How do we scale Nostr?
“Unpopular opinion: Nostr CAN'T scale to be what people want it to be. It's an all-to-all broadcast, which scales like O(n²). It will collapse in its own success.
Nostr relays are like sidechains and altcoins. It's attempting to solve an O(n²) scaling problem by having multiple copies of the same thing. It leads to Balkanization where you can't see content from or message some people.
Blockchains of blockchains were dumb and this is dumb in exactly the same way, and I can't believe all of you failed your algorithms classes.”
- Bob McElrath
So this begs the question, how does Nostr scale long term? Or do we simply expect 2 of 3 dominant relays in the long term?
cc fiatjaf (npub180c…h6w6) jb55 (npub1xts…kk5s) Derek Ross (npub18am…p424) AsaiToshiya (npub1pgh…rs38) Vitor Pamplona (npub1gcx…nj5z) Sep (npub18c5…0we7)
https://x.com/bobmcelrath/status/1828763959001804956
matthewjablack / Matt ₿lack ⚡️🍁 13% Bitcoiner
npub1wf…qsxhy
2024-08-28 14:06:47
Author Public Key
npub1wf7w8mrzqs3uvd8wsp774462d3rtttzwetuhpmzjccgn63emy4ls5qsxhyPublished at
2024-08-28 14:06:47Event JSON
{
"id": "5bc010a3bd191f9f4867ee07abe68550408453297a48c4c1bbd5bb58a8989671",
"pubkey": "727ce3ec620423c634ee807dead74a6c46b5ac4ecaf970ec52c6113d473b257f",
"created_at": 1724854007,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d",
"",
"mention"
],
[
"p",
"32e1827635450ebb3c5a7d12c1f8e7b2b514439ac10a67eef3d9fd9c5c68e245",
"",
"mention"
],
[
"p",
"3f770d65d3a764a9c5cb503ae123e62ec7598ad035d836e2a810f3877a745b24",
"",
"mention"
],
[
"p",
"0a2f19dc1a185792c3b0376f1d7f9971295e8932966c397935a5dddd1451a25a",
"",
"mention"
],
[
"p",
"460c25e682fda7832b52d1f22d3d22b3176d972f60dcdc3212ed8c92ef85065c",
"",
"mention"
],
[
"p",
"3e294d2fd339bb16a5403a86e3664947dd408c4d87a0066524f8a573ae53ca8e",
"",
"mention"
]
],
"content": "How do we scale Nostr? \n\n“Unpopular opinion: Nostr CAN'T scale to be what people want it to be. It's an all-to-all broadcast, which scales like O(n²). It will collapse in its own success. \n\nNostr relays are like sidechains and altcoins. It's attempting to solve an O(n²) scaling problem by having multiple copies of the same thing. It leads to Balkanization where you can't see content from or message some people.\n\nBlockchains of blockchains were dumb and this is dumb in exactly the same way, and I can't believe all of you failed your algorithms classes.”\n- Bob McElrath\n\nSo this begs the question, how does Nostr scale long term? Or do we simply expect 2 of 3 dominant relays in the long term? \n\ncc nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 nostr:npub1xtscya34g58tk0z605fvr788k263gsu6cy9x0mhnm87echrgufzsevkk5s nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424 nostr:npub1pgh3nhq6rpte9sasxah36luewy54azfjjekrj7f45hwa69z35fdqfdrs38 nostr:npub1gcxzte5zlkncx26j68ez60fzkvtkm9e0vrwdcvsjakxf9mu9qewqlfnj5z nostr:npub18c556t7n8xa3df2q82rwxejfglw5przds7sqvefylzjh8tjne28qld0we7 \n\nhttps://x.com/bobmcelrath/status/1828763959001804956",
"sig": "993eede9d1e9429616a083f7df60061e971ebe58177ea4317424b85c69daf3617b30f9acc1cca20474c22df9cf5671965dcab0e197559e6deb94b2f99b2bb188"
}