π’ NDK 1.0 is out!
Codename: Outbox β
When I set out to write NDK my main goal was implementing the gossip protocol, now known as *outbox model*. I wanted nostr applications to have decentralizing tendencies by *default*; transparent to the developer.
After a few failed attempts, it's finally here, which, paired with a bunch of non-backward compatible changes, prompts me to do a major version bump.
# What is outbox model?
In short, the outbox model allows nostr to fragment, instead of everybody coalescing around a few popular relay and using things like Blastr. Nostr simply doesn't work without the outbox model.
# Main changes:
* Outbox model support, obviously.
* `fetchEvent(s)` is now faster, (particularly with queries using exclusively `ids` filters).
* Fixed unstable relay back-off code (credit goes to nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 for the valuable testing infrastructure)
* Defaults to blacklisting wss://brb.io #censorship (credit goes to nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 for the widely hinted-at dead relay)
* Subscription aggregation now works when multiple filters run at the same time
* Subscriptions that should close when EOSEd are now closed when each individual relay EOSEs instead of waiting for all of them to EOSE.
* A better algorithm on when to signal a subscription's EOSE. The margin that NDK now gives to relays to EOSE is now a function of how many of the connected relays in the relay set have EOSEd (accounting for relays that are still sending events).
* There are *many* more changes that I needed to do to accommodate for this that I don't remember now.
Some of the most glaring breaking changes:
* `ndk.subscribe` now defaults to keeping the subscription alive; the default of closing subscriptions on EOSE was bothering me
* NDKUser changes the `hexpubkey` from a function to a getter, so wherever you were using `user.hexpubkey()` needs to change to `user.hexpubkey`.
# Enabling outbox model
Outbox model comes disabled by default *for now*, as soon as I test it more throughogly it will be the default.
To enable it you need to instantiate NDK with:
```
const ndk = new NDK({
explicitRelayUrls: [...],
outboxRelayUrls: ["wss://purplepag.es"],
enableOutboxModel: true,
})
```
The outbox model will largely be transparent to you and will work on the background once you enable it.
