FAQs
Frequently asked questions about Aster ID.
What is the Atmosphere?
Just as the World Wide Web is an open information ecosystem based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http), the Atmosphere is an open social ecosystem based on the AT Protocol (atproto to its friends).
The biggest app in the Atmosphere is still Bluesky, but many more are being actively developed. Crucially, once you have an Atmosphere account via one app, you can use it on all the apps.
once you have an Atmosphere account via one app, you can use it on all the apps
And like the Web, the Atmosphere is permissionless: anyone can create an Atmosphere app, and anyone with an Atmosphere account can use that app, without anyone else getting in the way.
Moreover, you own your identity, your data, and your friends and followers - you can move from one app to another and not lose anything. “Social lock-in”, which prevents people leaving platforms like X and Facebook, is therefore impossible.
“enshittification” is impossible on the Atmosphere
That means “enshittification” is impossible on the Atmosphere: any app that wants to succeed must treat its users well, as otherwise they'll simply go somewhere else and take all their friends, followers and content with them. Apps can only compete on user experience.
Read more in the Atmosphere Explainers Semble collection (and yes, Semble is an Atmosphere app).
What is an Aster identity and PDS, and who is it for?
The only reason “you can move from one app to another and not lose anything” (see above) is because anyone can set up their own hosting service for Atmosphere accounts, and people can move freely between them.
Aster’s first product is one of these services, giving you an Aster identity (yourname.aster.id) and Personal Data Store (PDS) for your content, making all Atmosphere apps available to you.
If you have an Atmosphere account you can migrate to Aster. And if you don’t, we can give you one. And if you ever decide to move elsewhere, you can migrate there and take everything - your content, friends and followers - with you. That’s what “no social lock-in” means.
What sets Aster apart from other hosts is that it’s focused on the needs of scientists and academics, so an Aster identity is only the first product - see What other products and services are planned, below.
As set out in How do you know I'm really a researcher?, we’re still exploring how we will make that work in practice once we leave the by-invitation phase.
What other products and services are planned?
As we launch we're also preparing and exploring:
- a portal to the Atmosphere for scientists
- a personal website service for scientists
- researcher verification processes and tools (see our blog for more)
What do you mean when you say "researchers"?
When we say researchers, we mean it broadly: obviously academics and students, but also independent scholars, citizen scientists, participatory and community-based researchers, research software engineers, librarians and archivists, and anyone doing careful, systematic inquiry into how the world works. Exactly where the lines fall, and how to verify researchers without becoming gatekeepers, is one of the open questions we want to work through with you! (see below)
How do you know I'm really a researcher?
This is the central question for Aster once we leave the invite-only phase, and so forms the heart of one of our launch-phase blog posts - How should verification work on Aster?
TL:DR;
- during the invite phase, we’ll check each application individually
- we’re still working through how we’ll manage this once we open applications more widely, and hope to have a good discussion on it at our launch event.
- we’re currently open to self-identified researchers, and are exploring ways to layer additional trust on top via tools like invite chains, labels, and verification by academic organisations
- we’re currently not exploring identity-based verification
- more in that blog post - if you have a view, we want to hear it.
What's ATScience? Who’s on the Aster team?
ATScience is a non-profit, open-source community of researchers and developers building science-focused Atmosphere apps.
The Aster project is fiscally hosted by the Modal Foundation, a Dutch non-profit who graciously agreed to provide legal and fiscal support to our project. Modal are the host of numerous Atmosphere projects, including Eurosky.
Where is Aster based?
Our core team are in many countries around the world.
Our legal and fiscal host, the Modal Foundation, is based in the Netherlands, making this the legal home country of our project.
Aster is for researchers in all countries, but we have chosen to base our data hosting in the EU, owing to its political stability and strong privacy protection laws.
What does it cost, and how do I sign up?
An Aster identity and PDS are free.
Currently, Aster is invite-only. Subscribe to our blog to get updates about when we'll add more users.
How do I learn more and contact you?
We’re unpacking and exploring the challenges and opportunities of Aster in public, so:
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