nostr:npub1e3dt2stusesttu8g8en5fn8zycnzlk0qwgm2ckzxl864fdje5a5slgvz9r I think it was inspired by other protocols like Secure Scuttlebutt, and so far I haven't seen much innovation there. Yes, it has advantages over Pleroma, because your Nostr identity is not attached to any particular server and therefore server admins have less power over your communications.

It's entirely possible to do the same in Fediverse though. Recently I published a protocol extension proposal that describes how you can build a client that controls account's private key and uses servers as relays: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ae97/fep-ae97.md