The people controlling the protocol, like NIP-01, should really let the community know who they are. Keeping this secret is unhelpful. It's time for transparency. Let people know who controls Nostr so they can verify, not just trust.

The NIPs are getting to the point where they hamper innovation for all but a few developers. While those few benefit greatly, the broader innovation is stifled. This wasn't true at the start of Nostr, or even two years ago. We need to return to a place where 1,000 flowers bloom. It was like that before, and it can be again.

Saying "let the market decide" is just a lazy trope, in my opinion. Often, it means letting the government decide since they ultimately control markets. Nostr should be a place of creativity and fascination for all developers, not just a handful.

Regarding the topic, the tags, kinds, and ideas are becoming a technical debt mess. This isn't criticism; it's expected. Most ideas are bad ideas, and the NIPs were designed to move fast and break things. At some point, there needs to be a review and curation of what works well, what can be standardized, and what can be made interoperable, scalable, and extensible. First-move wins were great initially, but we need more now.

There are also people and political problems. Some call it the "elites," though that can be a lazy term because many excellent devs are in the inner circle: you, Kieran, Alex, Martti, Brugeman, Miljan, and many more. But there could be ten times as many devs. Remember how many more we used to have and all the people we lost, like Greg. We need a few tweaks, a few cleanups, and for the "elites" to be less dismissive, transitioning to an open, transparent, community-led project. The problem is that you think you've done that already, but you haven't.

One way or another, things will need to be cleaned up, curated, and improved. The NIPs were a quick fix to help clients work together. In the longer term, we need to pick out the best bits to create new generations of apps.