Also, I have developed a lot of ways to get around the limitations of NIP-01. Buried in NIP-01 there is a little section talking about extensions, which are distinguished by the underscore prefix—like my `_graph` uses. So even though the framework is very constrained for general use and interoperability, deploying relays with extensions to `REQ` and `COUNT` queries could create a much more approachable API for seasoned app developers. It would also, by dint of the massive improvement in performance and resource utilisation, pull users away from naive implementations and towards relays with better capabilities like the ones I am building.

Replies (1)

I'm not going to attempt to steel man my case here, because it wouldn't matter if I did. It's a fundamental issue that cannot resolved without nuking everything. But it seems obvious to me that using a binary encoding format (think protocol buffers, though I'm not pushing a particular format here) would be superior in every way, and I suspect that their rationale for using a stringified format was more about prioritizing a vision where reaching as many people as possible, under the assumption that the browser was the dominant model for access, trumped common sense design for the protocol. I just don't trust their judgement.