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Bluesky went down, and many users were left wondering how that’s even possible for a decentralized platform. The Bluesky outage on Thursday evening disrupted access across web and mobile apps for nearly an hour, sparking fresh debate about the platform’s infrastructure.
The trouble started around 6:55 PM ET when Bluesky posted a status update confirming widespread service issues. The team traced the Bluesky outage to “Major PDS Networking Problems,” referring to its personal data servers. A fix was rolled out shortly after, with services beginning to recover by 7:38 PM ET.
But the bigger question lingered: if Bluesky is decentralized, how did a single failure bring the entire app down?
While the AT Protocol allows for distributed infrastructure, enabling users to run personal data servers and relays, the majority still rely on Bluesky’s official servers. Because it’s still early days for the network, few users have taken the step to run their own nodes. Those who had unaffected were, which highlights the promise of true decentralization once adoption broadens.
Decentralization in Theory vs. Reality
Bluesky envisions a future where independent communities manage their apps, moderation, and hosting. One example is Blacksky, which is using these tools to build more inclusive digital spaces.
For now, though, any major issue within Bluesky’s core infrastructure impacts most of its user base.
The incident didn’t go unnoticed by rival network Mastodon. Its users quickly took to social media to mock the situation. One user, Luke Johnson, wrote, “See how the mighty Bluesky crumbles while the Raspberry Pi running Mastodon under my bed just keeps chugging along.” Another chimed in, “Nice decentralization ya got there.”
The platform recovered within an hour, but the outage served as a wake-up call: decentralization doesn’t mean immunity, especially when few are running independent infrastructure.
