I learned 'the Cloud is just someone else's server' (which can't be trusted/relied on). How is Nostr any different ?
#askNostr
Discussion
You sign the notes with a cryptographic key. It doesn't matter where they are stored, they can't be tampered with. You can store them on any relay and your followers can verify they were yours.
Then post them to multiple relays. The chance of every relay blocking your notes is low. If that happens run your own relay.
"run your own relay" yes- you are making my point.
It's the same as hosting my blog, my own YT etc. It's the only way to be self-sovereign, but with no reach and unlikely to be discovered.
We had open protocols before to access dispersed self-sovereign notes and blogs (RSS), yet it failed to catch on and people gravitated to the big platforms Medium, Substack etc.
Nostr is also essentially the set of "relevant" central relays which everybody subscribes to to find and be found. We trust them to continue to behave honestly.
That's why using clients that support the outbox model are important.
The only thing better is for every computer on the network to have a copy of your shit post, like on a blockchain. But is your shit post important enough to require such a data inefficient storage solution.
You can ask the same question about Bitcoin, Bitcoin is also in someone else's computers. Nostr servers do not belong to a single entity, no single entity controls the protocol or the data, it's transparent and you can see what's in nostr relays and only you control your keys.
LOL. Bitcoin has some 10,000 nodes, which all constantly replicate all data amongst each other.
With Nostr I publish data to a set number of relays (11 in my case), and the data is not rebroadcast. If they delete it, it's gone forever (and I dont even notice)
You can add more relays and you can rebroadcast any notes yourself to any number of relays, bitcoin full nodes keep all txs history, nostr relays not necessarily, but the concept is similar, a relay can go out, damus already nuked everything once, but your notes remain in other relays. So to the question you asked, it's diferent bc no single entity can erase or own your data, you have freedom to spread and broadcast as you wish. Another question one can ask is, what nostr data do you want to keep forever, is it worthy to keep social media notes forever? In my personal opinion no, some other stuff yes probably.
Yes, it's a nice workaround. You'll essentially try to be Barney.
I just wonder how many people actually do run the infrastructure to keep copies of their notes (and images!!!) to be able to rebroadcast them at any point.
Because it does not rely in a single server
Nostr is many many computers all hooked up. No one is in control.
2 things:
1. You create the data in whole. It is signed, so your own computer could be the server if you want and it still shows up on your friend's client. Platforms like X take your content and present it on their apps and lock it down so that Mary can't show fake content as if Matt wrote it. With signatures, Mary still can't do it and we don't need to trust X to protect us.
2. Your data can be sent to many servers. We already know they can't create fake content or modify your content, so all they can do is delete it or withold it. Sending it to many computers is better than just one in this regard.
3. I'll say it again, nostr is different because you can trust your own computer. If you do that, then it is nothing like cloud. Yet because nostr is a protocol, not a closed platform, you can be part of nostr, you don't NEED to trust another computer and people can download your content on their computers and not trust your computer etc. (Although it does makes sense to trust the computer of the author of some content.)
Great no one can alter my notes, but they can be suppressed by the relays or deleted altogether. I really have no guarantee that what I want to tell the world, can be seen by the world; I have to trust that some unknown operator(s) will be so kind to serve it.
If I want to make really sure stuff exists and is accessible to everyone (e.g. my blogs Git repos, Shopstr listings, etc), then I am back to self hosting.
Always have been.
Yep exactly my point.
But hopefully you get the point that NOSTR is an incremental improvement in that:
- someone can copy your content and spread it, but they can't put words in your mouth.
- NOSTR helps you to get your content shared naturally... a word of mouth or peer to peer sharing network.