Replying to Avatar Ava

Nostr focuses on censorship resistance with privacy as an afterthought, while tools like SimpleX focus on anonymity and privacy. Do not confuse the two.

Not every Nostr client or relay implements the same NIPs. NIPs are optional by design—relays choose which ones to support, and client implementations vary. You could set up a private mute list on Amethyst only to find it doesn't carry over when you switch to another client that implements it differently or not at all.

As for messaging: NIP-17's "optional forward secrecy" refers to disappearing messages via expiration tags—not cryptographic forward secrecy. NIP-17 doesn't solve forward secrecy or post-compromise security.

If your Nostr private key is compromised, all your DMs (past and future) can be decrypted because the same key is used throughout. SimpleX doesn't have this vulnerability because it uses no persistent user identifiers. In serious privacy circles, SimpleX is consistently the recommendation.

I know SimpleX recently became controversial with the Bitcoin maxis on Nostr with their Community Vouchers launch, but the underlying protocol and privacy architecture remain technically sound.

There's nothing wrong with using Nostr non-anonymously—but understand what you're using it for. This isn't Reddit.

I firmly believe in and teach privacy and security through isolation and compartmentalization. Use the right tool for the right job. If you want censorship-resistant public discourse, use Nostr. If you need anonymous private communication, use SimpleX.

Treating Nostr like an anonymous platform when censorship resistance is its focus with privacy as an afterthought is a fundamental misunderstanding of the core purpose of the protocol.

nostr:nevent1qqs82u5gxj95wdnv822my8a4l7duhjvltchdvpyafg3q2efkdv8f5cgpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7q3qf6ugxyxkknket3kkdgu4k0fu74vmshawermkj8d06sz6jts9t4ksxpqqqqqqz3ez3rt

private, authed relays, in foreign, nonaligned jurisdictions, on tor hidden services, the attack surface is social, not technical.

and something you don't mention, is that simplex is able to capture your connection metadata (timing) which is not a trivial value in intelligence, it's much more important to hide that, than to encrypt your messages.

i find the endless wrong-headed game theory analysis of surveillance threats with regard to nostr, to be sad.

the nostr you are talking about, is relay.damus.io and nostr.band and nos.lol and nostr.mom and primal, all full of spam and feds.

the nostr i'm talking about, is my relay, and there is at least dozens of us in the small circle i am in on this network, who also run relays. my relay respects deletes. my relay doesn't send DMs to interlopers. my relay is in spain, but meh. and it's not on tor. double meh.

but it's still not a domestic jurisdiction.

imo, privacy advocacy as it is on the internet at the moment is heavily influenced by spooks, the smell of palantir and the CIA, NSA, MI6, and all the rest are patent to my nose. why is it that mozilla "cares" so much about your privacy anyway? how old are you? does the word "netscape" mean anything to you?

if you are so wise in the ways of cybersecurity, why aren't you discussing the attack surface properly?

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