Oddbean new post about login | logout I think if we want to see nostr adoption, relay experience has to improve 10x. Too many issues too often that the user has to troubleshoot constantly. If the dev has to say "oh that's because...{plug in any explanation / excuse here}" to reply to why something isn't working, that's a failure.
I know I'm gonna get a bunch of replies about proof of work on this, so just save those replies for yourself. It's a non-starter.
Unless a relay is being used for a community or something, or as a paid service, users shouldn't have to contemplate which one to use.
The same goes for blaster, or any service that relies on relay performance for it to work properly.
We can never blame anyone for using blaster, or for not using small relays, or for only using large relays. All of this must be solved at a technical level behind the scenes where the user doesn't have to think about what is the correct way to use nostr.
Can you advise Andrew decent relays?
Advise any relays is all. This new phone's auto correct and suggestions are terrible.
Ahaha. A good analogy here is having to buy ASICs and do enough proof of work to finally mine a bitcoin block just to include a $50 transaction. Users would rather pay a miner to include their transactions.
🤝 agreed. People will jump through hoops if they are incentivized enough, sure. But we can do both: increase the appeal of using nostr AND build the tools properly so that is not a clusterfuck to do so.
Most people do not run a Bitcoin node, and their experience with transacting bitcoin is still smooth. The same goes for nostr. Most people do not run their own relays, yet nostr works. There are still improvements to be made, of course, just like there are improvements to be made with lightning channel rebalancing and all that stuff. Opting out of centralized services comes with the cost of some difficulties. No decentralized service will run like it's just a push of a button. My experience with the nostr Android client, Amethyst, has been nothing but smooth lately and the experience comes preaty close to "just push on the button". For most users the Nostr works, just like for most users lightning works :) In this note, I would like to express my gratitude to all the devs who have put their valuable time and money into building a better experience on top of nostr. Thank you all 💜
Relays don’t have good error messages for clients to parse and most clients just don’t show errors. I am working on standardize a subset of relay features in terms of proper error messages. Using relay as communities is my goal.
Relays have always been the most confusing stuff for nostr beginners. When you install a client it should be a blackbox which relays are picked to make it work as intended. Manual relay setup should be a advanced feature/option (hidden by some checkbox in client settings)
This is the the very fundament for any broader adoption of #nostr. #nostr is competing with the centralized big ones. the average Joe does not care how it works - it just has to work! after this one #nostr can work on what it has to offer differently than the big ones! nostr:note1pzg8dyzmpj882ztew9egcalkk2ycd2ckuv08me7gwrc3xn5zfp7slj5eca