On November 15th, Peter Wang initiated a discussion seeking input for the establishment of a novel incubator and fund designed to bolster experimental initiatives within the burgeoning Bluesky/AT Protocol ecosystem. In a swift response, within a mere four weeks, Skyseed was born, boasting an initial commitment of $1 million. This rapid development, highlighted by the fact that the fund is yet to launch a website (though it does possess a Bluesky profile), is a testament to several phenomena: the surging interest in Bluesky, which is being viewed as a sanctuary for millions who have forsaken X (formerly known as Twitter). Additionally, there is a palpable optimism that by embarking on a new social platform founded on an open, decentralized network like the AT Protocol, we might sidestep the ad-driven, enclosed gardens that are prevalent in today's social networking landscape. "The lion's share of Facebook's revenue streams from advertising. All major centralized social media entities are, at their core, advertising companies, which implies they deal in traffic and user attention," Wang explained in a conversation with TechCrunch this week. "The primary distinction between an open protocol and a closed one is that closed systems will never condone applications that divert the content of the graph and user attention from their domains."

Wang, a co-founder, Chief AI and Innovation Officer, and former CEO of Anaconda—a company built on the同名 open-source Python and R distributions that assist data scientists in constructing, testing, and deploying all their data-centric projects—has been a staunch advocate for the decentralized web. He has financially backed projects such as Blue Link Labs, which developed Beaker, a peer-to-peer open-source web browser. Official support for Beaker concluded in 2022, with its creator, Paul Frazee, joining Bluesky as a "protocol engineer" before officially taking on the role of CTO in April. The foundational work on Beaker has been advantageous for Bluesky. "While the Beaker project is reaching its official conclusion, Beaker's essence endures with Bluesky," Frazee stated in a post announcing Beaker's end. "I hope our efforts will, in the long run, lessen the sting of Beaker's demise."

Fast forward to the present, and Wang is extending his support for decentralization through the formation of a formal seed fund. "I've engaged in angel investing, but this marks my inaugural venture into creating a fund and managing the capital of others," Wang remarked. "I've been financing Paul [Frazee] and his team for several years. They explored various avenues to develop decentralized web technologies, with varying degrees of success. However, all the knowledge gained from these experiences, I believe, has been integrated into the [Bluesky] design, the protocol, and the applications."

While the concept of a decentralized web is not new, what it has been lacking is a significant number of individuals drawn to an open-source, open-standards-based framework like the AT Protocol, which promises to empower users to maintain control over their data and transition to other platforms within the protocol. "There are individuals who have been part of the decentralized web community for an extended period, eagerly awaiting this moment," Wang stated. "We've had numerous excellent ideas; we just haven't had the user base. Now we have the users." "It's akin to the internet in 1996," Wang continued after posting his request for ideas in mid-November. He was deluged with people contacting him with proposals, noting that the enthusiasm was reminiscent of the internet in 1996. "Within all these technical ecosystems, you genuinely need those early adopters and innovators to feel empowered to pursue all the creative endeavors they wish to undertake," Wang said. "As I began to witness the caliber of some of these early constructions, it became evident that something truly beneficial could emerge from this."

Delving into the structure of Skyseed reveals two principal elements: the fund and the incubator. The majority of the initial $1 million comes from Wang himself, though he mentions that some angel investors have also contributed six-figure amounts. Furthermore, he indicates that the fund has actually expanded closer to $1.5 million, a sum that could potentially increase if the current momentum continues, with the possibility of formal accredited investors participating. "It's predominantly angels at present, but as soon as I announced, I had approximately half a dozen individuals express interest in the fund as limited partners," Wang said. "Just by observing the traction now, I'm considering there are many more avenues to allocate capital, and there's a substantial amount of capital interested in this early-stage segment." Initial investments are likely to be around $100,000, though this will be targeted at projects that possess "real business models, real teams, and real products," enabling them to reach a certain milestone and secure more substantial subsequent funding. However, how large can Skyseed grow as a fund? "I believe we could reach $5 to $10 million, especially as we start witnessing some milestones," Wang said. In addition to making formal equity investments, Skyseed will also be offering developer grants (similar to Bluesky's own initiatives), which will range from $5,000 to $25,000. "The grants are quite selective, in that I am essentially handing over funds to an individual. I must truly trust their technical vision and capacity to execute," Wang said. "Generally, it will be individuals who have already released some tools that I believe possess quality and merit—either I am utilizing them, or I know people who are." Some developer grants will be distributed by the end of the year, with the primary equity capital likely to start being disbursed early in the new year. "I've already identified several projects that are clearly excellent. They won't require substantial capital to advance, and if I can assist someone in focusing on building by alleviating financial pressures, then that's acceptable," Wang added. "Many of these projects don't necessitate significant funding to progress, as they're typically one person or perhaps a small team of two working on the side."

