6) Relays that unlock functions over time, for example that allow only plain notes without images or links for new users, and let user pay to upgrade immediately;
Discussion
I was thinking about this one, and it seems to be a very good option that must be explored. One drawback is that it may confuse new users if their posts with links or images just fail.
Yes, relay should send a welcome DM explaining the matter.
Since making relevant PoW for each note is annoying and somewhat broken, another option that came to my mind was a relay that required PoW on pubkeys instead of on event ids.
But since your pubkey is something you create only once this is a super inflexible scheme and annoying. But then I realized we could define a new event, say kind:13000, which would be just a replaceable PoW for a pubkey.
Then we could have a relay that has difficulty adjustment for the amount of PoW they require in such event, and pubkeys can upgrade their PoW as the time passes. Or relays can require a certain amount of PoW, but from a recent event, to force users to redo their PoW every now and then, and other variants of this.
This all in the context of "beginner" relays. Once you're a established Nostr accounts with followers and activity then other relays will start to open up for you more naturally without requiring PoW.
We already talked about something similar months ago, if I'm not wrong with nostr:npub1jlrs53pkdfjnts29kveljul2sm0actt6n8dxrrzqcersttvcuv3qdjynqn. The idea was to invite people to join Nostr and do the PoW for them using a specific kind for delegated PoW as soon as they create the account, to allow them immediate access to a PoW-restricted relay.
The difficulty adjustment and forcing a redo is an interesting option.
I think all of these ideas should be available, with the ability to combine them all. Delegated, replaceable PoW on pubkeys or event ids.
This unlocks some interesting functionalities, like being able to set a higher bar for entering a community / flagging content, the difficulty being adjusted by moderators based on the amount of resources they have. If the community sees good quality content with low PoW, they can hive-boost the PoW to raise the content to the front of moderators' eyes. Good content could stand out this way.
Higher PoW is also a nice way to kickstart an anonymous profile with no web of trust at all.
Or maybe it was not PoW but just a NIP-32 label to promote the user.
Yes fixing proof of work would be good
I think this could work
Aside from the need for a P2P nostr, imagine a relay like this:
As the person I'm quote-posting said, you start with every user being able to post basic text with no links or images, for free.
nostr:note1qqqqsz2m443w9addxgunthlkce4xcuhzcq5qyp8yrkx7e436cgaswp9943
My most important suggestion is probably that all users can access these features for free in small amounts if they get enough engagement. When asked to pay a fee, users would be able to request an automatic gift from a fund operated by the relay or outside donors. Small enough fees would be granted for each user, limited to once a week or so, if they are getting enough replies or likes or whatever metric.
In addition, instead of paying for blanket access to post links, my suggested fee structure is like this:
- If the domain name of the link has never been posted before, you have to pay a very very small flat fee.
- If the domain name of the link has been posted recently, you have to pay an increasingly large fee the more it has been posted lately. This fee gets very large for the most actively-posted news sites and sites like YouTube.
- If the domain name of the link has been posted before, but not recently, it passes the filter for free.
- Nostr.build and similar nostr media hosts skip these calculations and instead always have a small flat fee.
- Fees don't compound for every link in a post; instead, the highest one is used.
- Hashtags also carry congestion-based fees, but all inactive hashtags are free, not only the ones that have been posted before.
- Like how nostr.build always has a flat fee, certain hashtags are always free.
- The highest hashtag fee compounds with the highest link fee, and maybe they multiply further like 2x or something when you have both in the same post.
Finally, I would also suggest allowing links for free in direct messages to followers or those who have messaged a user before. This way, if you're desperate to share something important from a throwaway npub, you'd be able to ask someone to message you and help out.
#nostr