Personal Data Server (PDS)

Personal Data Servers (PDSes) are servers that host user data within the AT Protocol. They are the main points of entry for users, handling user requests, record and blob storage, data queries, and cryptographic signing keys. PDSes provides an update stream for its user repositories, which are crawled by relays to broadcast new records in relay firehoses.

Thanks to the small scale in which PDSes operate, these servers computationally inexpensive by design. Much of the computational load from the network is handled by network relays or AppViews rather than the PDS itself. A PDS for one or a few users can be handled inexpensively in the cloud or in a cheap SOC.