AT Protocol’s architecture separates hosting from apps, making Mastodon-style “instances” the wrong mental model

The article argues that people asking where the Bluesky or AT Protocol “instances” are are applying a Mastodon concept to a different architecture. It compares ATProto to RSS: user data is hosted separately, while apps and aggregators create views over that data rather than containing it.

The piece highlights a key split in decentralized social design between federated communities and portable data networks. If ATProto’s model gains traction, competition may shift from server communities to clients, feeds, moderation tools, and indexing services built on shared user-owned data.