Who Actually Owns Your ATProto Identity? Hint: Its Probably Not You

▤ Summary

This article examines how ATProto and Bluesky delegate identity control to PDS operators and why that creates a major security and trust problem. It explains that the operator can sign activity, rotate keys, and effectively impersonate or lock out users across every app in the ecosystem. The piece also notes that the risk extends beyond Bluesky to other ATProto apps such as Tangled, Grain, and Leaflet. It recommends making self-controlled rotation keys and auditability default parts of the onboarding flow. The core message is that decentralization at the protocol layer does not eliminate centralized key-management risk.

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