{
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"plaintext": "If AT Protocol becomes “a meaningful layer of the web” — even if it’s only tens of millions of users — then the winning ideas probably won’t only be futuristic AI-only inventions. They’ll be simple primitives rebuilt around portable identity, open social graphs, and composable data. We see a lot of experiments with those already."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "The first web wave succeeded because it solved foundational internet problems. eBay solved trust between strangers. Amazon was commerce and logistics. Google was discovery. Facebook was identity and relationships. Twitter was realtime conversation (ha ha).\n\nATProto changes the assumptions underneath those categories."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Do we ask:"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.blockquote",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "“What app should exist?”"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
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"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Or:"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.blockquote",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "“What becomes possible when identity, follows, reputation, and content are portable?”"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Where are the current opportunities? A few obvious ideas:"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.header",
"facets": [],
"level": 3,
"plaintext": "ATProto-native Craigslist"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "The main challenge is density, mostly at the local level."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "When a city or niche community reaches critical mass, it all suddenly works."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.header",
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"level": 3,
"plaintext": "ATProto-native Google"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Search is probably underrated here. The open firehose is a huge advantage. It's tricky to cross-pollinate lexicons but someone will nail it."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "We have some examples of this already. The web got overrun with SEO and (now) AI sludge because discovery became detached from identity."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "ATProto reconnects content to identity and graph structure."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "That will be increasingly important as the deluge of AI content is basically here."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.header",
"facets": [],
"level": 3,
"plaintext": "ATProto-native eBay / Marketplace"
}
},
{
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"block": {
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"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Portable seller reputation is extremely powerful."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Today every platform traps reputation. Etsy, EBay, Uber all have their own reputation systems. ATProto makes reputation more portable. I can imagine seller history, verified transactions, moderation labels, vouch systems."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "This doesn’t replace payments or escrow immediately, but it changes acquisition and trust."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.header",
"facets": [],
"level": 3,
"plaintext": "Payments are still mostly external"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "PayPal and Stripe can integrate deeply with ATProto, but they’re not ATProto-native because money requires compliance and fraud systems and there are banking regulations."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Identity and commerce can decentralize faster than custody."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "So the likely model is ATProto handles identity/social/discovery/reputation and traditional payment rails handle settlement."
}
},
{
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"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "At least initially, though we might wish to look to the Nostr community here. We have a lot of Crypto haters but new social networks like these deserve better commerce choices and aside from all the distraction, Crypto is about decentralized transactions."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.header",
"facets": [],
"level": 3,
"plaintext": "The biggest opportunity may be “small internet economies”"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "Instead of billion-user replacements for existing giants we leverage niche communities, fandoms, local regions, professions, creator ecosystems and recommendation networks."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "A million highly engaged users with portable identity may be more economically interesting than a billion passive users trapped in algorithmic feeds."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "That’s why simple ideas matter."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "The early internet winners often looked almost stupidly simple:"
}
},
{
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"block": {
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"facets": [],
"plaintext": "• auction site"
}
},
{
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"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "• search box"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "• status updates"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "• classified listings"
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "But they aligned with a new primitive the internet enabled."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "ATProto lexicons are an entire universe of primitives waiting to explode."
}
},
{
"$type": "pub.leaflet.pages.linearDocument#block",
"block": {
"$type": "pub.leaflet.blocks.text",
"facets": [],
"plaintext": "The appviews that matter may simply be the first ones to make those primitives feel useful in everyday life."
}
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},
"description": "",
"path": "/hms5kjv4kqc",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-15T12:13:52.074Z",
"site": "at://did:plc:ticz2qmqh2vqxnehf5zalkpl/site.standard.publication/self",
"tags": [],
"title": "ATProto ideas"
}