if a file is treated as a black box there is only so much we can do. if we can open the file and understand what it contains we can do more. for example we can see that a word document and pdf document may actually be the same document. this is obviously not going to be practical for some exotic file types as a computer can't be expected to recognize them all. but my guess is over 90% of all files uploaded are JPEG and nobody says we can't adopt different approaches to different file types.

i bring all this up because recently GAB was in the news for restricting file uploads only to paying members. GAB was banned by credit card processors making it harder for them to make ends meet financially. any anti-establishment social media should expect the same fate of getting cut off from mainstream banking channels and looking for ways to cut costs.

these costs may be low now, but assuming NOSTR grows they could grow exponentially - might as well start thinking about reducing them now.

text and images are fundamentally different. text takes a lot of energy to create but little to store or transfer, thus decentralized redundant approach is right for text. images are the opposite. one size does not fit all.