Oddbean new post about login | logout I agree, but I can see scenarios where it’s hard to do find someone across different mediums. For example, I might just be getting into bitcoin (No bitcoiners in my social graph) and I’m listening to a podcast guest I want to follow. nip-05s are much easier to communicate over voice/billboard/whatever than an npub.
NIP-05's seem easier indeed, but in practice they're confusing and create more problems than they solve. 1. This new bitcoiner will think it's an email address 2. He will not get why he can't just use his email then 3. Apps spend a significant part of their scarce onboarding UX on introducing NIP-05's (and even prioritize it over Keys) 4. This new bitcoiner now is told to pay for his own NIP-05, because "If you not, people can't find you!" 5. Even if he hasn't left the whole thing yet and pays for his NIP-05, he's gonna be extremely dissapointed and confused when... Everyone is linking their NPUB in the podcast show notes.
Podcast might be a bad example for my argument because with show notes there is no medium switch 😅 Billboard, magazine ad, conference talk, word of mouth, t.v. commercial, etc. Anything where you can't just click a link or copy and paste an npub. BUT OVERALL, I agree with your point. Npubs + network should be good enough for most use cases. I just think a NIP-05 — or something better thats human readable & memorable — can add value for at least two edge cases that come to mind: — Medium switch, solving the "radio problem" people have with bad domain names. — No overlapping networks, whether its simply a new interest (like newcoiner) or a newly established npub for creator/consumer. Definitely not necessary, but can still be useful.