tf on Nostr: In freely associating networks the topology emerges from the interplay between the ...

In freely associating networks the topology emerges from the interplay between the constraints of the protocol and market forces

The Fediverse is a classic federated topology



Blue represents clients and orange represents servers ("instances" in Fediverse parlance)

Servers may choose not to federate to other servers

Users may self-host (one server per client) in which case the distinction between client and server is more a matter of code and computing distribution than a meaningful feature of the topology

Nostr is kind of half-federated with even greater fungibility between client and server



There is nothing stopping Nostr from rearranging into a Fediverse topology

There is nothing stopping Nostr or the Fediverse from rearranging into a centralized topology



Or even a distributed topology