The local relay acts as a very fast local cache for notes and profiles, it also enables offline use cases like replying to mail and browsing discussions that were made when you were last online.

It makes the UI code much simpler, all it does is talk to the local relay and does not have to handle the async mess of waiting for multiple responses from multiple relays. Building apps this way feels more intuitive for developers.

Apps feel more responsive because it can immediately show you local notes. Your user experience is not tied to network conditions. Another benefit is it doesn’t have to redownload notes it already has, so you get bandwidth savings as well.

I could go on for days about the local relay model, nostrdb makes native nostr app dev so much nicer 😅 nostr:note16j4evctuc39n6xztar3ly495n96q5szeplwxy8k0fgmlrusjgkcqavjdg0