Hey Ross, glad to see you on Nostr.
I've read your medium article. You're thinking within slave tech architecture, even your terminology like decentralized social protocol (DSP) is from the dinosaur era. The problem of most decentralized social media ecosystems is that they try to create a native solution for everything. Spasm is different because it's modular and agnostic, that's why it's the endgame of social media.
Don't get me wrong, I like Nostr, I know many Nostr devs, I was one of the winners of the first Nostr hackathon, and I've started integrating Nostr into Spasm in 2023. That said, Nostr is a closed ecosystem and it's at least one generation behind Spasm.
Let me take you on a wild Spasm ride so you can understand what I mean.
Firstly, let's see why Nostr is a closed ecosystem. Note that I use "ecosystem", not "protocol".
- Nostr locks you to one specific private key.
- Nostr locks you to one specific messaging protocol.
- All native Nostr apps support only one network.
- Most Nostr users use native mobile apps, which don't provide much freedom to e.g. sign arbitrary messages like web3 browser extensions.
- Nostr's most popular npm package 'nostr-tools' doesn't even expose a function to sign arbitrary messages, which is the most basic expectation of pretty much any other web3 library.
- The most popular Nostr app, Damus, is literally an iOS app.
- Most core devs are bitcoin maxis.
- The Nostr network is pretty centralized.
In other words, Nostr, SSB, Lens, Farcaster, Steem/Hive, Bluesky are much more open ecosystems than legacy social media platforms. However, when Spasm entered the room, the bar was raised so high that it became obvious that Spasm is the only truly open ecosystem, leaving all previous generations of social media as closed ecosystems.
Let's look at a few examples and how issues raised in your article can be solved.
Usernames are easily solved with an agnostic solution. Since Spasm supports different private keys, it can get the best from different ecosystems. For example, a non-unique name and bio can be fetched from Nostr, while a unique username can be fetched from various blockchain-based naming services like ENS. And there are privacy-preserving blockchain-based solutions, e.g., Zano aliases. Zano private keys have not been integrated into Spasm yet, but we've already discussed that option and it might happen this or next year.
Spasm is capable of what you're describing in the article because it can gather content from different networks, including Twitter-style social graph-based friend circles and Reddit-style niche forums.
The Spasm-powered forum also supports groundbreaking multi-signing, which allows users to sign the same message with different private keys and different messaging protocols and send it to different networks, while still having the same deterministic Spasm ID, meaning that all reactions and replies can be properly chained to the parent event regardless of the network they came from.
For example, I've published a detailed review of Session vs SimpleX architectures on MoneroTop.
MoneroTop
MoneroTop
Get your privacy back.
However, you can read the same article on DegenRocket because it partially federates with MoneroTop.
DegenRocket - DeFi, NFT, web3, privacy news aggregator for degens
DegenRocket - DeFi, NFT, web3, privacy news aggregator for degens
Get the most important news about Web3, DeFi, NFTs, and privacy. Interact with other degens by signing messages with your private key.
You can also read it on other Spasm instances that federate with DegenRocket using short or long Spasm ID, e.g.:
DarkVegas - welcome to the dark side
DarkVegas - welcome to the dark side
Lunarpunk message board
Since that event is multi-signed with both Ethereum and Nostr private keys, it has multiple IDs, so you can access it using a Nostr ID on any of the instances mentioned above, e.g.:
MoneroTop
MoneroTop
Get your privacy back.
Additionally, this event was pushed to the Nostr network, so you can find it via your native Nostr app, e.g.:
View quoted note →
Thus, you can get benefits from different networks and blockchains like Nostr's social graph and profile info as well as Ethereum-based social graphs provided by Farcaster or Lens and unique blockchain-based usernames like ENS. Nostr integration has already been implemented, while Farcaster, Lens, ENS, and other Ethereum-related integrations can be added later.
You can reply to the event with Ethereum or Nostr browser extension on a Spasm instance or using your native Nostr app as if it was a usual Nostr event.
Spasm-powered forums use reactions instead of flags, which can be used to filter content. Spasm instances can choose which reactions to use.
You're also focusing too much on ads in your article, which are mostly used in highly centralized networks with millions of users who don't have a habit of paying for social media services. There are many other ways to sustain a decentralized network, especially if it's not based on a social graph. Most Nostr apps currently rely on a social graph to show messages from a follow list and that requires huge Nostr relays with millions of events in order to provide good UX, which leads to centralization of the network.
There are other approaches, though. For example, Spasm is an agnostic solution, so it supports not only the Nostr network, but also other networks with different models of content distribution. Spasm-powered forums are mostly targeting many niche communities, which often don't require any ads to pay for infrastructure. Think about a conference that runs a Spasm instance so users can discuss details of the upcoming events on one forum, or a marketplace that runs a forum to discuss different products and vendors, or any other business or local community that can host a forum without serving any ads. These forums can also federate with each other, creating a highly decentralized and censorship-resistant network that doesn't rely on ads.
Let me know if you want to learn more about Spasm and the future of social media in general. You can reply to this message, send me DM on Nostr, find me on Session at 'degenrocket', or simply read more at
Spasm - The Future of Social Media
