ATmosphereConf 2026: Great Energy, But We Need to See the Money

Last weekend, I was in Vancouver for ATmosphereConf 2026, the annual gathering of builders and true believers in AT Protocol ("ATP"). ATP is the protocol that powers Bluesky, but it's also the foundation for a growing community of users and products that we call "the ATmosphere."

Over 350 people attended the show in person, and another 550 joined remotely. If you aren't familiar with ATmospherians, we are very passionate about this technology, so it was a pretty intense three days. There were coding workshops, product demos, discussions about public policy, open-source, broadening the community, video, AI (naturally), games, even a meditation on kelp. Dozens of incredibly interesting talks and panels, most of which you can stream for free at the conference website.

Builders Pumped Up the ATmosphere...

For me, the most striking takeaway from the conference was how prolifically (and enthusiastically!) people are building "stuff" in the ATmosphere. Not only apps like Roomy, Leaflet, Pckt, Spark, Anisota, Streamplace, Surf, and many more, but also developer tools and integrations. Clearly, the ATmosphere is evolving into a platform for applications far beyond microblogging.

As I boarded my red-eye flight home Sunday night, my head was buzzing with ideas for ATmosphere products that we could make at Limeleaf, but also for how to connect ATmosphere developers with the worker co-op movement. The values of both communities (democracy, diversity, fairness, openness, and more) are more closely aligned than I had realized; I'll talk about that in a future post.

...But Bluesky Let the Air Out

The session I most looked forward to was "2026 Atmosphere Report." I thought, surely this was where the C-level Bluesky execs at the show would at least preview concepts of a plan to generate revenue from the 43 million users they have brought into the ATmosphere.

Nope. 😔

The big news in that session was Attie, an AI feed creator from Bluesky. The reactions to Attie were swift and severe, but Attie is not what bummed out your humble correspondent. Rather, it was that Bluesky execs made zero mention of any plan for how it will make money.

They've raised over $120 million from investors, which is impressive. But a VC-funded runway isn't a business model. Today, Bluesky servers host over 98% of active ATmosphere users. That means its financial health has an outsized effect on the entire ATmopshere. As goes Bluesky, so goes the ATmosphere; if the former flops, so will the latter. When developers consider building on the ATmosphere, they inevitably look to Bluesky as the model for building their idea into a viable business. In late 2024, when Bluesky was adding millions of users a week, people ignored the fact that they had no business plan.

User growth has slowed since then, but they have over five million monthly active users, which ain't nothing, so the ATmosphere is understandably curious about how its management will build a viable revenue model. They have said repeatedly that they don't want Bluesky to be the only airship in the ATmosphere, if you will; they want many. However, like it or not, they are the flagship of this fleet. Until they articulate a credible path to sustainable revenue, investors will hesitate to bet on ATmosphere developers, leaving them adrift in the clouds. (Okay, that's enough aeronautical metaphors.)

This is NOT a Call to Be Greedy and Awful

To be clear, I am not suggesting that Bluesky exploit its users for a mountain of cash as some Big Tech companies do. I am excited about Bluesky because it wasn't designed to do that.

All I'm saying is that the people building the ATmosphere deserve a sustainability plan, something you'd want for any organization to which you have aligned yourself.

This Comes From a Place Of Love

ATmosphereConf 2026 was one of the most inspiring technical conferences I've ever attended, and AT Protocol is the most exciting tech community I've worked in since my HTML5 days. The people are brilliant and kind, the projects are ambitious but ethically grounded, and the protocol itself keeps proving it can support a wide range of use cases. It might even grow into "the everything platform" we keep hearing about.

But the ATmosphere's viability as more than a fan platform depends on Bluesky presenting a clear vision and roadmap for generating revenue. Here at Limeleaf, we would love to go all-in on AT Protocol development, but we can't make that leap until we believe it can sustain our co-op financially.

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Limeleaf operates Bluesky Directory, the leading resource for finding products and communities on Bluesky.