@chaoscontrol

A good article that condenses a lot of the vague thoughts I've had on this problem before. I do think that a "dumb relay" is the only architecture that captures the strengths of a pure p2p model while also allowing the specialization and trade necessary to scale. The issue is remuneration. A dumb pipe is by definition a commodity, where not a lot of value is going to be captured. This is great for users but makes it difficult to incentivize good relays. If running a relay isn't profitable enough the system degenerates into either a pure p2p model or relays have to find a way to value capture (breaking the dumb pipe model). This overlaps with a lot of what the "decentralized storage" systems (Filecoin, Sia, Swarm etc) are trying to do, but despite a lot of work in that area I don't think there is anything that just works well enough to call a success. I don't think Nostr makes an attempt at attacking this part of the problem. I am optimistic that a solution exists, although it might not be easy.

0 reply

0 recast

2 reactions