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@ The Nostr Report
2023-09-10 18:44:41Happy Sunday #Nostr!
Here’s your #NostrTechWeekly newsletter brought to you by nostr:npub19mduaf5569jx9xz555jcx3v06mvktvtpu0zgk47n4lcpjsz43zzqhj6vzk written by nostr:npub1r3fwhjpx2njy87f9qxmapjn9neutwh7aeww95e03drkfg45cey4qgl7ex2
NostrTechWeekly is a weekly newsletter focused on the more technical happenings in the nostr-verse.
Let’s dive in!
Recent Upgrades to Nostr (AKA NIPs)
1) Proposed updates to NIP 47: Nostr Wallet Connect 💸
NIP 47 is already used to help Nostr users to make it easy to pay via lightning straight from Nostr clients. There’s been some difficulty standardizing what happens on the receiving end. These updates should help smooth out that process for all wallet providers and clients.
Author: nostr:npub1u8lnhlw5usp3t9vmpz60ejpyt649z33hu82wc2hpv6m5xdqmuxhs46turz
2) (Proposed) NIP 66: Relay Status and Metadata Connect 💬
When users choose relays it’s useful to have information about what that relay is about. Some people will want to join based on the topics the relay members focus on, or the locale of people who publish events there. It may also be useful to know how active the relay is and other general metadata.
These are all generally computationally expensive to run every time a user “might” want to subscribe to a relay. This leads to providers like Nostr.Watch and Relay.Guide running regular queries on all the relays they track in order to cache that metadata for Nostr users looking for the best relays.
This NIP proposes that relays could publish metadata using a new kind of Nostr event that would make it easier for people to directly ask relays these questions instead of third party providers doing it.
Author: https://github.com/dskvr
Notable projects
Hornet Storage
I’m no expert but it appears Hornet Storage is offering a way for Nostr apps to be able to store data (even larger chunks of data like files) on relays. But instead of it just shoving the whole file into a single Nostr event, Hornet will chunk the data and distribute the pieces on many relays.
Based on their docs it looks like this helps prevent tampering with files that are stored on relays. As well as protect the privacy around what’s being stored via relays (since all Nostr events can be read by anyone on a relay they can connect to). Looks like it could be a utility for anyone developing a Nostr app to offer file storage to their users.
Author: nostr:npub1h0rnetjp2qka44ayzyjcdh90gs3gzrtq4f94033heng6w34s0pzq2yfv0g
Nostrnet.work
The project from nostr:npub1cmmswlckn82se7f2jeftl6ll4szlc6zzh8hrjyyfm9vm3t2afr7svqlr6f seems to be progressing quickly. This week it was announced that NostrNet.Work is gaining a lot of functionality as a Progressive Web App (PWA) which makes it operate more like an app than a website which will improve the experience a fair amount.
Looks like even more is coming soon! We’ll stay tuned 🙂
DVM integration on Current
nostr:npub1current7ntwqmh2twlrtl2llequeks0zfh36v69x4d3wmckg427safsh3w is a Nostr client that has recently integrated a DVM to help Nostr users generate and share images created via an image generating AI.
As far as I’ve seen this is the first time a DVM has been integrated into a general purpose client. I’m sure it’s the first of many to come 💪.
NostrStats
When I first heard of this project, it was just showing some stats about the number of pubkeys, active users, posts, etc. Now it’s covering a lot more: trending hashtags, zaps, and relays.
The trending hashtags generate as you load the page and the list of top 30 relays calculates regularly so that the list has the latest activity informing the rankings.
Interested to see how this utility expands, seems handy!
Author: nostr:npub15ypxpg429uyjmp0zczuza902chuvvr4pn35wfzv8rx6cej4z8clq6jmpcx
Noswhere
A relay that specializes in search was launched this week by nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj .
Next week’s newsletter is going to be focused on search, data permanence, and relays, so we’ll do more research and give this project the attention it deserves next week.
Latest conversations
Maximizing decentralization
Decentralization is important when there’s a risk of power accumulating and being abused. Democracy is intended to spread political power, Bitcoin; the power over money, and Nostr has the potential to spread the power of media (social and beyond).
But there are trade offs to decentralization; centralized systems have an easier time being more usable and efficient. Only improvements to technology unlock improving decentralization without sacrificing usability and efficiency. In other words the only way to have your cake and eat it too is to work at it.
Nostr’s going through a lot of experimentation right now, and you’ll hear a lot of the devs talking about something leading to more or less centralization. This is a nuanced and important topic and it’s happening at every level of Nostr development, every day.
https://i.nostr.build/qOWn.png
Take for example the debate about whether to support file storage via relays (via NIP 95 and solutions like Hornet Storage ). On the surface “more stuff in relays” means more stuff off the centralized providers (e.g. Google). Good right? Well it might make things more centralized than if we kept files out of relays.
Similar to the conversation about the Bitcoin block size, on the surface it may make sense to improve usability of Bitcoin. But if adopted fewer people could run Bitcoin nodes which means in the end Bitcoin is less likely to accomplish what the community wants. Bitcoin Cash failed.
Making relays able to handle files could similarly make more applicants entirely Nostr-driven, but they could also make it so that fewer people end up able to operate relays. It’s not just the raw increase in hosting costs, it’s the legal and financial risks operating a file storage and sharing system. We just don’t know yet, so people will experiment to find out.
Many of the bitterest debates we see boil down to people disagreeing on the second and third order effects of current actions on the decentralization of Nostr over time. It’s important to get right.
Events
Here are some upcoming events that we are looking forward to! We keep a comprehensive list and details of Nostr-related events that we hear about (in person or virtual) that you can bookmark here NostrConf Report
- Nostrasia Nov 1-3 in Tokyo & Hong Kong
- Nostrville Nov 9-10 in Nashville, TN, USA
- NostrCon Jan 12, 2024 (online only)
Until next time 🫡
If you want to see something highlighted, if we missed anything, or if you’re building something we didn’t post about, let us know, DMs welcome.
nostr:npub19mduaf5569jx9xz555jcx3v06mvktvtpu0zgk47n4lcpjsz43zzqhj6vzk
Stay Classy, Nostr.