Supporting note · November 2026

AT Protocol: a proven open standard for Europe's social internet

Supporting note to the joint position paper "Freedom of movement in digital Europe: opening the social internet up to competition".

Building on the large-scale adoption already documented in the joint position paper, this note provides additional evidence that AT Protocol can remain open, independently governed and operationally sustainable beyond Bluesky Social PBC, its original developer. It does not modify the joint position paper or extend the commitments of its signatories.

Independent standardisation and long-term continuity

Bluesky Social PBC deserves recognition not only for developing AT Protocol and demonstrating its scalability, but also for taking concrete steps to ensure that the protocol can exist independently of the company itself.

A major milestone was reached in April 2026, when the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) established an official working group to develop international Standards Track specifications for core components of AT Protocol.

This provides a path from an openly specified protocol towards an independently standardised internet protocol, with technical governance through an established international standards organisation.

Bluesky has actively supported this transition, recognising that the governance and long-term development of an open protocol should not depend on the commercial interests or continued existence of its original developer.

Beyond international standardisation, several concrete measures already support the protocol's independence:

• Open-source licensing: the reference implementation is publicly available under permissive MIT and Apache 2.0 licences, allowing independent development, modification and commercial operation.
• Patent protection: Bluesky published a software patent non-aggression pledge in October 2025, providing additional legal protection for independent implementers.
• Independent identity governance: the Public Ledger of Credentials Organization has been established as an independent Swiss association to assume stewardship of the PLC identity directory.
• Independent identity verification: open-source PLC read replicas allow third parties to maintain and cryptographically verify copies of the identity directory.
• Independent infrastructure: alternative Personal Data Servers, relays and application services are already operational.
• Independent data preservation: projects such as Hubble are developing network-wide public-data mirrors to improve resilience and recoverability.

Remaining dependencies

The protocol's legal and technical foundations already allow it to continue independently of Bluesky Social PBC. However, some aspects of institutional and operational independence are still being completed:

• Protocol trademarks: Bluesky currently owns the AT Protocol trademarks and has expressed its intention to transfer them to independent governance.
• PLC directory governance: the independent Swiss organisation has been established, but the transfer of the directory's assets and operations remains to be completed.
• Operational infrastructure: Bluesky remains a major provider of network infrastructure. A sudden loss of its services could disrupt dependent accounts and applications, particularly where backups, recovery mechanisms or alternative infrastructure are insufficient.
• Standardisation scope: the IETF process currently covers core components of AT Protocol, rather than the complete protocol and application stack.

These are identifiable dependencies within an ongoing transition, not fundamental limitations preventing the protocol from existing independently.

Conclusion

AT Protocol has an established path towards independent international standardisation and governance. Rather than developing a new Europe-specific standard, Europe can adopt an existing open protocol and participate in shaping its future through international standardisation.