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Nostr

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Re: Nostr

#201

Post by Karrot_Kream »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #183
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the "meta" like to find payment channels? That's the thing I found weirdest with LN, I needed to find a channel with enough funding. I presume the custodial LN providers just have their own payment channels?

There is a sweet spot between custodial and self-custodial wallets: "non-custodial" wallets like Phoenix Wallet or Electrum. You keys, your coins - but expect higher fees (which are still way less than CC providers or other payment processors). No need to manage channels yourself.

Interesting, they manage channels for you and charge some fees? Makes sense, I'm not averse to paying for convenience.

Re: Nostr

#202

Post by imiric »

krapp wrote: post #195
imiric wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software is inherently apolitical. Claiming otherwise would be like saying that a hammer or drill are political, which is absurd. Political views are placed on software depending on the author's beliefs, but it's perfectly valid to release software in the public domain without any restrictions or expectations.

>Software is inherently apolitical. Claiming otherwise would be like saying that a hammer or drill are political, which is absurd. No one sells "apolitical hammers" or "apolitical drills." If one has to specify that software is apolitical, it isn't. No software exists in a vacuum, even the license terms are a political statement. Certainly nostr was created as an expression of fiatjaf's specific political ideals, and…

> If one has to specify that software is apolitical, it isn't.

That conclusion doesn't track. In a time when a lot of software has become politically charged, it's perfectly reasonable to specify when that isn't the case.

> No software exists in a vacuum, even the license terms are a political statement.

Software doesn't exist in a vacuum, but not all licenses are the same. There are many licenses that don't place any restrictions on how the software is used. There are others whose authors relinquish all control or ownership. You may see these as political statements, but that would be corrupting their meaning. It's like claiming that atheism is a religion...

Whatever beliefs the authors have does not taint the software at all, unless the software itself is political or they make some political commentary. Communities created around software are political, as societies always are, but the software itself is inert.

The bottom line is that the Nostr project welcomes anyone, regardless of their politics. That is worth mentioning. If it attracts a certain type of political ideology, that has to do with the people who find the software appealing, not with the software itself.

Re: Nostr

#203

Post by Karrot_Kream »

Yizahi wrote: post #187
anon1395 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is regulated as hell

And extremely centralized in the so-called Lightning version. Due to ridiculously absurd requirements of the Lightning layer (bidirectional channels on L1, locking funds in advance, solving NP-hard problem thousand times per second a scale etc.) everyone basically resorts to using very few centralized entities as a pseudo-bank, who issues virtual paper, IOUs, which which wallets trade on L2. Basically all negatives o…

Okay this was what I thought would happen. I looked into Lightning a few years ago and found the whole concept to be quite dense and not something that a "regular person" does. I don't have a strong opinion on the Bitcoiner vs Shitcoiner debate and have been happy to participate in BTC/BCH/XMR style chains, and the ETH/SOL/EVM-style chains as well. But I felt like Lightning ended up acting a lot like the Ethereum L2s with weaker guarantees.

Re: Nostr

#204

Post by littlecranky67 »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #159
littlecranky67 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can zapp on nostr - lightning based payments. There were efforts to bring micro payments to the regular Web, but in the end it failed because in the traditional finance world, you can't just send 2cents to someone on the other side of the world - because intermediaeries will charge you 50cents of fees for that.

Pretty sure that the main reason Flattr (whether 1.0 or 2.0) failed, was because it wasn't backed by the Silicon Valley ?

I think more due to subscription nature. You had to pay 10€ every month. With zaps I can send someone 1c or 1€ whenever I want.

Re: Nostr

#205

Post by stonogo »

t1E9mE7JTRjf wrote: post #78
stonogo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happy to help. Step 1: In 2023, notice a crypto spam post on Mastodon with a weird account name. Step 2: Look up what could have made that post, which was bridged from some other service. Step 3: Set up a key, grab a client (I used a web client that deployed to Netlify's free tier). Step 4: Follow some howtos, add relays, follow some accounts that repeat other accounts, try to figure out how discovery works. Step 5:…

What relays were you on? I have never seen CP on nostr. Did you start off following the crypto spammer mentioned or that was just what caused you to find nostr? I'd be curious how you built your initial follow list, as that and the relays you were on is the source of what you see. Kind of like if you go to weird ass websites you'll see that content, but nostr itself doesn't expose anything to a user, it's only a netw…

I did not keep detailed notes, but there were a couple Gists and a couple blogs that listed relays and stuff to follow. I'm perfectly willing to accept that there was bad stuff in thoses lists, but I don't really care about the mechanisms behind it. Easier just to move on.

