2026-06-13 · Rick Rohrig

Why we connect to both — and why you should use the freedom

There are two big open social networks — the fediverse on ActivityPub, and the ATmosphere on AT Protocol — and the internet keeps trying to make you pick a team.

We do not pick. highseas connects to both. Here is why that is the whole point.

Decentralization is a verb

It is easy to admire decentralization from inside a managed app. You sign up for a hosted instance, you get a fediverse handle, and you tell yourself you have left Big Social behind. But if someone else runs the server, sets the rules, holds the database and can turn it off — you have just swapped one landlord for a nicer one. You are renting freedom, not exercising it.

Exercising it looks different:

• You run the server. Your box, your domain, your data. A 5-euro-a-month VPS is enough.
• You own your identity. Not you@someone-elses-server — you@your-own-domain.
• You cannot be cut off. Not because a platform promises to be nice, but because there is no central account for anyone to suspend.
• You can leave. And leaving costs you nothing, because you were never locked in.

Why both protocols

Picking only ActivityPub or only ATProto re-creates the thing decentralization is supposed to kill: a wall. The fediverse has a decade of momentum and millions of people. The ATmosphere has portable identity and a fast-growing network. The people you want to reach are on both.

So speak both. An instance that federates over ActivityPub and ATProto is not hedging — it is refusing to let protocol tribalism rebuild the silos. Your audience should not depend on which standard won.

This is what highseas is for

highseas is a whole social and video platform you run yourself, wired into both networks from day one. Not a demo of decentralization — the real thing, on a server with your name on it.

The open web already gave you the freedom. The only question left is whether you will use it.