Subnostr

Good idea to consider all of these factors and look at decentralization on a scale. Here are some comments/corrections related to Primal:

1. The Primal client does connect directly to relays (in addition to using a caching service). The ability to work with a caching service is an extension of standard Nostr client capabilities (not a replacement).

2. There is no algorithmic filtering of feeds by default. Of course, when the user selects "trending", "most-zapped", etc. those are aggregated.

3. If our idea of open and interoperable caching services for Nostr takes off, imo that would be a significant boost for censorship resistance and decentralization.

I outline our approach in more detail here:

https://habla.news/a/naddr1qqd5c6t8dp6xu6twvukkvctnwss92jfqvehhygzwdaehguszyrtp7w79k045gq80mtnpdxjuzl9t7vjxk52rv80f888y5xsd5mh55qcyqqq823cf39s98

Andrew 2y ago

1. Ah my mistake, good to hear.

2. Yeah I guess I should clarify here, I was moreso referring to the feature of a "trending" feed that isn't super transparent about how trending is defined/selected.

I'm sure you've been asked this a few times, but is Primal open source or will the source be made public at all? The web client itself is awesome btw!

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Discussion

miljan 2y ago

1. Cool, glad I was able to clarify.

2. Agreed, you simply can't have trending-type of features without some level of aggregation.

Most importantly: yes, we are planning to open source our clients, as well as the caching service itself. Arguably, the caching service is the most interesting piece of tech that we bring to Nostr. Stay tuned for announcements in the coming weeks.

And thanks for your kinds words about our client! 🤙

So, given the clarifications above, how would you classify Primal now? ;)

Andrew 2y ago

Sweet! Yeah I'm super intrigued by the caching service, lots of room for improvement when it comes to the performance/efficiency of the nostr network of relays.

Given the clarifications, I'd now classify it as Medium Decentralized only because of the (by definition) centralized caching service in place of NIP-65/Gossip. Although I can definitely see the performance advantages of going with the caching route.

Andrew 2y ago

Sidenote: I noticed that although Primal looks great on mobile, it's not a PWA! I can add it to my iOS home screen, but it doesn't use the Primal icon and opens as a browser tab instead of as a full screen app.