What is Nostr?
Robot Lightning
npub1zl9…0mpt
2024-10-02 09:50:00

Robot Lightning on Nostr: I view it alike to Bitcoin. With Bitcoin I hold my keys, it makes me immune to being ...

I view it alike to Bitcoin.

With Bitcoin I hold my keys, it makes me immune to being debanked, but I wear the custody risk.

With Nostr I hold my keys, it makes me immune to being deplatformed, but I wear the custody risk.

Arguments like "What if my keys get compromised? There is no way to fix that. Therefore this protocol sucks" are as banal with Nostr as they are with Bitcoin.

Yes we should try to improve. Also "I've just discovered Bitcoin and I'm here to fix it" was a meme for a reason.

To be fair, it's not unreasonable to have this primal desire for subkeys and key rotation. The problem is that:

1) it's not possible to do without centralization (or a blockchain) -- Bluesky tried, and the best solution they came up with was a big server that hosts a history of keys for everybody and can censor anyone;
2) doing it by means of Nostr events that declare subkeys or delegation or whatnot, creates insurmountable complexity that turns Nostr into an unusable pile of bloatware and away its most basic feature: the chance of working;
3) it's not the only way to protect your key from rogue computers and apps -- NIP-46 and other methods exist and are much nicer to use, with still many unexplored possibilities;
4) it's not clear that more than 16 people in the entire world want this at all -- when was the last time a normal person thought about rotating their PGP keys?
Author Public Key
npub1zl9whkrnjlfgg9q0k39r4tymu4ty3r5uy6tgxqdnd7f6xxcf8dms580mpt