"I reviewed the Nostr protocol and found it to be straightforward to understand. The basic Nostr protocol seems simple enough to implement in a day. This is a quality I appreciate in protocols. It is why I love RSS, for example."

#DriesBuytaert, 2023

https://dri.es/nostr-love-at-first-sight

#Nostr

@strypey one big turn off for Nostr is that every screenshot of its apps features Bitcoin people, and one of its selling points is "you can't be censored because you can always pay some Russians to relay your messages." (???)

@sixohsix
> every screenshot of its apps features Bitcoin people

This neither encourages nor discourages me. We're talkinq about a protocol, not a platform. You probably would have been bored shitless by the pre-Mastodon fediverse (mostly neckbeards on GNU social servers talking about software freedom - I was one :), yet here we are, because the protocol allowed Mastodon to emerge, and the more user-friendly UX it pioneered brought in a much more diverse range of people.

@strypey the ostatus protocol allowed Mastodon to emerge, and then they moved to ActivityPub because it better suited the vision of the platform. Despite other implementations, Mastodon developed as a leader by pushing a vision of a safe and moderated platform, even though the are child porn people running the software somewhere else.

Protocols and platforms develop together. Despite the fact that Nostr is a great simple protocol, the only people developing the platform seem to be creepy Bitcoin people.

So I dunno, let me know if you know of a non-creepy relay with a vision of a platform. Again, the "main" relay fed me Alex Gleason in ten seconds. Not a great start.

You seem to be restating - more articulately - points I was trying to make, so I presume we are mostly in agreement here.

@sixohsix
> me know if you know of a non-creepy relay with a vision of a platform

I only just heard of Nostr this year. It seems to be at the StatusNet stage of the adoption curve (neckbeards only). I'm not rushing to try it, but I think it's wise to reserve judgment on what it could be in a year, or 5 years, or 10. I don't expect you disagree strongly with that?

@sixohsix
> "you can't be censored because you can always pay some Russians to relay your messages."

This is equivalent to saying you can't be censored in the fediverse because you can always pay some Russians instance to host your account. In either case, just being in the network doesn't force anyone to receive your posts. At least from my limited understanding of how Nostr works.

@strypey there's a big difference between Masto instances as communities with expectations of moderation to participate in the platform, and Nostr relays as common carriers where moderation beyond spam prevention is seen as a negative. A different vision is required.

@sixohsix
> Nostr relays as common carriers where moderation beyond spam prevention is seen as a negative

That attitude exists in corners of the fediverse too. Nevertheless, moderation policy in Nostr is up to the admin(s) of each relay, just as its up to the admin(s) of each instance in the 'verse, bridge instances included.

I am not that impressed with #Nostr TBH, they have relays and while I appreciate it is a relative newcomer to the scene, I have not experienced anything special that will allow me to stay on. Perhaps in a few years. First, it’s sparse (that’s not a big deal), there are zaps (and I am not sure it that’s a good idea to use cryptocurrency to pay for one’s appreciation of posts), hard to say where the messages end up. I’d rather stick with #ActivityPub (Apologies if this strong opinion hurts anyone’s sentiments)

@arinbasu1
> hard to say where the messages end up

To be fair, this is also true of ActivityPub, at least for Public posts.

From what little I've read so far, Nostr seems to be a pretty similar architecture to SSB, with its clients and pubs/rooms (basically relays). Does Nostr have a concept of private posts, encrypted with the recipients' public keys, like SSB does?

If you've used an SSB client, any other comments on how the two compare?

@sixohsix

Incidentally, because they're not on the web networks like SSB or Nostr do enable the 'public but not public' space that people like @Matt5sean3 want (and technically don't get) from ActivityPub, see:

https://rva.party/@Matt5sean3/110313424266652264

... and ...

https://rva.party/@Matt5sean3/110322564056584817

Have you tested Planetary Matt (iThing-only sadly)? Their main app uses SSB, but they're currently experimenting with Nostr:

https://github.com/planetary-social/nos

This might interest you more than existing Nostr stuff @sixohsix.

@arinbasu1

Nostr is quite interesting in the sense each person can access the network with one pair of private and public hashes, plus they have a #Wallet (https://getalby.com) and you do get a public email like address called NIP-05 (mine for example is arinbasu@iris.to). If you configure web/mobile apps to use with these addresses, you can sign on to any site (microblogging, photo sharing, long form blog posts with https://habla.news and so on.

@strypey @arinbasu1 @sixohsix

“Does Nostr have a concept of private posts, encrypted with the recipients’ public keys, like SSB does?”

There are five types of Nostr relays. It may be possible through a whitelisted relay.

cc: @srijit

@strypey @arinbasu1 @sixohsix

hard to say where the messages end up

In Nostr, the data is stored by the Relay within its database. For further details visit “How does nostr store history of one’s posts?”

cc: @srijit

@srijit@akko.chir.rs
>vThere are five types of Nostr relays. It may be possible through a whitelisted relay

Are you saying some types of relays can only relay public posts, not private ones?

@sixohsix @srijit@mas.to @arinbasu1