This isn't accurate tho.

Neither Bluesky, nor other ATProto services require any of this.

RedDwarf is an example of an ATProto client that connects only with your PDS, uses Microcosm (https://www.microcosm.blue/ )'s aggregation index (they calculate aggregate counts for a variety of things with a couple of raspberry pis run off of a home fiber connection): https://reddwarf.app/

No big iron anywhere in the picture.

You give up the ability to search the network, but okay, that's already a feature that all Mastodon users sacrifice as well.

Yes, as far as i know it's an honest self-report kind of thing.

There are a lot of misunderstandings about what Blacksky is assuming that it's a just a community fork of Bluesky.

The Blacksky team has a much broader vision for which they decided ATProto was the right architecture.

There's a lot more to read about them up on their site: https://blackskyweb.xyz/

I love that the initial state itself isn't stable.

The world keeps moving around us. Can't choose staying still.

Anybody can sign up for Blacksky.