cameri on Nostr: Web of Trust feels a lot like Proof of Stake 🧐 Trust is like social capital: the ...

Web of Trust feels a lot like Proof of Stake 🧐

Trust is like social capital: the more trusted you are, the more influence you have, which can leave new users stuck in the shadows. Their less trusted (but often valuable!) opinions barely get noticed.

Trust works as a resource—it’s built and extended through explicit endorsements (like Alice following Bob). But here’s the catch: the early adopters hold all the cards. If you weren’t here first, your influence depends on whether the big players decide to trust you. And trust? It’s scarce, especially the kind that matters most—follows from users with high social capital. These endorsements aren’t handed out easily.

The system has a built-in centralization problem 😬. Popular users with a ton of followers tend to grow their influence exponentially, while newcomers struggle to get noticed. People are incentivized to follow others they trust to protect their reputation, which just makes the rich get richer in terms of trust.

And let’s talk about power imbalance 🔥. A follow from Alice, who’s been on Nostr for two years and climbed her way to the top, is a big deal. Compare that to a follow from Charlie, who just signed up and posted a humble #introduction . Alice’s social capital makes her endorsement hit way harder 🥊.

To top it off, there’s some “pre-mining” going on. New users often automatically follow certain developers, making them super-trusted by default. It’s like trust farming for the OGs, giving them a massive head start over everyone else.