Are we going to have ASICs for Nostr Relays?
GM.
Discussion
Probably!! lol
GM Vitor!
What!? lol
So we can parse JSON faster?
I am surprised that apparently no relay is using simdjson...
JSON ASICs. That’ll be the day.
We'll have ASICs for cyberspace
Why?
Caching systems, parsing, search, and indexing of Nostr payloads can all run better/more efficiently than on x86/arm platforms.
That's only relevant if the commodity relay model wins, but that means Nostr has lost. Nostr wins if it's easy to run a relay on non-specialized hardware
If we win, we will be buying relay boxes just like we buy our TV/cable/streaming box today. No one will ever use relays on community hardware. It wouldn't make any sense. It's like making a Home Network Switch on a x86 processor. It's not made for that.
If there is anyone close to this it’s probably nostr:npub1aghreq2dpz3h3799hrawev5gf5zc2kt4ch9ykhp9utt0jd3gdu2qtlmhct
There is already a private relay which is really good. 5 more updates and we will be there.
Umbrel is not an asic. They are not even attempting or considering anything to the effect.
I thought asic here was a metaphor for decentralization.
Why would you want an asic for nostr? Asking seriously I don’t know.
ASICs are used in nearly every aspect of modern technology, such as TCP Offload Engine in network cards, the VPU in most GPUs, RAID chips, USB controller, and much more. You want an ASIC for nostr for the same reason you'd want an ASIC for Bitcoin or any of these things. A well designed ASIC can solve a specific task, faster, and more energy efficiently than a CPU.
Hola Vitor 👋 GM
ASICs for Nostr PoW could definitely be a thing. Unless I'm wrong, relays are just big caches for data, like a CDN, with some data management.
Gm
How would such an ASIC work? What does it need to outperform off-the-shelf hardware?
