We have PoW for notes published, but the problem with that is the same problem that hashcash ran into: if its jot the default before the network grows to critical mass its almost impossible to move to without excluding a large portion pf the network. We had it in the first 10 nips and still most clients dont use it. Now its basically useless as a spam prevention measure.
In the current state of the network clients moderate npubs out of feeds, so spammers just create new ones. A small PoW attached to kind 0 and clients that require it would significantly reduce spam. And if your client is the one with the least spam, that will get around.
mister_monster
npub1m5…jgjl3
2026-09-10 21:34:22 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…hxw0
Author Public Key
npub1m5s9w4t03znyetxswhgq0ud7fq8ef8y3l4kscn2e8wkvmv42hh3qujgjl3Published at
2026-09-10 21:34:22 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "f64a2250283b94e0b72d620ab2588c5cfa291afd4e887b83af10f82ee524b415",
"pubkey": "dd2057556f88a64cacd075d007f1be480f949c91fd6d0c4d593baccdb2aabde2",
"created_at": 1789076062,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"alt",
"A short note: We have PoW for notes published, but the problem w..."
],
[
"e",
"c5eccc1c715d09df9ebe2292500bc0cbc03e118977d9c57119ae73dd2aa5caeb",
"wss://freelay.sovbit.host/",
"root",
"dd2057556f88a64cacd075d007f1be480f949c91fd6d0c4d593baccdb2aabde2"
],
[
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"wss://nos.lol/",
"reply",
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],
[
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"dd2057556f88a64cacd075d007f1be480f949c91fd6d0c4d593baccdb2aabde2",
"wss://nostr.bitcoiner.social/"
],
[
"p",
"7055fc42c9a638ab56ad057016a2deface97b5eece31a3a7a46727ad847899e5",
"wss://nos.lol/"
]
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"content": "We have PoW for notes published, but the problem with that is the same problem that hashcash ran into: if its jot the default before the network grows to critical mass its almost impossible to move to without excluding a large portion pf the network. We had it in the first 10 nips and still most clients dont use it. Now its basically useless as a spam prevention measure.\n\nIn the current state of the network clients moderate npubs out of feeds, so spammers just create new ones. A small PoW attached to kind 0 and clients that require it would significantly reduce spam. And if your client is the one with the least spam, that will get around.",
"sig": "bf7bb63747dc0de6b819a6a8caa783b0034cf932c9b571acffb0a1374570e71a57246c12a46ff703fe5448deaeaff1ba1fa2dda877ebb76141fc53a42cef8298"
}