lowkey if the only incentive to do anything with atproto is for the fun of it, that does not bode well... not saying that there should be monetary incentives, but there's gotta be something more so it doesn't become "this is no longer fun because it got too big" and then the platform dies
posts inspector
we are rapidly approaching cult status. hunker down people we can get there
Jul 23, 2026 at 9:30 PM
ATProto Isn't What You Think
This post takes a look at ATProto from a different angle, and explores the value of some possibly less-noticed pieces of it.
Building the Future of Games on ATProto | Birbhouse Games
Game platforms hold too much power over developers. We want to change that by decentralizing games with ATProto — devs own their data, players own their progress, and no payment processor can take it away.
ATProto ideas
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...
Things we shouldn't say in polite company - Sherif's blog
you know, the stuff that makes sense when you work on ATProto but makes zero sense for everyone else
the point of atproto is to make locked-open apps. apps which are constrained such that they cannot be e.g. bought by billionaires and ruined. yes, doing non-atproto things "enables app developers to do more". yes, non-atproto is "more intuitive" and "it sucks" when you hit atproto's limits.
Hot take but I think it’s problematic for atproto that lots of developers i see talking about making stuff focus mostly on things absolutely no end user gives a shit about to fuel their protocols and architecture fetish, and it’s a failure there isn’t another app with like 100k+ users active even.
#atproto does not need to win only by convincing people to post somewhere new. It can win by becoming the foundation for software people already need to use because of real-world relationship woodys-rows.pckt.blog/open-forks-of-boring-apps-wit…
Open Forks of Boring Apps With Authority
woodys-rows.pckt.blogwhile the permissionlessness vector of atproto will certainly enable new things we can't imagine the pattern of "____ but on atproto" is key for taking our daily lives back. a framing i prefer is "i can now do {boringDailyLifeThing} without {shittyExtractiveApp}"
dame
i would like to see more atproto apps that aren’t just “already popular app, but on atproto”
the hard pill to swallow is that 99% of people do not care about whether an app is on "atproto" or if its "decentralized" so long as it works you will not sell the decentralization aspect if your app runs like shit and isn't fun to use even moreso if it's VC Claude slop which is 90% of atproto ww
while the permissionlessness vector of atproto will certainly enable new things we can't imagine the pattern of "____ but on atproto" is key for taking our daily lives back. a framing i prefer is "i can now do {boringDailyLifeThing} without {shittyExtractiveApp}"
dame
i would like to see more atproto apps that aren’t just “already popular app, but on atproto”
@iame.li what's your thoughts on this, re: choice of cryptographic keys in the standardized form of atproto
Some thoughts on why ATProto is so exciting from the perspective of what it could unlock software dev wise.
ATProto: Engine of Software 2.0
john.leaflet.pub
