Oh yes, I do. That's why I am interested in understanding it and looking for possible weaknesses. I want it to succeed long-term, and the best way to ensure that is to look ahead, iterate and improve.
This is what I wrote about back in 2021 if you want to take a look: https://rossulbricht.medium.com/decentralize-social-media-cc47dcfd4f99
The basic idea is that users would pay for content delivery, but it would happen under the hood at the protocol level and be super cheap and plentiful because of node competition (I called them "content servers" back then). Your average user wouldn't know or care about it, wouldn't have to shop around for private nodes or run their own.
Yeah, I saw that there are paid relays out there. The market will find a way, but the less the users have to deal with the better. Nodes are simple/dumb by design, so designing a business model for them so they are all competing on the same metric (data availability) shouldn't be tough.
Been reading up on the nostr protocol and comparing it to the DSP I wrote about in 2021. Many of the details seem to have been worked out brilliantly, but one thing that worries me is the reliance on volunteer nodes.
It would be nice if there was a business model for nodes and node competition at the protocol level.
As it is, I wonder if nostr can scale.
Just before I take the stage, I'll be hosting a welcome back celebration at nostr:nprofile1qqsphtcc46rrelvptfm4c2y58k85alnam0lfu773mgwdmtynka0zspsql7emy. Should be great food and a great time. I would love for you to join me.
Conference tickets: https://bm.b.tc/ross
Welcome home event: https://b.tc/conference/2025/ross-ulbricht-welcome-back-celebration
Nice! What did you think of it?
nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyehwumn8ghj7mnhvvh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7ctewe4xcetfd3khsvrpdsmk5vnsw96rydr3v4jrz73hvyu8xqpqsg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q8dzj6n showed me nostr recently. Reminds me of a writeup I did back in 2021 on decentralized social media:
https://rossulbricht.medium.com/decentralize-social-media-cc47dcfd4f99
I'll be mirroring my X account here and hopefully finding some good conversations.