NFT Twitter is all good vibes again—on Bluesky

Social media platform Bluesky, which is built on a decentralized protocol and was incubated by Twitter before the Elon Musk era, is starting to catch buzz as the most promising rival to its forebear.

And now, as the beta gradually lets in more and more users, Bluesky is starting to attract prominent NFT creators, artists, builders and collectors. Over the past few days, a number of notable NFT and Web3 projects have established Bluesky accounts, and their creators, along with other artists and personalities, have also branched out from Twitter.

Prominent creators including DeGods and y00ts founder Rohun “Frank” Vora, pseudonymous Deadfellaz NFT project co-creator Betty, and Rug Radio co-founder and co-CEO Farokh Sarmad have made it to the Twitter clone—and all of these projects have similarly established their own accounts. All three creators have tweeted about their Bluesky presence.

“We hear you’re here for media decentralization, so we had to join,” wrote Rug Radio on Bluesky this week. In a later message, it asked Bluesky users: “What is decentralization to you?”

Other Web3 creators who have joined include digital artists Vinnie Hager, Patrick Amadon, Ryan “ThankYouX” Wilson and Pindar Van Arman, along with photographer John Knopf, alias Cozomo de’ Medici, and digital artist and September Mourning musician Emily Lazar.

Hager, who tweeted this week that he was “about to flood Bluesky with my art,” did just that on the new platform, sharing a photo of a piece of art — a New York City subway map with his distinctive style of doodles on top – with the caption “Blue Sky”.

Vinnie Hager has shared his artwork on Bluesky. Image: Bluesky

He is among many artists who share and redistribute artwork on the platform, and some Web3 enthusiasts have noted the proliferation of artwork on the platform so far.

“My feed is all art. This app is heaven,” wrote NFT now founder and CEO Matt Medved, also a noted digital art collector. “I started collecting Tezos to decompress and appreciate art without any financial calculation. Bluesky feels like the social media equivalent,” he added.

To be clear, all of these Web3 creators and personalities still post on Twitter, which has a dramatically larger user base and long-established accounts that have amassed followers. Twitter claims hundreds of millions of monthly users, while Bluesky’s user numbers appear to be in the high tens of thousands in total amid its gradual, invitation-driven beta rollout.

Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey launched what would become Bluesky in the 2019, aiming to create a decentralized social media protocol that Twitter itself may one day adopt. After a couple of years of quiet development, the project emerged and spun off after Elon Musk became the owner and CEO of Twitter, raising $13 million in funding.

Many Twitter users looking to branch out first turned to Mastodon, a decentralized platform, but some found the experience lacking compared to the original site. This is where Bluesky comes into play. As a more direct Twitter clone, Bluesky offers a familiar user experience and interface with dedicated apps for iOS and Android devices.

Bluesky’s federated model allows profile transfers between AT Protocol platforms and allows users to control content serving algorithms for increased trust in online areas. The broader AT protocol could eventually fuel a network of decentralized platforms, although for now Bluesky is just a small, relatively centralized pocket of it.

Unlike Mastodon, which seemed to lose steam quickly among Twitter critics, Bluesky may be better equipped to find widespread adoption due to its recognizable interface and user experience. And the decentralized protocol that supports it is another selling point for Web3 enthusiasts, which may draw in some early adopters as it begins to take shape.