From the outside, Bluesky may seem like a Twitter clone. But anyone who’s close to the technology — and the team — knows that they’re building something much deeper: they’re rethinking the internet’s architecture to create a more flexible, user-centric web.

Bluesky’s CTO Paul Frazee is the perfect person to explain all this, as he’s fantastic at tying technical concepts to their practical application and wider impact. In this interview with Mike McCue, recorded live at the Fediverse House at SXSW 2025, Frazee unpacks Bluesky’s first principles, what makes AT Protocol different from ActivityPub, why identity portability is a radical shift, and how decentralization could lead to more humane social spaces.

Highlights of this conversation:

01:33 Bluesky’s growth spike 04:08 First principles of Bluesky’s architecture 08:47 Addressing the cold start problem with fediverse technologies 10:00 Nebula, Tidal and creator distribution channels 14:01 Building on ActivityPub v. AT Proto 16:26 Bridging strategies — Bridgy.fed and A New Social 19:15 Importance of identity to Bluesky 24:01 Explaining composability, stackable moderation 28:39 AT Proto federation questions 33:12 Double-stack developers like Surf.Social 34:20 Q&A 1: Self-sovereign identity — how much is ICANN the boss of the internet? 37:45 Q&A 2: Lessons he’s learned from time at Secure Scuttlebutt and Beaker Browser 40:33 Q&A 3: Breaking out of echo chambers

Mentioned in this episode:

• Beaker Browser post-mortem: https://github.com/beakerbrowser/beaker/blob/master/archive-notice.md

🔎 You can find Paul on Bluesky @pfrazee.com: https://bsky.app/profile/pfrazee.com

✚ You can connect with Mike McCue all across the social web, including on Bluesky @mmccue.bsky.social: https://bsky.app/profile/mmccue.bsky.social

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard: https://about.surf.social/