In AT, data is tied to identity (DID), not handles or hosting. That’s what my article tried to explain.
If you lose the “handle” domain, all it means is that you won’t have a valid handle (which apps will tell you about) but your posts will remain up (they’re still addressable by your DID, which is how apps look things up). In the Bluesky app, for example, it would say “invalid handle” instead of your username. However, it’ll work. It’s the same situation as what happens if your domain expires or you delete your records. Your data is still there, you’re still “followed“ by the same people, etc. A handle is just an alias.
All you’ll need to do is to change the handle, thereby attaching a new domain, through any app that has the “change handle” flow. (It’s enough to have one app that gives you free ones.)
With hosting, it is similar (although there are barriers which need to be lowered). If your repo shuts down, you absolutely can move it somewhere else provided that you have a backup of it. Backups are trivial to automate on AT so this is something I expect hosting providers to offer. There are already third-party apps that regularly do backups for you. And you can export your repository from some clients as well (eg from the official Bluesky client).
In the “happy” case, your hosting will cooperate with moving your repo to another host. See https://pdsmoover.com/info.html for the happy case.
For the “unhappy” case where your old hosting doesn’t cooperate, you also can move if you saved a rotational key. See https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/adversarial-pds-migrat.... This requires some technical knowledge today but you can imagine a backup solution having that feature also.
And when your repo goes up again at a different host, the difference will be imperceptible to you or other users, since it's signed by the same identity. All your posts, followers, etc, will "come back" with no disruption or broken links.
This is very different from email. Yes, there's some technical know-how in setting up protections if you expect to be adversarial to your hosting, but you do have that ability, and I expect with the AT ecosystem developing, it'll be much more user-friendly to set them up than it is today.
> In AT, data is tied to identity (DID), not handles or hosting.
But there's exactly two types of identity, one of which requires you to have a domain (did:web:), and the other relies on a centralized registry owned by a third party (did:plc:). Still the exact same problem.
I am assuming that plc involves keys which are in the users control. If that's not true, all bets are off.
So I wonder if the protocol could be extended to allow migrating from a did:plc to a did:web. Or maybe to did:plcalt (alternative plc server. I just made this up but I think you get the idea).
If I understand correctly, it should be trivial to prove you own a plc identity, even if the plc is rejecting further changes to your id, so long as you can tell the network in some way an alternative place to look.
Edit: as per https://updates.microcosm.blue/3lz7nwvh4zc2u it seems like there are some theoretical mitigations to an adversarial plc, but overall it seems like if a plc was adversarial starting today it would damage the ATmosphere quite a lot.
You DID has to be hosted to some provider. Whoever controls that domain controls to which location your content resolves. There’s one extra layer of indirection, but the exact same issue is still there.
If you own the domain, that’s fine. If it’s a thirst party domain and they refuse to cooperate: you’re screwed.
In AT, data is tied to identity (DID), not handles or hosting. That’s what my article tried to explain.
If you lose the “handle” domain, all it means is that you won’t have a valid handle (which apps will tell you about) but your posts will remain up (they’re still addressable by your DID, which is how apps look things up). In the Bluesky app, for example, it would say “invalid handle” instead of your username. However, it’ll work. It’s the same situation as what happens if your domain expires or you delete your records. Your data is still there, you’re still “followed“ by the same people, etc. A handle is just an alias.
All you’ll need to do is to change the handle, thereby attaching a new domain, through any app that has the “change handle” flow. (It’s enough to have one app that gives you free ones.)
With hosting, it is similar (although there are barriers which need to be lowered). If your repo shuts down, you absolutely can move it somewhere else provided that you have a backup of it. Backups are trivial to automate on AT so this is something I expect hosting providers to offer. There are already third-party apps that regularly do backups for you. And you can export your repository from some clients as well (eg from the official Bluesky client).
In the “happy” case, your hosting will cooperate with moving your repo to another host. See https://pdsmoover.com/info.html for the happy case.
For the “unhappy” case where your old hosting doesn’t cooperate, you also can move if you saved a rotational key. See https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/adversarial-pds-migrat.... This requires some technical knowledge today but you can imagine a backup solution having that feature also.
And when your repo goes up again at a different host, the difference will be imperceptible to you or other users, since it's signed by the same identity. All your posts, followers, etc, will "come back" with no disruption or broken links.
This is very different from email. Yes, there's some technical know-how in setting up protections if you expect to be adversarial to your hosting, but you do have that ability, and I expect with the AT ecosystem developing, it'll be much more user-friendly to set them up than it is today.