Re: Nostr

#206

Post by stonogo »

nunobrito wrote: post #82
stonogo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happy to help. Step 1: In 2023, notice a crypto spam post on Mastodon with a weird account name. Step 2: Look up what could have made that post, which was bridged from some other service. Step 3: Set up a key, grab a client (I used a web client that deployed to Netlify's free tier). Step 4: Follow some howtos, add relays, follow some accounts that repeat other accounts, try to figure out how discovery works. Step 5:…

Come on, so much effort writing and yet so vague. The easiest way to try NOSTR is using any of the common web platforms like https://primal.net or https://yakihonne.com/ Heck, you can even install NOSTR clients directly from the App and Play store since years. It is very unbelievable that you followed such a complicated process, even went to effort of deploying to a server (what?!?) and then somehow you see disturbin…

It was years back and I didn't even care enough at the time to take notes on the process. I typed up the how-to partly as a joke because I found it funny some rando was demanding a detailed reproducer for an afternoon of screwing around ages ago.

I did find the client I used; it was called "branle". I'm not in the habit of installing random shit on my iphone, thanks. Deploying things to Netlify is super easy, especially when the software is designed for it explicitly.

I will not be trying again, because as I said elsewhere in the thread, I don't actually care about nostr. Bluesky is working fine for me these days, and in the event that stops being the case, I won't be revisiting the one I already wrote off.

Re: Nostr

#208

Post by BinaryIgor »

I've revisited this idea/protocol a few times and still have my doubts:

* is there even a need for it? I would say that most people are quite happy with centralized platforms; I don't see it changing anytime soon (why?)

* wouldn't we end up in the centralized world anyways? Even though there could be multiple NOSTR clients and relays, we all know how network effect works - people will flock to a single or a few best ones; does it really change the situation that we have today - a few centralized platforms?

* I don't see clear incentives in this protocol that would improve current social media landscape - granted that I don't particularly like current ads/sell your attention model

I am not sure that having a protocol like this is better that having a few centralized platforms - today's situation. Not to even mention technical challenges and worse user experience that NOSTR brings

Re: Nostr

#209

Post by BinaryIgor »

digitalbase wrote: post #125
sak5sk wrote: post #112

Some nostr apps to demonstrate what it's capable of: https://www.openux.app/ - Mobbin alternative https://kinostr.com/ - movies with chat room https://zap.stream/ - live streaming similar to Twitch https://dtan.xyz/ - torrents https://zapstore.dev/ - permissionless app store https://nostrnests.com/ - audio room chats https://zapmeacoffee.com/ - like buy me a coffee

I've been working on a Quora/StackOverflow alternative (on top of Nostr). https://asknostr.site/ I hope this demonstrates how a distributed social protocol can solve many use cases and the advantage to the end-user: - do not get rugpulled by (VC backed) companies that own your data - receive zaps/money by contributing - data is truely available to everyone (but signed by author)

There are also tradeoffs:

* relays can just go away - you don't have your data then

* there is both user-friendly and secure way of managing your private keys; additionally, once your keys are gone, your identity is gone - there is no "I forgot my password" procedure

Re: Nostr

#210

Post by BinaryIgor »

jeroenhd wrote: post #142
keiferski wrote: post #26

Something I don’t quite get about these new social networks that are clearly aimed at technical people: my model of a truly decentralized social network is more like a network of privately hosted personal websites, à la the original web. Not yet another platform I need to make an account to interact on separately. Have there been any attempts to make more of a “network” that incentivizes operating personal websites b…

"Accounts" in this case are just a public/private key pair. You can host your own relay (and nobody will hear what you have to say unless they subscribe to it), but you can use the same public key ("account") on any nostr relay. You can broadcast your posts to all relays, or just some, or just your own, depending on how you feel. You can, in theory, generate a new key for every post if you want to. The relays don't c…

Yes; and because your key is your identity, losing your key or having it stolen basically means that you have to start from scratch; there is no "I forgot my password" mechanism
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