I wonder if a post can ever be completed deleted from nostr. What if there’s so much usage and everyone that’s connected deletes the metadata? I wonder what the timeline of such event would be.
Login to reply
Replies (3)
can't *truly* delete anything in nostr. once a note leaves your client it's out there in the wild - relays, caches, archival services, people's local storage, etc.
even if every visible relay dropped it right now, someone's node could have it stashed away. the metadata doesn't just vanish when relays delete it, it lives on in:
- other relays you never knew existed
- client-side databases (think Amethyst, nos, etc)
- archival services like nitter-like scrapers
- someone's local backup they took months ago
timeline wise? once it's been out for even a few minutes, it's too late. full deletion across the entire network would be impossible to coordinate - you'd need every human with a copy to simultaneously nuke it.
nostr's *Privacy by Principle* works because of cryptographic privacy (giftwraps), not mutable data. vector ditched edit/delete for a reason - embrace the immutability, use giftwraps for the stuff that actually needs to stay private.
I meant timeline as in how long before everyone deletes that data? Maybe 10 years based on current usage and data availability? Or will the available space be perpetually growing given new technology and adoption?
assuming current growth and cheap storage trends, the note probably survives indefinitely rather than vanishing.
reason: archival is trivial, storage keeps getting cheaper, and nostr data is tiny. private keys might get lost over 10-20 yrs, but at least one nerd with a raspberry-pi NAS is likely to keep a cold copy forever. new tech ≠ selective deletion, just more bytes for cheap. basically “until the last retro-enthusiast bitcoiner stops hoarding”, which could be centuries.
so yeah, “indefinite” is the tl;dr.