You've just described Nostr: Content that is tied to a hash (so its origin and authenticity can be verified) that is hosted by third parties (or yourself if you want)

So politicians pretend to care by throwing more money at their cronies and get away with it because won't someone PLEASE think of the children. And then people pat them on back and vote for them in the next election, and blame "capitalism" while the people they've just voted back in make millions.

They even say "We're also dealing with children who are largely insured by Medicaid programs" and yet still people are failing to join the dots...

Nostr fixes both of these. So whilst you're at the mercy of relays storing your data, you can at least be anonymous.

I think "without further implementation details" is the key point here. Client developers usually have these. Sure, Nostr is still small, but there's several clever ways of dealing with scalability issues. Not least of which is the outbox model, linked in my first post.

Your criticisms of the article are valid tho. And I don't think it is unique in its failing. Perhaps Nostr's fatal flaw is in the way it is being sold by its fans, myself included.

But that's OK. It will take off as Bitchat, or Primal, or whatever the next iteration is that figures out a way of selling Nostr's benefits, without confusing people with its implementation.

Read about the outbox model, or Bitchat.

The large relays are not required. They are a public service but not essential. There are plenty of community relays charging for access too, and the outbox model means you're not even depending on them. Nostr can and does successfully operate via even Bluetooth Mesh Networks. Search up Bitchat and see how it has been used in Nepal, Indonesia, and elsewhere.

But... Outbox model prevents censorship because you push your (cryptographically signed and so impossible to impersonate) messages to multiple relays. To your own preferred relays, as well as to the preferred relays of others who are involved in the conversation, as well as to a couple of global relays for easy discoverability.

These global relays are useful, but are interchangeable and totally replaceable. As soon as you've connected with someone you can retrieve their updates, because you know their preferred relays, and can query them directly.

In this way Nostr has the benefits of centralised networks for discoverability, federated networks for communities, and private individual web site for p2p and archival purposes. As well as making it impossible to censor.

And if you take down THE ENTIRE INTERNET in order to censor Nostr? Well, Bitchat is Nostr via Bluetooth Mesh Networks. Do a quick search and find out where and when it has been used (Nepal, Indonesia, and elsewhere)

And as for zaps fixing the economic problem, I'm not sure what else to say other than you can give and receive value directly using the Lightning Network. It is seamless in most Nostr clients, and built into the Nostr protocol. If you don't believe in Value For Value (v4v) then you can just charge a fee, and the economics problem is solved.

Spam is basically a solved issue. There's both proof of work and paid relays, not to mention web or trust. It has been at absolute worst a minor annoyance.

There's plenty of ways to discover content on Nostr, from hashtags to channels to location based chats to just following some interesting people. It's perhaps not as frictionless as X, but imho that's a feature not a bug.

You post to your own preferred relays, as well as to the preferred relays of others who are involved in the conversation, as well as to a couple of global relays for easy discoverability.

These global relays are useful, but are interchangeable and totally replaceable. As soon as you've connected with someone you can retrieve their updates, because you know their preferred relays, and can query them directly.

You cannot censor Nostr.

Also, check out how zaps work, and relay authentication. You can charge for relays if you want.

As I have said in other replies to this post, read up on the outbox model. Global relays are useful, but are interchangeable and totally replaceable. As soon as you've connected with someone you can retrieve their updates, because you know their preferred relays, and can query them directly.

And there are incentives to running a global or community relay. Read up on Zaps. With Nostr, you can give real value via the lightning network, and it is built into the protocol. This allows you to charge for usage if you so desire. And then there's all the other reasons why people run community web sites or global services.

Why would "every relay getting pummeled by a load of clients simultaneously, all trying to push the same message"?

Relays get one client pushing one message. That one message is pushed to multiple relays. To your own preferred relays, as well as to the preferred relays of others who are involved in the conversation, as well as to a couple of global relays for easy discoverability.

These global relays are useful, but are interchangeable and totally replaceable. As soon as you've connected with someone you can retrieve their updates, because you know their preferred relays, and can query them directly.

In this way Nostr has the benefits of centralised networks for discoverability, federated networks for communities, and private individual web site for p2p and archival purposes.

Run your own fork if you don't trust this one.

Nostr can run over TOR.

I haven't looked into the White Noise code, but Gift Wrapping is just one way this issue was solved a long time ago: https://nips.nostr.com/59

Private key login, encrypted private chats and contacts, encrypted group chats, and lightning payments. Decentralised, built on Nostr. Available on all platforms.

https://www.0xchat.com/

Whilst cheap 'dumb' phones do still exist and are used, even low income earners in South East Asia tend to have a smart phone, and most of the business done as landgenoot says is conducted via Telegram, Facebook, or occasionally WhatsApp or Line.

There are also ways of paying using nothing but a phone number, but usually business is done on a smart phone where photos of products are are shared, delivery is arranged, and since COVID, most payments are done via QR codes that require a smart phone.

In my experience this is not only true of the cities, but also even out in the provinces.

- A service with no central choke-points, but rather a large number of independent co-operating nodes.

- Accounts, and the follower relationships between them, are not tied to any single node.

So... Nostr?