the smart thing to do would be to save a 100 x 100 pixel "avatar" version of an image to act as a checksum plus the addresses of five highest resolution matches of that image found online. then display the highest res version that loads first and matches the avatar visually. almost every image posted on Nostr was originally downloaded from somewhere online where it is already hosted for free. those images which are original can be marked as such by user, but frankly the user should just host those himself. there is no need to save 10 different copies of an image every time somebody posts a picture of Putin riding a bear.

Its not about all about images and media though. There are tons of other files that need to be hosted and re-uploaded in their original form IMO a big shortcoming of most hosting services is they only focus on the media, as if that where the only things the internet was made of Also, brilliant ideas? If I ever claimed to have brilliant ideas I would end up eating my words within a month

In a world of AI image generation I don't want a central service that decides that an image is "close enough" to the original. I want exactly the original image that the author intended. Cryptographically Identified by the hash.