Nostr Web Client

Two levels of censorship-resistance are emerging via open protocols. One is the dns-censorship-resistance model (nostr et al 2020) which is the same model as the current web w/ replication, and subject to take downs.

The second model is the bittorrent-censorship reistance model of the web (pkarr, pubky et al c. 2025) which seems to be holding its own, even against take down requests.

It's trivial to upgrade users to offer both level of censorshp-resistance for nostr devs. And it will be interesting to see which clients are the first upgrade their censorship resistance, and which are the last.

I think we're moving from a first gen nostr which was a proof of concept. To a second gen which actually is verifiably censorship resistant and is scale free. Exciting!

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Discussion

Ľḭṿḙśƫṟãɖãṁṹṧ💫#RunCoreV30 9mo ago

Competition is good, users win at the end. And there can be multiple successes for a long time.

Hope it doesn’t get muddy in unnecessary bickering and fighting over dumb shit.

Silberengel 9mo ago

Isn't that something a relay could implement, on the backend? Clients just display stuff and sign notes.

Relays are the servers and could just act as hubs, for different networks. Relaying everything to wherever.

Silberengel 9mo ago

I mean, isn't that one of the strengths of Nostr, that nobody else has effectively implemented?

That we have these little, lightweight servers that just transmit tiny json spinnets. The websocket is the first and core implementation, but we've already added HTTP, and stuff like Bluetooth, Meshtastic, etc. Why not just add Bittorrent as another option?

Then clients have one more possible ways to connect to relays, to choose from. We don't need any consensus, so long as the data structure is interoperable, and we sign our events with the same keys.

₿oniz23⚡️🏴‍☠️🇮🇹 9mo ago

Hi melvin 🏴‍☠️🤟😉 Great analysis! The two levels of censorship-resistance you’re outlining are crucial in understanding the evolution of open protocols like Nostr. The DNS-based model, while effective to some extent, still has inherent limitations in terms of reliance on central points that can be taken down. The BitTorrent-like approach, on the other hand, offers a much more robust and distributed way of resisting censorship, and I think it’s the direction we’re heading toward with Nostr 2.0.

As you mentioned, integrating both layers of censorship resistance into Nostr clients should be relatively straightforward for developers. The real challenge will be in making the transition seamless for users and maintaining the scalability of the network as more nodes and relays join the ecosystem. The shift from a “proof of concept” to a truly censorship-resistant, scale-free protocol is incredibly exciting it’s a massive leap for decentralization.

It’s going to be interesting to see which clients adopt these upgrades early and which are slower to adapt. But either way, the trajectory of Nostr and similar protocols is clear: we’re building the infrastructure for a more open, resilient, and decentralized internet. 🚀

james 9mo ago

This does sound exciting.

What do you think are the chances it will be adopted at any scale, even in nostr space?