Eurosky FAQs

What is Eurosky?

Eurosky is building a European base for the open social web—to support and create apps that actually serve the interests and needs of people, and enable European tech to compete in the global digital economy.

What is the AT Protocol?

The AT Protocol is an open source social media protocol created by Bluesky that currently has 40 million users. AT Protocol’s data is public, which means that European social media start-ups can build easily adoptable platforms for a large and quickly growing user base. 

The open source protocol has several key features, including:

  • Decentralized identities: Users can control their online identities without being tied to a specific platform.

  • Interoperability: Platforms built on the protocol can understand each others' data, thanks to the use of a common schema language to describe records and behaviors.

  • Data Portability: Users can move their accounts, followers, content, and other data between platforms.

  • Custom algorithms: Users can create and choose custom feeds for viewing content, rather than being stuck with a default algorithm.

This open system offers the opportunity to create a social web that works better for individuals, our democracies, and our economies in ways that are unimaginable in the current model.

How will Eurosky work?

Eurosky will build and operate software products that process data, manage identity, and moderate content, and support payment systems and privacy-preserving advertising solutions. These are systems that communities, organizations and businesses can use to connect with each other. 

Why is Eurosky important?

Right now, American and Chinese Big Tech giants dominate social media and communications platforms globally. These monopolies have enormous control over what we see, how we connect, and what happens to the data and content that we generate on their platforms. 

Shifting power away from these giants requires the existence of alternatives that better serve the needs and interests of Europeans. 

Eurosky is building technological infrastructure and tools so developers can create these alternatives on the AT Protocol in Europe. We're focusing on open standards and democratic governance to kickstart new approaches, support transparent moderation, and ensure that no single company or country can dictate the rules.

What are Eurosky’s goals?

One-year goal

In the next 12 months we aim to set up and operate key components in the AT Protocol tech stack: PDS services, relays, and content moderation, in order to ensure that the ecosystem is robust, resilient and with a base in Europe. We also aim to kickstart the development of a suite of social applications that advance democratic and participatory civics, through technical support, access to resources, and collaboration with communities.

To do that, we aim to raise €5-7 million over the next 12 months, and €15 million in funding by 2028.

Five-year goal

Over the next five years, we want Eurosky to run a full suite of products similar to Vercel or Supabase—self-sustaining with revenue reinvested.

We envision a European social media market that is run by European companies on open protocols. We aspire to see 50% of the market built on European tech in 2030.

How is Eurosky funded?

Eurosky is presently funded by the Free Our Feeds campaign, which has raised funds primarily through individual donations, as well as the contributions of several foundations. The EU-based Modal Foundation is a newly established public interest nonprofit that will house Eurosky's work and support future funding. The Foundation will focus on models that prioritize the interests of people over companies. We expect funding to come from a mix of individual contributions, institutional grants, cooperatives, and market-based approaches.

Who is leading Eurosky?

Eurosky is:

  • Sebastian Vogelsang, co-lead

  • Sherif Elsayed-Ali, co-lead

  • Enrico Graziani, lead engineer

The Modal Foundation is:

  • Ivan Sigal, chair

  • Robin Berjon, vice-chair

How is Eurosky connected with Free Our Feeds?

Eurosky is a project of the Free Our Feeds campaign, an effort to focus attention and resources on building information technologies that serve the interests of people over companies. By supporting open social protocols like AT Protocol, Free Our Feeds aims to build an ecosystem of interoperable platforms that foster user choice, transparency, diversity, and healthy competition. 

Eurosky will be run by the Modal Foundation, a newly established public interest nonprofit created by the Free Our Feeds campaign to run its initiatives. 

Who is running Free Our Feeds?

Free Our Feeds is overseen by custodians who are some of the world's most experienced public interest technology experts. We bring a wide range of expertise in community building, media, policy, investment, entrepreneurship, policy, and standards and governance.

Custodians have approval authority over major campaign decisions, the distribution of funds for projects, initiatives and organizations, and contribute to the design and setup of related legal entities. 

Is Eurosky connected to Eurostack?

Eurosky is separate from Eurostack. We share similar goals of making Europe’s technology infrastructure independent of Big Tech and more competitive, but we focus on different areas of technology and there are no institutional connections between the two. We believe the two organizations are complementary and we are big supporters of Eurostack’s ambitions.  

Press Inquiries

For interview requests or more information, please reach out to media@eurosky.social