Not sure if this qualifies as "open" but maybe it works!
It's a blockchain trying to enforce a single namespace... but okay, nostr can use the vast zeronet network and blockchain tech instead i guess 🙃
Y'know that using a separate/new DHT just makes it worse, right?
Literally no advantages.
PKARR is open-source and exists already, that is why Web5, Iroh, and Pubky use it.
I haven't looked too deeply into it yet, so I may be talking complete bullshit here, but so far my impression is that Pubky is 3 things:
1. signed entries published on a DHT that associate a pubkey with an HTTP server
2. HTTP servers that can host any file
3. a superstructure for reading content from these HTTP servers and turning them into a global social network
It's a very elegant structure that sound very compelling to me, but ultimately I don't see how it improves much upon anything Nostr has, and it has significant downsides and unsolved (hidden) problems that Nostr either solves or is trying to solve right now.
2 is cool, but not a very hard problem to solve once you have a way to find these user servers (and, also importantly, someone to host these servers mostly for free). Blossom is doing a similar job with files as first-class citizens.
2 is also not very useful by itself. To make a social network you need a way to efficiently pull content from user servers and display them to users. There is where they came up with 3, which sounds very similar to Bluesky's central big server which they call "Relay". It's a centralized system that cannot possibly become decentralized. It looks like Pubky has accepted that as the only way to do things, and they seem to be planning on hosting one such big server.
1 is trying to be the most decentralized, censorship-resistant system ever for putting out information about public keys -- and we may discuss if it achieves that or not (I am personally very skeptical that DHTs can scale, even though nostr:npub1jvxvaufrwtwj79s90n79fuxmm9pntk94rd8zwderdvqv4dcclnvs9s7yqzis going to boldly claim that this is not a topic worth discussing because "Mainline has already proven itself with its bazillion nodes and centuries of existence" truth remains that Torrents do not work without trackers, and no one knows what will happen with the DHT if it has to store billions of records from people all over the world -- https://newsletter.squishy.computer/p/natures-many-attempts-to-evolve-a is one scenario), but all of this mega-decentralization is completely useless if you don't have a decentralized way to load content from people you follow and have to rely on a giant central server hosted by one big corporation.
Pubky's idea seems to be that centralization on content distribution is unavoidable, so they aren't even trying. The idea of Nostr is that such thing isn't unavoidable, so we are trying.
I will add another dimension to this.
Whatever is possible in Nostr is possible in Pubky.
Not everything possible in Pubky is possible in Nostr.
Whatever schemes you deploy to achieve the features of Pubky won't be simpler or as resistant, but we could easily add signed event-based data and ofc we will have tools for syncing and mirroring.
Just change Nostr to PKARR, then we can fight about the data format later, man!
Today's Pubky demo features nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm and a sneak peak at an early version of the upcoming Pubky app!
Summaries of my Pubky announcement presentation over on Twitter:
If nostr apps removed zaps, how much would you care?
Anyone think posts would be better without money totals on them?
https://x.com/Synonym_to/status/1833907090567602589
Selfie Records are the logical extreme of things like BOLT12 addresses, Lightning Addresses, and any other centralized, censorable, user-impractical solution for identity or payment protocol.
This stuff is great for superficial convenience, but all petname/nickname/naming schemes ultimately require an authority to define the namespace and accounts.
Personally, I think name-squatting is dumb, and I would rather people focus on making it practical to use a key-based web. So that's what we are working on. We are working on actually self-sovereign identity and a new web around it.
So, if you think DNS is cool, I encourage to take a look at a solution we have already released, PKARR: https://github.com/pubky/pkarr
It's the best decentralized identity solution we could think of, and that we know of. It is being used by Iroh, and TBD, and soon, Synonym.
This alone fixes most of what's wrong with Nostr, ignores what is cruft from DIDs, and is powered by the most decentralized network on the planet, Mainline DHT, the same network that has been providing torrents to you for decades.
Learn more at Plan B Lugano in October.
Liquid is a centralized shitcoin. Its masters currently offer a 1:1 price for it.
It could be argued that Bitcoin could never deliver on the scarcity promise anyway.
If shitcoins are on a security spectrum with Bitcoin, then they could all be seen as (shittier) Bitcoins. The qty of digital money being infinite, and thus somewhat irrelevant.
btw, it is worth considering that the reason i am caring about what you do is because of some amount of interest and respect, and desire to collaborate
maybe you dont care, that is fine, but some re-evalution of your comments and perspectives here might be worth it, as i dont see any way to actually collab with anyone in nostr or ecash on reasonable terms right now, without "bending the knee" in some form
some smart people just get triggered because they have this reflexive "that's not the way, I know the real way" response. sounds great, how about you contribute? that's where they suddenly turn quiet again.
So if I link you to better things than NWS, you will contribute instead of hype its silly design?
Consider the opposite perspective.
Someone's style in replying is not relevant really. What matters is whether they complaining or criticizing.
You can discern this by whether they are providing advice with their criticism.
Sometimes, if they are rude, it is a reaction to the hubris, not merely jealousy or whatever.
Sometimes the critics are trying to help.
The NWS stuff is a naive design, and not actually novel if you check some research.
Why can't I reply to anyone on Primal?
The little cars on the Uber map aren't yellow and blue anymore.
The loading animations on Google Maps and Figma are Pride colors now.
Why was war in my ride app?
Why is sex in my design app?
So what is the zapping culture actually like?
Is it just people tipping famous people, or fishing for tips?
What subculture has emerged here?
People ask for my opinion on token protocols & ecash designs a lot.
So we designed and wrote out how we think this set of problems should be solved.
We also made public some research we have been in stealth with for months here as well.
Learn about Atomicity, PKARR, Paykit, Rumble, Offset and more:
Verifying my Twitter account is bitcoinerrorlog