Nostr Web Client

An interesting ethical dilemma.

I posted yesterday about a scam account that made contact with me:

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzp6pmv65w6tfhcp73404xuxcqpg24f8rf2z86f3v824td22c9ymptqqsq5rfgv4yg3uujy6gd0td8tasgm8cn9qap5lpqf9a50nekadhcz4cenezh3

I noticed the account is still posting today.

If this were a centralised platform, I would report the account and forget about it. But on NOSTR there is no central authority. I am tempted to post replies to each message they post linking to my scam alert post, but this would be nearly impossible to maintain in the long term.

I took the time and effort, and have the technical capabilities to verify a person, but not everybody does. In this decentralised world, scammers are free to scam unimpeded, bar the few kickbacks they get from people like me.

I was theoretically comfortable with this concept until this event.

Now I’m not sure how I feel?

Judge Hardcase 6mo ago

Nostr really could use a robust npub rating system. i.e. what would be cool is if you could just give this npub a 0 rating (perhaps even add a comment)... then, when I receive an unsolicited DM from this same npub, I would quickly notice that it comes with a low rating among all my follows; and that nostr:npub1aqakd28d95muqlg6h6nwrvqq5925n354prayckr424k49vzjds4s0c237n has even provided a detailed explanation to accompany the low rating he gave.

(*I have heard of work being done in this direction; but I haven't taken the time to keep informed on progress).

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Discussion

mike 6mo ago

In this case the npub was brand new, but they had posted quite a lot. They had followed around 300 npubs but only had 4 followers, so I was certainly sceptical.

Yes, a rating system might help, a bit like review systems, although they can be prone to abuse too 🤔

Flix 6mo ago

WoT driven labels, tags.

You tag the scammer so that all of your followers can see it.

It's decentralised. Organic. It's not perfect, could be abused... but it could be good enough.

Flix 6mo ago

Badges is the word I was looking for!

IIRC there was already a Nostr badges project somewhere..

Flix 6mo ago

https://nostrbadges.com/

Flix 6mo ago

I think at least the following badges would be extremely useful:

Scam ⚠️

Bot 🤖

Spam 📧

mike 6mo ago

We probably need a combination of WoT, rating systems and reviews.

nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq37amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3dwfjkccte9ejx2un9ddex7umn9ekk2tcqyqlhwrt96wnkf2w9edgr4cfruchvwkv26q6asdhz4qg08pm6w3djg3c8m4j have you any views on this?

Especially in light of this:

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzp6pmv65w6tfhcp73404xuxcqpg24f8rf2z86f3v824td22c9ymptqyv8wumn8ghj7enfd36x2u3wdehhxarj9emkjmn99uq3vamnwvaz7tmgd9ehgtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyv8wumn8ghj7mn0wf6xjuewdehhxarjxyhxxmmd9uqzpv34yzmjyr429yq0fh2juu6vav94np53eafl9gl824cdscm2zeq4vzg736

Derek Ross 6mo ago

I think WoT can be used for a lot of things and fixes a lot of things. I'm a fan.

Judge Hardcase 6mo ago

"only had 4 followers"

Nobody has to be as technically capable as you to immediately recognize this as a red flag. Those who have become accustomed to the centralized world 'protecting' them just need to get educated on the implication of a new decentralized, don't trust; verify world.

Granted, this education isn't going to happen en masse overnight; but, I kind of feel like focusing on providing better and better tools for individuals to perform their own verifications has to be a more productive path in the long run than trying to replace the 'protection' they are used to getting from the old centralized platforms.

Housepainter 6mo ago

Unsolicited dms don't work on Nostr. Try sell me something, send me sats to get my attention. Im not greedy, but sending me money is a great filter.