Pubky is only key-based in the sense that they use a DHT to map keys to home servers. But data isn't signed, which means in order to be sovereign you have to run your own home server. Even then, aggregators/proxies become trusted intermediaries. Nostr actually puts keys at the center of the protocol.
See my nostr:nprofile1qqsdluwc0qu62t3el7nxl93387gmppe56jkvm88vcuwh3lpw4fcevwsc4as3x episode with nostr:nprofile1qqsfxrxw7y3h9hf0zczhelz57rdajse4mz63kn38xu3kkqx2kuv0ekgtx70ra for more details:
> in order to be sovereign you have to run your own home server.
How could one be sovereign otherwise? If all one's notes are stored on relays that someone else runs, is one sovereign? if all one's photos and videos are stored in someone else's AWS account, is one sovereign?
If you sign your data it becomes self-authenticating. True, you'll never have 100% certainty that your data won't be removed unless you self-host, but you can replicate your content across multiple more or less trusted hosts, who would all have to deplatform you at once for it to be effective. You can also keep a back up and re-upload it to a new host at any time. This is good enough for most people, and the option of self-hosting is always open to people who feel they have a higher risk of deplatforming.
They could still perform a man in the middle attack, re-signing all of your notes with a new public key.
But then they would be signed by a different key
I’m thinking more on reverse lines. If your home server is your source of truth then you are in control of that truth as it evolves. With nostr you hand over your truth, signed, to live forever outside your control, unchanged from the moment you sent it away. You become a prisoner of time in a way, a prisoner of a moment.
Yes, not having reliable delete is a trade off. But that's just reality, there is no way to revoke information once it's shared. Screenshots usually suffice for any use case for which retaining someone else's signed notes would be useful.
