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jb55 _@jb55.com 9 months ago
A nostr client connects directly to relays via websockets and pulls down notes via the nip01 specification. This is the bare minimum. If you don’t do this you’re not a nostr client. Imagine creating a web browser that doesn’t connect to web server directly. Instead you connect to a central server that makes the request for you and completely MITMs you, losing all verification. This server can tell you what sites you’re allowed to visit, and will randomly stop working when the server goes down. You wouldn’t call this a web browser (aka web client). It’s just not the same thing. People who build real web browsers would be frustrated that they are marketing themselves as the best new web browser for the http protocol. People trying the web for the first time get spied on, censored, and generally have a slow and unreliable expeirence. Now they think: wow the world wide web sucks and leaves. This is why it’s important to use words properly and not let people affinity attack well defined terms.

Replies (1)

This is probably the best explanation of the issue with calling Primal a "client" that I have seen. Thank you! If the app you are running on your device isn't reading directly from Nostr relays, it's probably fair to call it something else, rather than a Nostr client. Otherwise, it would be akin to calling something a Bitcoin node when it isn't downloading and validating blocks locally, but merely trusting the information sent to it from some outside source. I think I like your idea of calling Primal's apps "Nostr gateways" instead of clients.