2023-05-06T18:10:05Z https://nostr.now dr.orlovsky https://nostr.now/npub13mhg7ksq9efna8ullmc5cufa53yuy06k73q4u7v425s8tgpdr5msk5mnym https://nostr.build/i/nostr.build_8e0117fecac8c630d4482f1c3ed24b3187df54aae2a967ed194d6d88de1247a9.jpeg https://nostr.build/i/nostr.build_8e0117fecac8c630d4482f1c3ed24b3187df54aae2a967ed194d6d88de1247a9.jpeg https://nostr.now/nevent1qqs9866arnnp5d09eu90mx28thpkzvz8j9pcp5d05xncrcvc9q360fczyz8war66qqh9x05lnll0znr38kjyns3l2m6yzhnej42jqadq95wnwptnw95 Thoughts on #nostr.<br/><br/>Nostr is a websockets-based text protocol for logs of authenticated (but unauthorized) tagged (and otherwise unstructured) messages stored at public relay servers. The rest is a specific nostr application (like social networking or payments) on top of it.<br/><br/>Nostr takes several decisions on possible tradeoffs, which I try to analyze here:<br/><br/>1. Websockets. Good: pub/sub data access, web-integratable. Bad: high load on relay servers limiting scalability. Verdict: ⚠️<br/><br/>2. Elliptic curve (secp256k1) for identities. Good: bitcoin-based. Bad: very low performance, not GPG/SSH compatible, sidechannels. Overall: ❌. <br/><br/>3. Signature scheme: BIP-340 Schnorr. Good: batch verification, standard. Bad: optimized for onchain, discarding y coord, making verification ~50% more expensive than non-BIP Schnorr. Verdict: ⚠️<br/><br/>4. Hashing function: SHA256. Good: standard, bitcoin. Bad: slower than BLACKE3. Verdict: ⚠️<br/><br/>5. Text JSON encoding. Good: easy to implement. Bad: hard to pass &amp; slow to encode/decode non-text/binary data; no limits on data sizing opening a door for DoSing relays and clients. Verdict: ❌<br/><br/>6. No authorization scheme. Good: easy to implement. Bad: limits use cases, limits scalability. Verdict: ⚠️<br/><br/>7. No encryption on the transport level, relying on TLS. Good: easy to implement. Bad: centralized, not end-to-end. Verdict: ⚠️<br/><br/>So I see most of selected tradeoffs by Nostr as a bad or poor decision. This us arguable of course. <br/><br/>Can Nostr survive and success? For sure, if even much worse systems had done that in the past (Ethereum, JavaScript, PHP). <br/><br/>What is the greatest Nostr weakness? Limited scalability and possible DoS (not even DDoS) attacks. <br/><br/>If I were the one who did nostr, what I would had made differently? I would had used Ed25519 signatures on Ristretto25519 (speed), binary encoding with strict limits on data sizes, use Noise_XK encryption - and provide bridges to Websockets only when they are needed for the web. But we have what we have.<br/><br/> <img src="https://nostr.build/i/nostr.build_11196a0ce77932638fc00edde9487a49f50697c768eb16f91ed1fc1a3b60726c.jpeg"> 2023-04-15T13:16:15Z