Simple answer: PoW. It's the only metric that can't be gamed and for which there is no need for consensus.
Discussion
Nah, miners could just spam follower count.
I'm not talking about follower counts, I was thinking of just ranking accounts based on leading 0s of the hex public key 😅
Imagine that onboarding UX: "Your keys are being generated, estimated time left: 10 hours". And what about in 5-10 years when we have more powerful hardware, then old accounts would need to create new keys that has good enough PoW?
Glorious if you ask me. It's a constant race, you can't rest on your laurels 😂
this was my first thought for getting ‘meaningful’ metrics, but PoW can become a blight on UX
Interactions are the ultimate value one can gain when using #Nostr. Nothing is more valuable than people.
Follower counts can be spammed/faked so trying to measure connections through a number is a false signal.
It is the quality of interaction that creates value here. Those who you see making the most interactions and events with positive impact will be who stands out here.