oh ok ty
Discussion
Of course any other questions just reach out. We are all here to learn
so essentially, or technically, nostr could eventually have their own "centralized" app store where users could get the apk and download to their comps or phones, and bypass android, apple, etc?
Yes things like this exist now, f-droid is an example, it allows users to download android apks without a google account.
Other options include downloading the APK straight from GitHub..
The play store and apple iOS store, their respective companies decide what is allowed and not allowed.
Well the only thing centralized about the app stores is that the companies are sole deciders if the app should be approved.
@jb55 went through that with Damus and iOS over the last year or so.
So the feds can pressure Google to remove an app, either with asking or court order like samourais case.
Tldr.
Yes with third party app stores, like f-droid, or downloading the APK from the source,GitHub, you bypass android appstore stuff.
iOS doesn't currently allow you to 'sideload' apps, 'sideload' just means installing from somewhere other than the official play store.
so what if they just go have github?
Well that's an attack vector for sure, GitHub is currently owned by Microsoft. But iirc there is a GitHub nostr project to hopefully remove that attack vector.
But you are absolutely right.
And all that would do is stop new people from getting the APK, it wouldn't retroactively remove it from your device, afaik.
It wouldnt have an effect on those who already downloaded the APK.
Also I can always pull my APK from my phone and upload it somewhere for others. So as long as one person has the app I'm pretty sure it can be pulled off phone repackaged as a downloadable APK so I could share it with whoever.
Not super positive how easy/hard it is. But pretty sure it's doable.
There is a project called radicle that is like nostr but for github. git is inherently decentralized