so, a proof of work done with the slowest execution engine in the universe that could be sped up very easily to generate the same data... i'm not sure that is gonna help nostr because their whole thing depends on DNS

hash grinding with the same hash used by bitcoin, there is miner hardware that can be adapted to crunch other than 80 byte long headers, and even if there isn't that many, they are not expensive and if the spammers have them all then the normal users don't get a word in edgewise

the game theory of proof of work is a big part of why there can only be one bitcoin, and why all the rest are ngmi

doesn't matter what you think when the game theory is against you, the spammers will win that game

the game they can't win is the one they aren't playing, a game of trust and transparency

it is extremely simple to mitigate the bootstrapping issue as well, every user starts with a nonzero follower count that is a well known relay that they start on, and the longer they behave themselves the more visible the clients make their replies

it can all be completely distributed and trustless, and it doesn't require proof of work, but it will work better if you can get people to sign up for paid relays

the better experience on paid relays with WoT filtering is evident to everyone who is using them, less bandwidth as well, i 've seen some nasty usage rates shown by some users for their damus and amethyst client, so we solve many problems with small simple solutions

proof of work is never going to work, but carry on