Nostr Web Client

Privacy and Anonymity can't coexist -- if I am chatting privately with you .. you got to know who I am !

#nostr is anonymous .. so is #bitcoin and they both are public !

If you want privacy check out #Simplex for communication and #monero for whatever it stands for :-)

You have some grave misunderstandings around these concepts. Please make your self comfortable with the meanings. Bitcoin is pseudonymous and Nostr could theoretically be used anonymously but for reasons oft practicality is used with a pseudonym as well. Be aeare that a non standardised (privacy optimised) decentralised network like Nostr will produce a lot of meta data that can and will be tied to your npub.

So you need to use other tech on top (tor, GOS) to keep it pseudonomus and not tied to your real life identity if you don't wish to.

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Discussion

ede3d957... 1y ago

Monero and Simplex work differently, they are private networks. So they enable anonymity. And both privacy and anonymity can go hand in hand.

Bitcoin and Nostr are public networks. So they enable pseudonimity, but as you correctly state no anonymity. Anonymous interactions on those networks would only be possible for one time unrelated actions, which defeats its purpose, of course taking meta data anonymisaton into account.

Satosha 1y ago

Sure - you probably know better ! Let me step back and explain what I am saying ..

At this moment of this conversation - you don't know who I am , I don't know who you are .. this is an anonymous conversation . This conversation is open to everyone . Suppose there is a third person who knows me as well as you - s/he can verify this conversation is between two of us - because contents are public and digitally signed by us. That is what I mean by "anonymous and public" . The word pseudonymous was coined much later .. we can go deeper in that if you like .. but that is unnecessary :-)

Sure you can find out who I am if you start a quest - like checking the meta-data or employing NSA :-) .. there is NOTHING that is absolutely hidden provided proportional efforts / interest.

If I get into a private simplex chat with you , there is no way for a third party to confirm that the discussion is between you and me. Which means you need to have a foolproof mechanism to know who I am . Which means we are not anonymous to each other. Thus a private conversation can't be anonymous . Sure two anonymous people can have a random chat - like two persons talking in a traffic jam .. or in a public garden .. that conversation is just exchange of pleasantries .. or letting each other know Sun is pretty nice and warm this morning :-) Just to rehash the point - there is no good reason for two of us to chat on Simplex :-) .. but the anonymous public chat is quite useful - to third parties who know where we are coming from ... even to random people who have no clue of our true Identities.