Oddbean

Let's not get carried away. Nostr is built on top of http, so is part of the web. That's the reason it's successful because the web can get through firewalls, and P2P cant. Nostr cant replace the web since the web is a superset of nostr. Nostr has some *design patterns* that can be used to benefit the web, and also provide a bridge to the all important bitcoin payments network. Everything in it's right place. The web for massive scaling, bandwidth and storage. Nostr relays for realtime updates. An identity and signature system that spans both.

People use the words web and internet interchangeably. Nostr uses the web in the sense that it runs over the http protocol, but it is not necessarily the web, and it will expand beyond it for example it does not rely on https for its security, and it may (it needs to) move beyond DNS.

Nostr is a system built on top of http, which is a web standard. Nostr operates at a different functional layer. It is not a formaly standardized, indeed nobody can tell you who controls it, right now. It is somewhere between an API and a higher layer protocol. A key thing is implementation variability. Another is scalability. In any case you cant compare nostr to the web, it's a system built on the web. Therefore, anything nostr can do, the web can do, and more, because the web is a well-defined supserset of nostr. The trick is to take nostr design patterns and proliferate them across the web, brinking new functionality to a wider audience.

I agree with everything you say, and I don't think nostr should aim to be a network independent of the web standards. But I also think web might benefit in many ways if we inject nostr somewhere between http transport and html presentation layer (like we do with npub.pro sites, and like all web nostr apps do), which is what I meant when I said "rebuild the web on top of nostr". Should I have said "rebuild the web WITH nostr"?

Perfect. npub.pro is a really significant innovation. Because it ties together two worlds. It's more than a bridge. It's like putting two jigsaw pieces together to make everything around it make more sense. More can be done in this direction, but a truly excellent start.

I am experimenting with npub login where authorization is an encrypted dm challenge/response (no need to type in 6 digit code at site). When it’s ready, I will show you and you might consider it for your login.

Yeah, the penny dropped when I saw what you did with npub login (kicking myself, why didn’t I think of that!). I realized I could generalize extend and make every #nostr client an authenticator, too!