Charging $1 a year to Tweet and Retweet may not seem like a lot, however optics matter. It sets the stage to charge more in the future, it makes the service no longer free, and most importantly, it makes Twitter no longer the public square where anyone is able to freely talk - a point in which Elon likes to state, but continues to erode.
While on the NOSTR we happily Zap developers more than $1 worth of sats quite often and some could agree that it's a similar task to paying a measily 4000 sats, it's not. It's not a requirement. It's not forced. The NOSTR is completely free and open. The openness is the difference. The NOSTR is the public square.
https://fortune.com/2023/10/17/twitter-x-charging-new-users-1-dollar-year-to-tweet/
And yet:
https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/paid-nostr-relay/
https://andreneves.xyz/p/the-rise-of-paid-nostr-relays
https://voltage.cloud/blog/nostr/the-essential-guide-to-nostr-relays/
This is not just about zapping developers, many share the view that paid relays are where Nostr is going, supposedly because that fixes spam. Now where have I heard this before?
You do not have to use a paid relay. But let's say for some reason all relays become paid to combat bots like you mentioned. If that happens, at least it won't be an attempt to KYC all users. Nostr allows you to be anonymous. X on the other hand very well may make it impossible to be anonymous. I just don't see this happening though. We will always have a value for value model.
I agree with you on being able to remain anonymous on Nostr, which is a huge advantage.
I strongly disagree with the paid relay idea. By all means, tip your favorite relay if you want to, but I don't see how paid relays are much better than what X is trying to do, KYC to the side.
KYC is the whole reason X is doing it
