Proposal for Canada to Host a PDS for Government Accounts

Bluesky is an emerging decentralized social media platform that allows users to self-host their accounts on Personal Data Servers (PDS). This offers greater control over identity, data privacy, and digital sovereignty.

Why should Canada host a PDS?

• ✅ Digital sovereignty: Canada retains full control over its public communication infrastructure, ensuring no third parties have access or control of the data.
• 🔐 Trust & verification: Goverment accounts can be tied directly to a official domain such as @*.gc.ca initially, and can be changed to other official domains, such as @toronto.ca, or @mayor.toronto.ca.
• 🌐 Transparency & resilience: Reduces reliance on foreign-owned platforms for official communication.
• 🚀 Futureproofing: Positions Canada as a leader in open, decentralized digital governance.

How It Would Work

1. Deploy a PDS using 🐳 Docker (easy to set up and maintain).
2. Distribute invite codes to onboard government departments, officials, and cities that are not yet on Bluesky or Canada's PDS.
3. Migrate existing accounts hosted on Bluesky's PDS to Canada's new PDS (read below 👇)

A single PDS can host "anywhere from one to hundreds of thousands of user accounts, depending on its resources and configuration" (source)

Migration

How Identity and Handles Work in Bluesky

• Each user has a unique, permanent DID (Decentralized Identifier) representing their identity.
• Human-friendly handles like @toronto.ca point to a DID using a DNS TXT record.
• When a user follows an account, they store the DID, not the domain, in their PDS. This means the account can migrate without affecting its followers.

Would followers, posts, or other records be affected?

No. Accounts can be moved between PDS servers without losing followers, since followers reference the DID, not the handle. Migration can also import all posts, reposts, likes, and other records.

Migrating Accounts and Data

Bluesky provides an official tool (goat), see:

• Migrating a PDS Account with goat — by a Bluesky team member
• Simplified migration guide