When you click on follow you would get a invoice. If you pay it you can follow the profile. If you don't pay it you can't follow the profile. If you unfollow the profile you will have to pay again.
If the profile doesn't have a lightning address then no one can follow the profile.
That whole system is an excellent way to stop spammers and bots and bad actors.
How would you get every client to implement this, knowing that anyone can make their own open source client? You don't need anyones permission to sign a note containing a list of npubs with your own key, which is all following someone is. What you want isn't possible đ
You're right that anyone can build their own client and bypass itâthat's the nature of open protocols. But this isnât about forcing anything on everyone. Itâs about setting a new standard that high-quality clients can adopt voluntarily to improve the network.
Plenty of things in Nostr arenât enforced by the protocol but are still widely adoptedâlike relay selection, zaps, or even UI/UX norms. Same thing here. If enough clients and users value this âpay-to-followâ model to reduce spam and bot activity, it becomes a social norm. Itâs opt-in capitalism. And guess what? Bots donât pay.
So no, Iâm not trying to restrict freedom. Iâm offering a market-based filter for higher signal, and those who want the benefits of a cleaner, more organic network will choose to implement it. You can still go use a free-for-all client if you wantâbut donât expect everyone to want that chaos.
It's an idea that would never work, but make the client I guess, see how that goes đ¤ˇââď¸
