Bluesky recently added longer video uploads and introduced custom feeds for vertical videos. Now, the platform is getting another update that could bring a familiar, yet different, blue check verification system to the platform. This potential feature was spotted thanks to a GitHub pull request by estrattonbailey, first spotted Friday by reverse engineer alice.mosphere.at.
According to changes in the app"s public GitHub repository, Bluesky"s blue checks might look a bit like the ones X has, but how you get one and what it means seems pretty different. Instead of just one central authority or paying a fee, Bluesky"s version looks like it will involve "Trusted Verifiers," for example, news organizations or maybe other established groups, alongside Bluesky itself. If you tap on someone"s blue check, it"ll show you exactly who vouched for them.
Verified users will get a standard blue circle with a white check mark. But the folks who are Trusted Verifiers get a badge that looks different. These are the groups that can give out checks, and we"ve seen hints that this could include news outlets like The New York Times. Their badge is a distinct, scalloped blue circle with a white check.
This approach stands in pretty stark contrast to the verification saga we"ve seen over on X. Twitter originally used the blue check to denote notable, authentic accounts, but after Elon Musk took over, one of the big, controversial changes that got a lot of people looking for alternatives like Bluesky and Threads was the switch to a paid verification system.
Musk made it so that pretty much anyone could get a blue check by paying a monthly fee, which many argued diluted the check"s value and made it harder to spot genuine accounts amidst potential impersonators or even bots. While X has since tweaked this a bit, giving checks back to some influential users who don"t pay, the core idea of verification being tied to payment or Musk"s discretion is still there.
Bluesky"s proposed system, relying on multiple trusted sources and not being something you can pay for, seems designed specifically to avoid the pitfalls and controversies that plagued X"s verification under Musk and contributed to users migrating away.
Looking at the comments on the pull request, it"s clear this idea has sparked a lot of discussion and a lot of concern among the community who follow the platform"s development closely. Many users voiced strong opposition to the change, arguing that the existing domain name verification is sufficient and more aligned with the decentralized ethos that Bluesky aims for.
There"s a general worry that adding a visual badge, especially one controlled in part by Bluesky, feels too much like the centralized systems they were trying to escape from by joining Bluesky:
Do not want. BSky is not Twitter 2.0. Do not become like Elon Musk. We came here to get AWAY from that bs.
Several commenters also expressed that the current domain name system, while not perfect, is an elegant and decentralized way to build trust, and that adding this new layer feels redundant and gives too much power to centralized entities, including Bluesky itself:
Let’s please not do this. Domain names as user IDs is an elegant solution as a system of trust that builds off the infrastructure of an open web.
While the majority of the initial reaction seems negative, focusing on concerns about centralization and the value of the existing domain verification, there was some support for the idea of a visual badge, making it easier to quickly identify genuine accounts. One user commented:
I support this change. I like someone to verify that the account is indeed genuine and the username field showing the domain isn"t helpful that much... A badge makes it easier to just tick it off that it"s genuine.
The PR author, estrattonbailey, later added a description to the pull request explaining that the goal is a "stronger visual signal" for notable accounts and clarifying it"s not a paid service.
It was also mentioned that Bluesky plans to include an option for users to hide all blue checks in their settings if they prefer, offering a way for users to opt out of seeing these verification badges.
This is kind of the opposite of how it works on X, where users can sometimes decide whether their badge is visible to others. Bluesky"s feature is about letting you hide everyone else"s badges from your view.