Oddbean

That kind of business model doesn't work in high competition markets: nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp22rfmsktmgpk2rtan7zwu00zuzax5maq5dnsu5g3xxvqr2u3pd7qqghxatzwd3hy6tsw35k7mn5v4shyucfw4z8l There aren't many devs here that have experience with monetization in very open, competitive markets. Most either have zero entrepreneurial background and/or come from some kind of SaaS model. Damus' model sounds like they're starting a bar: - where the beer is free, but it's a mix of all kinds of beer (of which 90% is straight up ~~piss~~ Heineken) - where you can stay for max 3 hours - where some people pay a monthly fee for staying longer and access to some backroom This, in a street where you have millions of other bars: - that all cater to their own very specific beer-lover audiences - that are paid, but beat anything else in terms of price-quality - that can change their pricing any second to adapt to the volatile market forces in the industry - where customers are treated as part of the value add of the bar

Love your metaphors 😅 I agree with you. Still relays won't necessarily be directly monetized. We'll see. We need to learn from high volume low margin industries like -I think- online travel agencies (kayak etc) where data is sort of open, volume high and competition fierce

Yup, low margin stuff will exist It's just not where you start Those commodity business models are built on top of the flights that all are monetized directly. And like you say, they only work be sure of the volume, that exists because of the lower level business models.

I love this analogy and I think shows a dichotomy in the nostr world. One side is trying to replicate Twitter where clients are aggregating feeds from many relays and making it feel more like a global public square. The other is thinking about smaller, niche communities with a barrier to entry of some sort (more akin to the early internet with forums). I think both can exist but I personally want to build for the latter and I think the latter is easier to monetize.