- Bluesky updates its slim verification system
- Domain names still matter
- It also adds a mention
Bluesky’s popularity as a current social media platform is soaring, but it’s somewhat hampered by frustrating verification issues. In short, there is no formal verification system, at least not the traditional Blue Check you can find Instagram, Number of execution threads, Xand Tik Tok. But now, the decentralized platform has made a relatively small change that could have a big impact on protecting everyone’s name from cybersquatters.
in a Relatively minor update (1.96) Posted on Thursday, December 19, Bluesky announced that if you change your Bluesky handle to a domain name, the original handle (and possibly your full name) will be retained for you. You don’t have to use it, but the old handle never expires, so it never falls into someone else’s hands. This is equivalent to permanent ownership of the website domain, which does not exist. If you stop paying for your website domain name, it will go back on the market and anyone else can take it.
In the case of Bluesky, the focus on the domain is very important as this is how Bluesky verifies the account or at least provides a form of verification to the account holder. Lan Tian explained a blog post“On Bluesky, you can set your website to your username. This is the form of verification on Bluesky and is our version of a “blue check.” We strongly recommend this to official organizations and celebrities.
Get domain name check
Bluesky explains how to do this in a post and I went through the whole process myself here. In my case, my username changed from lance.ulanoff@bsky.social to @lanceulanoff.com. i already have my domain name, But if you don’t, Bluesky can now search and protect domain names for you.
This can be a little confusing, as other social platforms seem to make it easier, allowing you to verify your full name and other custom handles. However, Bluesky is no ordinary platform. It is built on the AT protocol, and the benefit is that your profile and social media activity does not belong to Bluesky and is actually portable to any platform built on this protocol. However, the AT protocol was designed to use domains for identification, in part because it is a strong authentication signal.
However, Bluesky’s system still lacks a visual cue that the handlebars have been verified. Of course, if you see a domain name, you know it’s a domain name. Even so, who doesn’t love a blue check?
Bluesky does introduce a few other small updates, including a Mentions tab, which, yes, is reminiscent of other Weibo social media platforms. It lets you split notifications into posts specifically mentioning your username.
Even though all these platforms are growing (Threads just reached 300M (Bluesky has about 25 million users.) The platforms are becoming increasingly similar. As I continue running X, Threads, and Bluesky, it’s sometimes hard to tell which platform I’m on.
Of course, not all three platforms will survive, and while I can’t guess which one will win, Bluesky is making the right moves to stay in the competition.