By accepting the terms of the relays you fetch their data from :)
And yes, it can be stopped.
They all use icann dns and standard IP addresses.
Discussion
Are you offering to help the nostr network with your project?
"They all use icann dns and standard IP addresses."
Nostr was designed in a way that you could always find a list of relays just as long as you had access to another relay. You could run an incredibly basic Nostr relay such as Ephemerelay made by nostr:nprofile1qqsqgc0uhmxycvm5gwvn944c7yfxnnxm0nyh8tt62zhrvtd3xkj8fhgprdmhxue69uhkwmr9v9ek7mnpw3hhytnyv4mz7un9d3shjqg4waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t09udnys9x
It's a relay that doesn't even have a database. It only gets you on the network.
Honestly, the same argument has been made about Bitcoin nodes and governments haven't been able to stop them.
Comparing Bitcoin is not useful unless you want to discuss the bad similarities.
Bitcoin nodes do not scale, they are all holding the same data.
This is not possible for the web, because it is much more data.
It doesnt matter if you make relays actual relays (they are just servers typically), you end up needing servers and indexing.
Nostr has no discovery method and no credible exit from such scaled scenario.
So is your scaling solution to have larger centralized servers?
It is to have a credible exit for anyone that wants to use them.
This is a core aspect Pubky has that Nostr does not.
PKDNS
Careful your participation on this protocol might accidentally make it succeed. Tread lightly.
That makes sense. But what’s the point of building a decentralized protocol if it ultimately ends up in the hands of a centralized set of servers? Id rather bank on devs figuring something out to keep it fully decentralized than submit to centralization.
Decentralization is a network quality.
It is achieved mostly by reducing the amount of data in the system, while increasing the quantity of unique copies of that data.
If your protocol is "poorly" designed, it will revert to centralization at scale.
Merely being an open protocol is not enough.
So you must intentionally include in your design, how to handle centralization.
Is nostr not being improved to combat that with implemented economic incentives and general protocol improvements that would enhance data replication? Also think I might have worded my previous response wrong. I meant is the solution you are building focused on scaling using centralized servers? I’m new to this trying to get a grasp.
Pubky allows for both self-hosting and centralized hosting in a safe way.
Hosts are commoditized and thus compete on how little they censor.
Users can simply change a setting if their host misbehaves, to switch to another host, or to self hosting.
Also works over tor.