Nostr Web Client

Replying to

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit

I stopped reading at the first paragraph because I haven't even seen any evidence Blossom is a good idea

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Traditional file hosting:

- Files have arbitrary URLs (like example.com/photos/image123.jpg)

- Single point of failure - if the server goes down, files are gone forever

- No built-in verification that you received the correct file

- Centralized control over content availability

Blossom:

- Files use hash-based URLs like blossom.primal.net/c1aa63f983a44185d039092912bfb7f33adcf63ed3cae371ebe6905da5f688d0.jpg

- Multiple server redundancy - users can specify primary and mirror servers

- Automatic verification - the hash ensures you get exactly the file you requested

- Seamless failover - apps automatically try backup servers if the primary fails

- Censorship resistance - users can switch hosting providers without breaking existing content

Practical Benefits:

- Verifiable authenticity: The hash in the URL guarantees file integrity

- Redundancy: Automatic mirroring across multiple servers prevents data loss

- Censorship resistance: Easy server switching without breaking links in existing posts

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Discussion

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Still never seen any evidence it's a good idea

Someone told me it's faster than bittorrent but no proof

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 2

What evidence? What sort of evidence you look for?

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Is nostr a good idea? What’s the evidence for that?

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Nostr has no bans, can be improved to fix its problems, and currently works better than anything else I'm aware of

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 2

In what way it works better than anything you aware?

Blossom also has not bans in the same sense the nostr has (redundancy of relays)

Blossom also can improved to fix its problems (it’s an open protocol)

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

But BitTorrent already had no bans before blossom except with a design that should work and does work instead of one that seems pointless

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

there are multiple differences between the design of blossom and the design of bittorrent. but the most important are probably:

- Responsibility model: BitTorrent relies on random volunteers to keep your personal content alive forever. Blossom lets you take responsibility by choosing and paying for your own hosting providers.

- Content survival: Your vacation photos work great on BitTorrent if millions of people want to seed them (they don't). Personal content dies when seeders lose interest. Blossom keeps your content available as long as you maintain your servers.

- Economic sustainability: BitTorrent depends on altruism at scale. Blossom uses proven hosting economics - you pay for what you need.

BitTorrent has existed for 20+ years but zero Nostr clients use it or considered using it for media hosting. Blossom is new and already has multiple clients and servers adopting it. what is the reason for that in your opinion? they are not familiar with bitorrent?

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Stopped reading at "responsibility model"

BitTorrent seedboxes exist

Learn to fact check your AI or rely on your own knowledge if research is too hard

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Interesting. Wasn’t familiar with that. Still - why do you think clients and serves are adopting blossom and not BitTorrent? What’s your explanation?

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Maybe web browser compatibility, maybe just grifter mindset wanting to generate the profit of a seedbox without delivering the same quality of service

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

I don’t think “grifter mindset” is very common in the nostr developers ecosystem. To my understanding people are motivated mostly by technological passion and freedom values.

So I tend to think the reasons are mainly in the engineering realm.

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

That's ridiculous considering the level of lightning integration in the nostr ecosystem

Not even freedom valued enough to have more clients with Monero tipping

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Maybe it’s because they find lightning to have more demand?

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 2

Demand by users. Not by buyers. As far as I understand no one currently making big bucks out of lightning in nostr

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

What’s the difference actually between blossom and seedboxes in your understanding?

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

BitTorrent should and does work well, blossom hasn't shown the same

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

What does it mean “it hasn’t shown the same”?

It works just fine for me. It’s just simple file hosting with hash addressing and mirroring.

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

It hasn't been tested by the authorities heavily targeting it the way BitTorrent has and it doesn't seem like it would hold up as well

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

I don’t know if “being tested” by authorities is one of the main objectives in this stage. And anyway I don’t see why it would be less effective in that aspect.

Blossom is much simple architecture. Basically the simplest approach apart of regular file hosting. This is major advantage. You basically get redundancy, censorship resistance and verifiability with almost no cost of complication. Maybe BitTorrent and seedboxers is also easy to integrate. But I don’t know. It seems more complex.

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Seems to me like it just won't work in a context of real censorship resistance

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Because

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

There's no reason it would work

It's basically not even p2p

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

There’s no reason nostr would work. It’s basically not even p2p

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Yeah it's pretty broken, p2p version is one of the next vital improvements

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Because

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

People like to have their posts show up for other users

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Yes. That’s a great feature that nostr has

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

P2P nostr will have it more fully

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Why?

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Harder to stop users from getting posts delivered from/to each other's devices, harder to stop users from noticing when network isn't working good

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Maybe. Nostr may adopt some p2p elements one day. P2P is way harder. That’s way nostr is not based on that (although it may get added one day). I think the same thing goes to blossom / BitTorrent question. Simplicity is important

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Using what works is simple

BitTorrent works

Nostr almost does and nothing else is closer

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Blossom also works. And Probably simple to integrate to nostr

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

Again, seems like it won't work when it's tried in a high risk context

Vincent 6mo ago 💬 1

Seems to you. Based on intuition i presume.

🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit 6mo ago 💬 1

That intuitively sounds right