On the incubator front, Wang states that Skyseed will function as a platform for like-minded individuals to exchange ideas and foster collaboration, particularly when complementary projects are involved. "It will involve active mentorship and a network where they assist one another," Wang said. "What I'm observing is that there are numerous projects across various domains with similar objectives. Thus, some of this will also involve founder matchmaking."

Bluesky, ultimately, is just another application, and it's already confronting some of the same moderation challenges that X has faced from its inception, and advertising might also make its way onto the platform. However, this underscores the potential advantages of a robust ecosystem emerging from the AT Protocol. Dunbar's number, a concept from British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, suggests a cognitive limit to the number of humans that can stably interact within a given social context, which is approximately 150. Social media often disregards this figure, thrusting billions of individuals into the same social sphere, with chaos not far behind; large-scale social networks compel people to interact with others they would likely avoid in real life. The AT Protocol overturns this, enabling a variety of niche and micro-networks built on the same foundational framework. "We don't all have to fit within the same one-size-fits-all application," Wang said. "The entire purpose of the protocol is to create numerous different types of applications and allow a multitude of user experiences to thrive."

In the days following the launch, Wang reported receiving around 50 projects, and while he couldn't confirm which projects will ultimately receive funding, he did share some thoughts on the types of tools that might emerge if the AT Protocol is given room to expand. Alternatives to Bluesky itself are certainly on the agenda in relation to the AT Protocol. This could include a child- and family-oriented version, with child social graphs branching off from parents' social graphs and fine-grained controls over data privacy, for instance. Alternatively, it could cater to dissident journalism or whistleblowers, or perhaps serve marginalized communities. It could also be something similar to a Reddit clone, or socially infused alternatives to platforms like SoundCloud, Bandcamp, or even Google Maps. "Some individuals have developed photo-centric applications akin to Instagram, while others are looking to create event-coordination platforms like Eventbrite or Partiful that are infused with the social graph," Wang said. While it remains to be seen how these products might actually manifest, they could also lay the groundwork for an entirely new ecosystem of applications to flourish. This is the essence of what Wang is aiming to achieve with his fund. "All these elements that currently reside at the core of major social media companies might now be inverted, becoming components of an ecosystem that is modular and upon which others can build," Wang said. Importantly, this does not preclude ad-supported networks or subscriptions—it simply offers options. "You can absolutely have ad-supported entities, but you must maintain a balanced business model," Wang said. "The unfortunate reality about large social media companies is that they stumbled into advertising and the attention economy, and by then it was too late; they already owed billions to investors. So that's the primary distinction. We're simply attempting a different evolutionary path."

Despite the discussions surrounding openness and decentralization, the elephant in the room cannot be ignored: Bluesky, which controls both its own application and the underlying open-source protocol, is a privately held company with the usual array of venture capital backers. And as we've witnessed countless times, open source is not always perpetual. In essence, there is ample potential for things to go awry, both at Bluesky and within the protocol it's built upon. However, Wang does not view this as an issue. "In nearly all open-source ecosystems, users are the ultimate arbiters," he said. "If a large company decides to exploit an open-source project, and none of the users utilize it, then it's irrelevant. And if users rebel against it, they can create a fork and adopt that instead. You always possess the right to exit and pursue alternative innovation."

While many of the projects that may receive funding will be part-time side projects, the same could be said about Skyseed itself. It all appears to be an immense amount of work, with no managing partners or administrators currently on the roster. "It truly is something I'm undertaking on the side," Wang said. "But there are numerous allies and many individuals who are hopeful that this will be successful. I've been unabashed about securing their time. Part of what I'll be doing over the holidays is establishing some of that structure."