There's only one failure mode in a communications network: too few people. There are ways in which "too many" can eventually result in too few, but it's vital to remember that friction is the number one killer of apps. There's probably a way to use key exchange for more private group chats, but if the base network relies on this... it won't last for long
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bitchat is dead as it is. The few people there are, jump at nice sounding geohashes - 21m, btc, ... and not at their street address, just in order to reach critical mass - to get a conversation going but spammers are already there, too, so ... I don't see this going anywhere if it can't keep the chat from my hood in my hood.
That's fair, but it can't be fixed with high friction. I don't know what the answer is
the answer is that friction is necessary. we live in a world of AI and spam and scams.
pow with small micropayments, building reputations, would be my preferred solution.
in the past it was simply email addresses, but those can be farmed quite efficiently and sold to spam, but at least it still is a slowdown vs nostr keys are instant to create.
ironic to me that this is surprising at all, given the last 3 years of nostr comment spam..