Apr 25, 2023 21:00:00

What exactly is 'Nostr', the SNS protocol that is attracting attention as an alternative to Twitter?

Social networking sites operated by a single company, such as Twitter and Facebook, are prone to have posts deleted or suddenly become unavailable due to company policies, so an increasing number of people are switching from these to decentralized social networking sites. While decentralized social networking sites such as

Mastodon and Bluesky are attracting attention, the decentralized network protocol Nostr , in which Twitter founder Jack Dorsey invested tens of millions of yen, is quietly gaining attention, and the discussion is heating up on the social site Hacker News.

Well Ordered Wiki
https://wiki.wellorder.net/post/nostr-intro/

Nostr, a simple protocol for decentralizing social media that has a chance of working
https://nostr.com/

Nostr ('Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays') – An Introduction | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35690659

Nostr is not a decentralized social networking 'service,' but rather a platform, system, and protocol that can run a social network. Nostr consists of two elements: a 'client' and a 'relay.'

A client is software that users use to publish and receive posts (notes), and is implemented as desktop software or an application in a browser. Previously, news was reported that the social app ' Damus ' based on Nostr was removed from the Chinese App Store, and Damus is one such client.

A relay is a server that clients connect to, where they can send and store messages, and distribute messages to other clients. Users can choose from multiple relays to connect to, and posts are shared between users connected to the same relay.

Relays are not connected to each other, so even if one relay goes down, your posts will not disappear as long as you are connected to another relay. In other words, as long as the relay remains, your posts will remain, so you need to be careful when handling information. Also, since anyone can create a relay, you can connect to a relay that only you know and create a private space.

Unlike centralized SNS like Twitter, the appeal of Nostr is that it does not feel like it is being controlled, censored, or restrictive. This is something that can be said about decentralized SNS like Mastodon, and it is also the reason why people who are leaving Twitter, especially Elon Musk's drastic measures, are paying attention to Nostr.

One of the features of Nostr is that users who connect to it are assigned a unique string, like a Twitter username (a string starting with @). This is called a public key, and serves to verify that the person is who they claim to be. The public key is used to sign every post, so it is possible to identify the poster regardless of which relay they are connected to. Another feature is that the public key is also used to search for users.

The creators of Nostr want a censorship-free, small-scale, fun network, and are open to extensions to the protocol, saying that it is 'simple enough that it can be implemented in your favorite language with little effort.'

However, it has been pointed out that these protocols have problems.

First, since there is no censorship of posts, you will receive data from strangers as is. nine_k, who pointed out this problem on Hacker News, wrote sarcastically, 'Nostr transfers data from strangers unencrypted. If you find something illegal on your computer or find that it was sent from your computer, you'll have a lot of fun explaining the reason to the authorities.' While

advising against syncing data with strangers, he expressed his hope that a mechanism for encrypting data would surely be possible.

It has also been pointed out that there is a problem with Nostr's 'private key'. A private key is like a login information that a user uses to access their account. Themagician points out that 'if this private key is stolen, it's over,' and claims, 'If an attacker gets your private key, there is no solution. You can't reset your password. There is no way to regain access. Your account is at risk forever. This is the problem with decentralization in general.' In response to this, some have said, 'There is certainly a way to set up a procedure to reissue private keys, but no decentralized protocol implements this.'

Also, at the first conference on Nostr, there was a concern that 'clients and providers may build features outside the protocol to gain market share and lock in users.' There are no easy solutions to these problems, and active discussion is required.