can't be a profitable investment without some sort of user exploitation - adverts, tracking, data mining
BSky is just a Meta waiting game
🅱️eisbolCardsMaybe try to pump it up and sell it for billions before the next presidential election. They're harvesting data like crazy.
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor@dangillmor Yeah, that's a hard pass. 😬
Yio Joshua Terungwa@dangillmor well they're a company they have customer relationship with customers not non plutonic relationships
Simon B@dangillmor bain are on the BDS boycott list for funding Israeli defence companies. So will users who do not support Israel's actions close their accounts...?
jwz@dangillmor I don't see how "they secretly took $100M from crypto grifters 12 months ago" is any more damning than "they publicly took $14M from crypto grifters 17 months ago" but if it gets a new batch of people to realize that they have been telling you who they are and you should believe them, I'll take it. https://jwz.org/b/ykbY
Bluesky now owned by crypto-grifters
My "we will not hyperfinancialize the social experience through tokens, crypto trading or NFTs" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my t-shirt. No not that crypto-grifter. These are different crypto-grifters: We're excited to announce that we've raised a $15 million Series A financing led by Blockchain Capital [...] This does not change the fact that the Bluesky ...
Ben Hammondthat graphic has intriguing choices
* that the crypto grifter is wearing a wedding ring
* that the fists are upside down on the steering wheel; that is a really really uncomfortable position to hold
bigiain
Loohoosaher@benh bless you so much. Please just mute notifications and walk away from this thread
Jeff Atwood@jwz @dangillmor I'm thinking any "social" software that isn't open source and distributed can never really be trusted.
Eugene@jwz @dangillmor I know its really besides the point but I can't get over the preview image for this looking like bitcoin goatse.
EDIT: Clicking on the link and scrolling down to the comment section at least gave me confirmation that others interpreted the image that way lol
Jon PENNYCOOK@FamiliarAlien @jwz @dangillmor One of the "previously"s could be a clue https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/04/signal-hops-on-the-dunning-krugerrand-bandwagon/
Signal hops on the Dunning-Krugerrand bandwagon
Not only is Signal a sketchy-as-fuck privacy-violating social network wearing "security" cosplay, now it also has a climate-incinerating Ponzi scheme bundled in. Cool, cool. Stephen Diehl: Do they think we don't see through the thinly veiled pump and dump scheme that's proposed? It's an old scam with a new face. Allegedly the controlling entity prints 250 million units of some artificially ...
Jay Peach@dangillmor BSky is a closet fascist organization
Tock@dangillmor It's a good thing Graber stepped down then. If we asked her what's up, we'll likely just get "WAFFLES!" from her anyway.
Elena Rossini ⁂@dangillmor explanation from Mike Masnick who sits on the Bluesky board: "Team was just crazy busy and overwhelmed and timing of announcement just kept slipping."
🔗 : https://bsky.app/profile/masnick.com/post/3mhgso7vjjs2n
I have no words.
mariafarrell@_elena wow, that is just some crazy busy bullshit
@mariafarrell right? It would have been better to say nothing at all, rather than "we were too busy"
pivotal@_elena @dangillmor I see he's been practicing his Elon style "I think this is what super geniuses talk like" clipped sentence writing
Rich Stein (he/him)
clonedhuman@dangillmor Whelp, Bluesky is about to go down the shitter then.
The money bros destroy everything they touch.
Peet Tetteroo@dangillmor no thanks too many algorithms.. I love Fediverse/Mastodon..
swggrkllr3rd@dangillmor From the land we fled. Twitter owned in part by russians oligarchs. https://www.dw.com/en/what-do-xs-alleged-ties-to-russian-oligarchs-mean-for-musk/a-70088598
stony kark@swggrkllr3rd @blogdiva @dangillmor and the saudis, and just probably some shitty israelis too. Only the worst humans want anything to do with twitter.
TrimTab 🇺🇦@dangillmor
"Moving from x to bluesky" = "Moving from this shitty tech bro to that shitty tech bro.
"Moving from x to bluesky" = "Moving from this shitty tech bro to that shitty tech bro.
zetabeta@dangillmor
i found this:
https://www.blockchaincapital.com/
i doesn't say percentages of those companies.
Kristen@dangillmor Bluesky can go fuck itself. Same shitbag who started Twitter and sucks up to Nazis started that cesspool. No thank you. #GetFucked #Bluesky
Bill Taroli 
@dangillmor It’s the inevitability of things like this that makes the decision to stay away from corporate monoliths so much easier.
Burr Deming@dangillmor
I'm missing something, I guess.
I trust BlueSky to the same extent that I trust my landline. It is a medium of communication.
So I know that's not your point.
I'm often considered elderly, possibly because of age.
What am I missing?
stux⚡️@dangillmor Luckily crypto has always proven to be trustful and not scammy at all!
😆
SoapDog@dangillmor sounds iffy as fuck to raise that amount of money and be quiet.
Femme Malheureuse@dangillmor What's frustrating is that all the signs were there *long before* this slip.
Bluesky isn't a nonprofit, it's a PBC — a public benefit corporation — and the intended benefits to the public aren't wholly transparent.
It had at least two rounds of financing between Feb 2023 and Nov 2024 from venture capital firms. This was financing, not donations or contributions — it must be returned with interest or ownership, and it's not been clear which.
And now Masnick is compromised by this.
wimvdputte@dangillmor - thank you for the info. Was not aware. Cancelled my account.
It's the lack of transparency that boddered me the most. Not trustworthy anymore when they act like that.
It's the lack of transparency that boddered me the most. Not trustworthy anymore when they act like that.
Timothy Swan@dangillmor Bluesky is just the next Twitter and they’ll end up being owned by an Oligarch.
Joseph Allen@dangillmor Worthless app, I never even tried to make an account. The rollout took ages with the stupid invite-only codes, and then as soon as it was finally up it immediately and predictably just turned into X for Blue MAGA and the most insufferable liberal pedants on the planet. I'm not signing up for ANY new social media platforms until further notice.
Can Baysal@dangillmor I have posted TechCrunch link in BlueSky yesterday. For some reason, which is open to debate, the URL I posted got mangled in that post 🤦