Hacker News: kevinak

New comment by kevinak in "Penguin 'Toxicologists' Find PFAS Chemicals in Remote Patagonia"

kevinak — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 09:16:05 +0000

Looking at the studies on the site I’m only seeing comparisons vs placebo and activated charcoal - why not compare to non modified regular beta glucan that is in most oats?

New comment by kevinak in "I'm betting on ATProto"

kevinak — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:57:12 +0000

Not parent but I wrote an article about how PDSs (the thing that hosts your data) control your signing and rotation keys. It's technically possible to self-host but as always, the default becomes the norm. 99.999% of users on ATProto host their data on BlueSky servers.

https://kevinak.se/blog/who-actually-owns-your-atproto-ident...

New comment by kevinak in "Colibri – chat platform built on the AT Protocol for communities big and small"

kevinak — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:04:37 +0000

There is - https://flotilla.social/

New comment by kevinak in "Colibri – chat platform built on the AT Protocol for communities big and small"

kevinak — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:02:43 +0000

Yes. Here are some specifications that describe it: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/17.md and https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/59.md

New comment by kevinak in "Colibri – chat platform built on the AT Protocol for communities big and small"

kevinak — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:01:35 +0000

So if a user is banned from their PDS and they haven't backed up their keys, the community is screwed? That seems like a pretty big flaw.

New comment by kevinak in "When the chain becomes the product: Seven years inside a token-funded venture"

kevinak — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:19:30 +0000

Yep!

People in the Bitcoin space have been screaming at the top of their lungs about this for decades at this point, but it's hard to work against the marketing machine that comes from these ICOs.

Grasp Protocol: A simple protocol for code collaboration

kevinak — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 06:50:15 +0000

Article URL: https://gitgrasp.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47305574

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Living human brain cells play DOOM on a CL1 [video]

kevinak — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 15:07:28 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV8fSw6HaE

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47297919

Points: 257

# Comments: 275

New comment by kevinak in "Who Owns Your ATProto Identity? Hint: It's Probably Not You"

kevinak — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 07:16:17 +0000

On the other hand, shining a light on things that are not what they seem is very good, which is what I tried to do.

New comment by kevinak in "Who Owns Your ATProto Identity? Hint: It's Probably Not You"

kevinak — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:15:46 +0000

I did, we just have different views of what decentralized means.

New comment by kevinak in "Who Owns Your ATProto Identity? Hint: It's Probably Not You"

kevinak — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:47:57 +0000

Is there anything wrong with this article?

I think it would be better if you actually engaged with the article and articulated any criticism you have with it instead of just writing things off because I like other solutions to decentralized social media more.

Who Owns Your ATProto Identity? Hint: It's Probably Not You

kevinak — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 10:55:47 +0000

Article URL: https://kevinak.se/blog/who-actually-owns-your-atproto-identity-hint-its-probably-not-you

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47205598

Points: 5

# Comments: 8

New comment by kevinak in "AI-generated replies are a scourge these days"

kevinak — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:33:58 +0000

Yep! This pretty much!

New comment by kevinak in "AI-generated replies are a scourge these days"

kevinak — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:16:56 +0000

One way to combat this would be to force users to stake something. Pay 10 bucks to your account and if you misbehave by spamming or posting only AI slop, you lose it. Brings with it other problems, of course.

New comment by kevinak in "Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran"

kevinak — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:23:13 +0000

Bitcoin via the Lightning Network is near cost-free and instant. And it's not a hack, it's just a network of payment channels.

New comment by kevinak in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kevinak — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 07:37:54 +0000

Because centralization matters. It is what stops a hostile agent from ruining things. There is no real win in being "semi-decentralized".

New comment by kevinak in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kevinak — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 07:34:20 +0000

The whole premise of a free social media protocol is that it is resistant to hostile takeovers. All issues stem from this.

1. I absolutely feel very strongly about decentralization. If there is a part of the stack that isn't it opens up the whole project to the kind of issues I'm talking about in the blog post.

2. Then it is not made to be resistant to the above problems

3. Actually, this is where you are wrong! If atproto implemented a more robust, decentralized default identity system I would be a very happy camper.

I make comments because I care about the subject, obviously. I use Bluesky a lot and I don't want it to end up like Twitter.

New comment by kevinak in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kevinak — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 07:30:04 +0000

In theory, yes. In practice, not really, since the vast majority of users won't care to do it.

New comment by kevinak in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kevinak — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 07:09:40 +0000

I am, I just don’t have the same values in terms of what I want from my decentralized social media.

New comment by kevinak in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kevinak — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:40:40 +0000

VCs have put in $120 million, so someone thinks that it's worth something.