{"id":"44b6612fb5ae997a5be2c56e46dc50ded97cdbeec1f360499d23e5daabc3cf1a","pubkey":"0d97beae567fcec9c6574f1c6ef6126ea969d4992c3198e51c0fac52c5274a14","created_at":1699474547,"kind":1,"sig":"c2e3831316b15da682ff0fabb523a99fc50cc1ca15afa854e7031b33ca03d2942588ea9f5a7218e18a72d01a94dab458575d2225b61dda991403c3094b164042","content":"Proof of work. The same mechanism used to prove costliness in bitcoin.\n\nThe ID of a nostr note is a hash of that note. Take the note, read it's bits as if it were a massive number, run that through a hashing algorithm that gives you a large random looking string of letters and numbers. That's the ID.\n\nAny tiny change to the note would completely change the ID that the algorithm calculates, but if the note is the same, it will always generate the same ID. When I say completely change, I mean in a way that is completely unpredictable but mathematically sound.\n\nNow let's set a restraint. We want the note's ID to begin with 00000.... That's five 0's. We don't know how to change the note to get that, but we know that if we keep changing it little by little, each time we have a 1 in X chance of satisfying the restraint.\n\nSaid another way, if we constantly tweak and guess, we should be able to find a suitable note within Y attempts.\n\nEach guess costs a bit of the computer's time and electricity. That's time it could have been doing something else, or sat idle taking less electricity.\n\nSo. The more 0's at the beginning of the ID of the note, the more energy was probably spent tweaking the note (btw this tweaking is not visible in the note, clients don't show it to you because it's not interesting... It's just a random number that satisfied the condition for that specific note.)\n\nAll based on maths and statistics.\n\nOkay so why do it? Because you can use this to sort by importance. If you think something is important, will you back that with some electricity bills? Burn some CPU, incur a cost to your electricity bill in a way that proves you did it and I'll believe that the note is important to you.\n\nWant to make a correction, burn some electricity to show how much more you care about this correction or I'll trust the first one more.\n\nIt's arbitrary imo, but maybe someone will find a way to make it all make sense.","tags":[["e","9468170eed2f677bec1897dd5dd1fc8aadbf5431f32b6dbd6cc3ddd2b825abf8","","root"],["p","27a9ee7edc5486882d7acd61e6631ff18a09e99b6ee5e45906f1d0dc60c61f5f"],["p","9ca0bd7450742d6a20319c0e3d4c679c9e046a9dc70e8ef55c2905e24052340b"]]}