Then “generosity” becomes a parameter of social reputation/credit score. What if an actor doesn’t have any Bitcoin to start with? What if bots start spending sats as a way to gain social influence, or advertise services and products subtly?
Discussion
Yeah I definitely think it’s part of a decentralized / permissionless reputation score- but how this is judged is up for interpretation and the UX when viewing is important.
For example, there’s an OnlyFans earners leaderboard… and while we might roll our eyes I don’t think anyone really holds it against creators making money there. On Nostr we can see if (and how) they are giving a portion back to their community and make a judgement from there. It’s not going to ever be a pure “net outflow = good person” thing, though do I think it incentivizes more outflows.
This still allows someone to start humbly from zero sats and make it as a creator.
On the “credit score” side the equation is different… because technically someone publicly earning more than they are receiving should actually have a good credit score. There will be credit in a Bitcoin/Nostr world whether we like it or not, and the data that’s available to assess creditworthiness will largely be used actuarially no matter who complains about it.
On the whole I think more visibility is a net positive thing, but you do bring up important considerations. If you had a UX that said net inflows were a red flag that would be dystopian / plutocratic. But if the data is there objectively for the crowd to interpret with context I think this is a positive thing. We need these data in a digital world where we’re going without all the complex information we gain by interacting in person.
Oh and bots will definitely do this. Probably already are. But I think this loose interpretive Nostr/BTC system actually lowers the ROI on bots long term. (Fwiw… No way for me to prove that statement at this moment)