That is Vitalik's "crypto trilemma". The distributed computing trilemma is called CAP. C is roughly equivalent to having a globally up-to-date view (consensus). A is roughly equivalent to scalability. P is roughly equivalent to decentralization.

The “security” label in Vitalik's trilemma is misleading, it should be called consensus.

Different subsets of the nostr network can optimize along different axes, but they are each subject to the trilemma.