Nostr Web Client

In response to the SimpleX proposal to add server monetization through EVM smart contracts:

This is really not that insane. You can still use third party volunteer run servers for free or your own and I'm seeing no reason to assume that you can't continue to do so.

This monetary model could very well work to inventivise a larger server pool and thus greater anonymity set. My main concern is if having to hold the access NFT in a EVM wallet would be a metadata leak, or they will do some sort of ZK proof mathematics to disconnect the data link between your messaging and that EVM wallet.

This is fundamentally different than Signal's scam with their shitcoin in which they premined a coin that they proposed people use as p2p cash. Many Bitcoiners aren't reading the details, and are instead proposing that they'd just use lightning or ecash over a smart contract platform. They made extremely agreeable counterarguments for both: lightning sucks self-custodially and ecash is always custodial. Monero clearly wouldn't work either due to confirmation lock and inability to program contracts on chain, which they'd need to establish payout amount, and micropayments which I'm ASSUMING is how this will work. We only have the announcement, we should wait and see the details.

This monetization model is being seen in other projects like Session or Nym. I'm theory it really can be superior to the volunteer run server model I.E. Tor which almost certainly sees massive centralization of node operators by state intelligence. The only other model I see as a success in maintaining decentralized node running is something like i2p in which the client node is the same as a routing node. Unfortunately for mobile applications this isn't reasonable due to not being able to run in the background 24/7.

Not every crypto project wants to be number go up ad infinitum like Bitcoin. There are greater utilities for the smart contract blockchain system. It's worth hearing our their detailed proposal and auditing the code instead of flipping shit over "shitcoinery".

DystopiaHater 2mo ago

https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/stable/docs/rfcs/2024-04-26-commercial-model.md

https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/master/docs/rfcs/2025-10-23-vouchers.md

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Discussion

DystopiaHater 2mo ago

Check the diagram

Daedalus 2mo ago

Thank you, I'll review this to the best of my ability today.

Daedalus 2mo ago

At quick glance that "unlink" step between the on chain token and the in-network token is the weakest link in this promise of a privacy preserving monetization model. I'd like to see a cryptographers audit on their final solution, they seem to be bouncing between ecash, ZKSTARKS and SNARKS.

Also with their talks of KYC compliance, I worry now that we'll see on-chain KYC requirement for that initial token purchase, requiring complete trust in the "unlinking" process and exposing metadata about your SimpleX usage. Right now we enjoy complete plausible deniability of even having used SimpleX provided it was downloaded through Tor and servers are connected via .onion addresses.

If we can purchase the token with Monero AND the unlink step is cryptographically bulletproof, I'm quite pleased with this model, those are big ifs however and recent regulatory development doesn't make me confident that that would remain the case for long.

Daedalus 2mo ago

Any word on if this affects personal servers or community servers? I can't find explicit language on the matter from that documentation. That's a big sticking point for me going forward.

DystopiaHater 2mo ago

Unclear for me, but I think this will only affect their own server pool or anyone that want to contribute server power in exchange for this token thing. any other self hosted server will not need this, at least that's how it appears to be at first glance. Time will tell us once this gets implemented.