Oddbean

You are right .. the only way to prohibit spam (and spam related bots , cuz all bots aren't bad) is to adopt a value4value model. But spam really ain't the biggest problem of social media .. it is our lust for clout :-) A better option ( than Elon's) monthly fee is to have a default charge ( say 100 sats) when you follow someone . A user should be able to change ( increase or decrease ) this charge just the way relays may put a charge . A user ( bot or human) is as important as the "relays" . Anyone should be able to access the "global" stream but if someone wants to see my feed ( my profile ) than I should be able to decide a charge . And only a follower should be allowed to comment on my posts - because before you comment on my post , you should have a view on my history ( the context) . The reason I say this is the biggest curse of social media is to accumulate more (and random) followers. More followers means we are building echo chambers ( like Twitter ) . That is where polarisation and hate breeds. The problem really ain't bots , it is our lust to secure (and boast) millions of followers on our profile .. like a #socialScore . If you attach a charge to the clout then you turn the clout into a social responsibility.. anyone with large following say Elon or Jack may get rid of spam by increasing their follow fees . On the other hand people like me who don't have any followers don't care about bots following me - so I can fix a lot lesser fees ( say 1 sat) if someone wants to follow me .. this way we not only get a fix for spam , we also break the echo chambers ..

Interesting idea, but don't like the vision of a world where every human interaction is monetised, even if its by individuals instead of corporations. It also means those with the most money have access to more information/society. I feel like capitalism has already made a mess of that in meat space.

Well .. money is the energy .. as much as I hate the money driving our social interactions (in its purest form) but it is hard to deny that money even drives love :-) .. so there you have a choice to make .. but the good thing about #nostr is it allows you to stack sats .. I have earned 30 k in less than a month .. I can use them to follow anyone ..

Nostr devs overlook a crucial point about the modern world: Huge numbers of social media users esp on twitter (and majority of westerners who are under 35) describe themselves as socialists. They are not interested in crypto. They want to socialise their opinions not monetise them. Crypto capitalism is not the future many seek. Zaps have hindered nostrs appeal to the masses in my opinion, bitcoin only excites nostr nerds and devs who own crypto already. Nostr should be about freedom FROM money (including crypto), like peer to peer torrenting /chatting if you want to attract the mass of politically active people who use social media like twitter , of which they are a core group. Crypto may have more success with tiktok users, but I dount it, and at the moment nostr is more twitter than tiktok anyway.

When you say money , I guess you are referring to "greed" for I am sure you are NOT advocating to go back to barter system :-) That said , everyone loves #sats .. socialist or libertarian .. I say that cuz no one ever gave me free money 🤑 ..( and I supported Obama and Bernie) . if someone hates money , please pass them my nPub .. 🙏 I fully agree that #nostr target audience should not be Twitter users cuz they are all locked in their #echoChambers .. and frankly not many of them (outside crypto Twitter) are tech savvy enough to understand the nostr paradigm.. On the other hand #tikTok is where creativity and life is .. and tiktokers get it .. they understand #value4value .. they are and should be nostr's target audience at least from social media applications standpoint .. This is not to say #twitter or (for that matter) #instagram have no value .. they do .. but the future is in feature rich open eco system that blurs the boundaries between social and real life applications - eg ride share , banking , education to name a few ... The value of lightning integration would show it's worth when nostr goes beyond first baby step of fixing social media ! One step at a time and there is no dearth of time .. in a bigger scheme of things a decade is just a blip ..

Everyone loves sats? I can point to >6.9billion people who have never even heard of them. And most people wouldn't have a clue how to use them if you offered them for free. And many wouldn't even care. You can't buy anything of value with a few sats. that MIGHT change in the future, but that is not now. People don't care, nostr is more important than bitcoin. But almost nobody who uses nostr today thinks that. Fools.

'I fully agree that #nostr target audience should not be Twitter users cuz they are all locked in their #echoChambers ' I completely disagree with this. And Nostr is an even bigger echo chamber of crypo bros. Actually, worse, RICH crypto bros.

Again, I guess you are confused between money and greed . Money is just a tool. And Sats are better tools than Fiat or Gold or barter . Period. If you really hate money , how about you send me a million sats and be happier with lesser money and better relationships .. #walkTheTalk 😻 ..