The State of The Secure-Scuttlebot Conservancy

keeping the dream alive

About me

Everett Bogue

Kayaking Instructor

ANProto CTO

Defacto maintainer of SSB

early Secure-Scuttlebot web client by Paul Frazee, circa 2014-2015

established after the failed mutiny at the Secure-Scuttlebot Consortium of 2025

protocol comparisons

*	SSB	ActivityPub	ANProto	ATProto	Nostr	Farcaster
Created	2015 (2012 as scuttlebutt)	2016 (2012 as pump.io)	2019 (as bog v1)	2019 (as smor-serve)	2020	2020
Creators	Dominic Tarr + Paul Frazee	Evan Prodromou + Christine Lemmer-Webber	Everett Bogue	Jay Graber + Paul Frazee	Fiatjaf	Dan Romero + Varun Srinivasan
#1 App	Patchbay	Mastodon	Wiredove	Bluesky	Primal	Base
Jack Dorsey?	No	No	Coming 2027?	Quit	Funded	No
Keys	ed25519	none	ed25519	secp256k1	secp256k1	ed25519
Identity	self-id	username	self-id	directory	self-id	eth-id
Data model	append-only	json-ld	hashchain	repo	flat	flat
Message security	userkeys	none	userkeys	serverkeys	userkeys	userkeys
Strategy	gossip	federation	replication	aggregation	relays	hubs
Architecture	distributed	decentralized	distributed	decentralized (?)	decentralized	decentralized

protocol comparisons

*	SSB	ActivityPub	ANProto	ATProto	Nostr	Farcaster
Created	2015 (2012 as scuttlebutt)	2016 (2012 as pump.io)	2019 (as bog v1)	2019 (as smor-serve)	2020	2020
Creators	Dominic Tarr + Paul Frazee	Evan Prodromou + Christine Lemmer-Webber	Everett Bogue	Jay Graber + Paul Frazee	Fiatjaf	Dan Romero + Varun Srinivasan
#1 App	Patchbay	Mastodon	Wiredove	Bluesky	Primal	Base
Jack Dorsey?	No	No	Coming 2027?	Quit	Funded	No
Keys	ed25519	none	ed25519	secp256k1	secp256k1	ed25519
Identity	self-id	username	self-id	directory	self-id	eth-id
Data model	append-only	json-ld	hashchain	repo	flat	flat
Message security	userkeys	none	userkeys	serverkeys	userkeys	userkeys
Strategy	gossip	federation	replication	aggregation	relays	hubs
Architecture	distributed	decentralized	distributed	decentralized (?)	decentralized	decentralized

BACKBURNERED

protocol comparisons

*	SSB	ActivityPub	ANProto	ATProto	Nostr	Farcaster
Created	2015 (2012 as scuttlebutt)	2016 (2012 as pump.io)	2019 (as bog v1)	2019 (as smor-serve)	2020	2020
Creators	Dominic Tarr + Paul Frazee	Evan Prodromou + Christine Lemmer-Webber	Everett Bogue	Jay Graber + Paul Frazee	Fiatjaf	Dan Romero + Varun Srinivasan
#1 App	Patchbay	Mastodon	Wiredove	Bluesky	Primal	Base
Jack Dorsey?	No	No	Coming 2027?	Quit	Funded	No
Keys	ed25519	none	ed25519	secp256k1	secp256k1	ed25519
Identity	self-id	username	self-id	directory	self-id	eth-id
Data model	append-only	json-ld	hashchain	repo	flat	flat
Message security	userkeys	none	userkeys	serverkeys	userkeys	userkeys
Strategy	gossip	federation	replication	aggregation	relays	hubs
Architecture	distributed	decentralized	distributed	decentralized (?)	decentralized	decentralized

BACKBURNERED

INSECURE

protocol comparisons

*	SSB	ActivityPub	ANProto	ATProto	Nostr	Farcaster
Created	2015 (2012 as scuttlebutt)	2016 (2012 as pump.io)	2019 (as bog v1)	2019 (as smor-serve)	2020	2020
Creators	Dominic Tarr + Paul Frazee	Evan Prodromou + Christine Lemmer-Webber	Everett Bogue	Jay Graber + Paul Frazee	Fiatjaf	Dan Romero + Varun Srinivasan
#1 App	Patchbay	Mastodon	Wiredove	Bluesky	Primal	Base
Jack Dorsey?	No	No	Coming 2027?	Quit	Funded	No
Keys	ed25519	none	ed25519	secp256k1	secp256k1	ed25519
Identity	self-id	username	self-id	directory	self-id	eth-id
Data model	append-only	json-ld	hashchain	repo	flat	flat
Message security	userkeys	none	userkeys	serverkeys	userkeys	userkeys
Strategy	gossip	federation	replication	aggregation	relays	hubs
Architecture	distributed	decentralized	distributed	decentralized (?)	decentralized	decentralized

BACKBURNERED

INSECURE

Bitcoiners, YUCK!

How centralized is Bluesky?

SSB vs ATProto

Secure-Scuttlebot	ATProto
Local-first identity: your key signs your feed.	Human-readable handles and portable DID identity.
Append-only logs that survive across peers.	Fast global discovery through relays and appviews.
Peer gossip: no global appview required.	Cleaner developer surface: lexicons, records, schemas.
Offline-shaped, personal-computer-shaped social data.	Moderation and onboarding that regular people can use.
Harder to kill when servers disappear.	Easier to explain, index, search, and scale.

Demo