Your absolutely right! I’m not a technical guy at all when it comes to programming and algorithms so I’m trying to wrap my head around it as well. Zapping instant value with sats definitely seems to be the most obvious advantage that NOSTR holds over traditional social media platforms. I also think that NOSTR being a decentralized, protocol, tech stack, (like BTC & E-MAIL) rather than a centralized platform (like Facebook & Twitter) gives it another clear advantage. Protocol tech stacks being more global and interoperable obviously.
Discussion
Yeah very valid- still trying to wrap my head around this decentralised social media. Someone explained to me that it doesn’t have an algorithm like things like instagram etc
but that still doesn’t make sense to me- how do we see anything if there’s no algorithm? Do we only see things from people we follow? So the only way you can find someone new is if someone you follow shares something or they comment on something of theirs?
These are very good questions Mike, thank you for asking! So the NOSTR protocol itself does not curate content or dictate what the users see. It’s decentralized design gives the users more control over their experience by allowing them to choose which “relays” servers to connect to, or create and run their own. Algorithms are not enforced at the protocol level, allowing users to customize their feeds and interactions. All of these “relays”servers agree on the rules of the NOSTR protocol, allowing them to be interoperable with each other. Similar to Bitcoin, NOSTR is a protocol that is decentralized and open rather than being a platform (Facebook & Twitter) that is centralized and closed. Just as BTC nodes all agree upon following the BTC protocol AKA BTC rules, the NOSTR relays all agree upon following the NOSTR protocol. So long story short, there are still algorithms being used, they are just much more open and transparent about them because the users possess the freedom to just leave and choose another NOSTR client to use. This contrasts with traditional social media platforms where algorithms are often hidden and used to control the content users see. Hope this helped a little bit with understanding the algorithms usage. Thanks again for your comments and questions! They have helped me identify opportunities I can use to improve my article.
Ah that makes sense- so there is an algorithm (this is what confused me) but it’s just decentralised. This is so obvious now you say it 🤦♂️😅
Thank you so much for this! This has actually been a lightbulb moment and it feels like it’s clicked more 🙌