Crazy idea of the day:
nostr relay that only allows connections over direct P2P tunneling over something like holesail. Relay provider can be effectively anonymous since there is no domain, client doesn’t need to expose what relay it is connected to, no exposing IPs. Relay is represented by a single keypair. Seems crazy, but possibly amazing…
What am I missing? nostr:npub1h8nk2346qezka5cpm8jjh3yl5j88pf4ly2ptu7s6uu55wcfqy0wq36rpev
Should have tagged nostr:npub1h5t3asu90f2x48rxtcqkjvwhza7m6kngs7vjyanx8xqyswc6es2s4645z5
Relay/client connections have always been a privacy issue. It just clicked for me that maybe DHTs solve this problem even without people having to self host relays?
Biggest downside I can think of so far is that it could make things difficult for nostr clients that make use of your relay list for the gossip model of finding notes. wss://localhost:8888 doesn’t help you find someone’s home relay.
That's a cool idea but any form of communication over internet still requires an IP address including Holesail. But if you use a VPN it might work 🤔
I knew I must have been missing something in how the networking works there… so the DHT facilitates the connection, but the IP addresses are still visible to the connecting parties?
Yes, pretty much like torrent
Been reading up on the hyperdht and even some of the older hyperswarm docs and it’s making more sense. Thanks!
Yes it’s that same security considerations of BitTorrent. If you want to protect your IP from those you connect to, use a VPN. Or simply choose your peers to only those you trust. There are also obfuscation methods that will emerge P2P in the network itself and I know people thinking about those, but generally just thinking about it like BitTorrent is the easiest way to protect your privacy/safety as needed.
