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Comment by tardedmeme

8 hours ago

So the app is equivalent to an AP instance.

No because apps are decoupled many-to-many with hosting.

Every app can display public data from every other app because the source of truth is outside both apps (in hosting).

App owner can’t do bad things to your account other than banning you in their particular app. Other apps (even for same data) independently choose whether to show your data. So app owners are only in control over how your data is presented in their apps, not over your actual data.

Whereas in AP, each app’s moderators literally control your entire identity.

Not really. From my understanding, in AP, your account belongs to an instance and your data is then synced to other servers. If the instance goes down, your account is gone.

In ATP, your data is stored in the "Atmosphere", hosted on decentralized "Personal Data Servers" (PDS). The app then simply parses and filters that data. They can apply moderation actions by choosing not to display or read certain posts, but your data still exists and another app could choose to display it. Similarly, if the app goes down, your data is still perfectly intact in the Atmosphere.

It might then seem like the PDS is equivalent to an AP instance, but as mentioned, they are decentralized. Identity is verified through signatures, so if your PDS goes down, you can migrate to a new one as long as you have your signing keys. Therefore, the account belongs to you and not any specific server.