YSK: Before she was the CEO of BlueSky Jay Graeber worked in cryptocurrency

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Kirk@startrek.website⁩ to ⁨fediverse@lemmy.world⁩

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Graber

In 2015, Graber began working as a software engineer for SkuChain in Mountain View, California. She then worked in a factory in Moses Lake, Washington, where she soldered bitcoin mining equipment. In 2016, she began working as a junior developer for the Zcash cryptocurrency.

So lately I have been trying to figure out why people are calling BlueSky decentralized and I noticed that fun fact. It made me realize how cryptocurrencies are something else that was often technically “decentralized” but in reality controlled by a single person or group.

In case it’s also not known, Jack Dorsey who helped found BlueSky is a big cryptocurrency booster.

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zqps@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
As a software engineer? That doesn’t have to convey ideology by any means. People gotta pay the bills.

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- Kirk@startrek.website ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Her bills are paid now. Looks like a pattern of shady employment choices.
  
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mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Why should we know this?

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- brucethemoose@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Because however one feels about blockchain tech and its future, past companies within the crypto industry are notorious for selling the moon, being shady, and cashing out early. ‘ZCash’ appears to be a good example, particularly because a small group exerts such a high level of control.
  
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- Kirk@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Because the claims of people involved with cryptocurrency are historically very untrustworthy, that’s why.
  
  The thing that got me interested is that BlueSky says it’s “decentralized” but the more I look into it, it’s only “decentralized” using a very narrow, highly technical definition of the term “decentralized”.
  
  Cryptocurrency is the same. People with a financial stake in cryptocurrency often say it is “decentralized” but it’s only true if you accept their extremely narrow definitions of what that word means.
  
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poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Bluesky is literally funded by a venture capital firm called “Blockchain Capital” and you wonder about previous jobs of the CEO? 🙄

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- Kirk@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I do! Thanks for the information it is another piece of evidence as to the sketchiness
  
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scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
So? She was a junior engineer, probably just needed the money to scrape by. You’ve never worked low level roles at morally questionable companies?

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- rozodru@piefed.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  started my career as a developer working for an adult entertainment industry company (porn) so yeah. Everything I know today is from titties and the bang bus.
  
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  - scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So many questions! You should consider doing an ama here sometime
    
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- hypna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  /sheepishly raises hand/
  
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  - scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    We all have bills at the end of the day, and I’m a firm believer that there are no moral companies. I’d love to drop everything and work for a non profit who only does good, but turns out my bank still expects me to pay the mortgage.
    
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- Kirk@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  She’s currently the highest level role at a morally questionable company.
  
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  - scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    You weren’t talking about that, you only brought up the crypto role, you made it the title of the post. It’s an irrelevant footnote in her career.
    
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JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This kind of purity policing is deeply offputting IMO. And certainly won’t help build federated social media.

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Lumidaub@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I keep seeing people ask why people call Bluesky decentralised. I never see people call Bluesky decentralised.

(Okay, “never” isn’t quite correct, I’ve seen the term used in relation to Bluesky maybe a handful of times but you make it sound like that’s their main selling point)

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- Kirk@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  I never see people call Bluesky decentralised.
  
  I find that surprising, because BlueSky uses that term: bsky.social/about/…/02-22-2024-open-social-web
  
  Image
  
  Jay Graeber herself described it as such.
  
  Here is the Verge calling it decentralized: theverge.com/…/bluesky-ceo-jay-graber-interview-d…
  
  Here is NYT calling it decentralized: www.nytimes.com/…/bluesky-x-alternative.html
  
  Here is CNN calling decentralized: www.cnn.com/2023/04/28/tech/bluesky-social/
  
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  - Blisterexe@lemmy.zip ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yes, because it is, you can host your own server (pds, relay and UI) on like a 30$ vps.
    
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