Yes, that's certainly possible. wss://powrelay.xyz will accept events with any timestamp.
Discussion
But won’t the note ID be different?
Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, of course, it'll have more POW.
For example, I want to keep my profile event on wss://powrelay.xyz so whenever the POW threshold increases I can post a new copy of to the relay with more POW. Here's the latest: nostr:nevent1qqsqqqqqpj3xduakge9aw5gtee28e3tn2e9483z42d30wu64xmvm2xqpzfmhxue69uhhqmmhwfjkccte9eu8j7scnmsur
POW is "memoryless" in the sense that if you want, say, 30 leading zeroes it doesn't matter if you already have a nonce that gives you 29 leading zeroes or not, you'll still end up searching for the special "30 leading zeroes" nonce for just as long. So there's no really any reason to "add" POW to an event that already has POW.
I meant could I like post a reply to an old note with some kind of format the relay accepted to apply the new PoW to the old note to keep it from being deleted from the relay? Nostr child-pays-for-parent
Sounds needlessly complex.
Just make a new note, "Nostr replace-by-fee" (I don't like this analogy but it kinda fits)
But notes are quoted and referenced by the network, how does that work when you post a new version?
Good point, new references would point to the new note. That doesn't seem so bad to me though, it's not like the old note dissapears entirely when its replaced by higher pow notes, other relays can still store it.
If you designed some kind of proxy pow event kind, I would be interested and potentially start a new relay for that. I do love the simplicity of just highest pow per byte though.
Idk, there’s probably a use case but I don’t see it with a social network the way you’re describing. Makes no sense to repost old notes, the whole point is the historical context and the conversations that happen/ed on them, need to be able to re-up a note’s PoW to keep it on relays, thus spam would be auto deleted, not new spam, but historical, while real people who care about their notes can dedicate some PoW to maintain them
I don't think POW is the best solution to spam. POW is to prove that the message it's attached to is important to you.
Not all social media has to be about "historical context" and "conversations". imo best use of social media is about sharing important messages with as many people as possible. Once the message is out there, people can discuss among themselves and make up their own minds.