Oddbean

You might be right, maybe it would work if a client like amethyst just added a built-in relay. I wasn't thinking about monetization for creators. I've been thinking it will end up with individual sponsorship deals instead of in-app ads, but maybe nostr needs a NIP for in-app ads where every contributor gets paid for their posts, not just the ones with a lot of followers.

Yup that's one way for sure. Build the personal relay right into the client. Then disseminate the content out to aggregators on the network. 100%. On monetization. On social networks, people want REACH. That's all an ad is. It's a payment for REACH. To boost your content out into other people's feeds. That could be an advertiser. Could be a regular creator. Could even be a new user trying to turbocharge their initial growth. But these are the people who fund a network. We just need to structure a economic model where the other 3 (or even 4) stakeholders get a piece of this pie so they can survive and profit. No relay, client, or creator is surviving off monthly or voluntary direct payments. That's my only point.

I wonder how much revenue could be generated this way: Offer users, premium or otherwise, an option to permanently take an 8-or-more-characters Primal NIP-05 name, in exchange for opting in to an "inactive wallet share" where they keep their Primal wallet above a small minimum balance, and a small percentage of their wallet funds can be taken if both their npub and the wallet itself appear inactive for a period of 5-10 years. Allow the 8-character minimum to be shortened with an increasingly large one-time fee the shorter the name is; discount this fee for premium subscribers. Always warn opted-in users before they go below the minimum balance Never take the name away as long as the user has never ignored that warning - no increasing the minimum because they went below it, no taking the name away because the shared portion put them below it.