So, I managed to set up my Alby Hub and partially connect it to SN. Thus, I received a horse:
My nerve-wrecking experiences this morning (fighting with Alby and with connections and clicking buttons I don't understand what they do) have now resulted in the following:
- I'm less confident I understand what's going on.
- I can only non-custody zap from browser, whereas my phone—which I use to zap and comment quickly on the go—draws from my SN balance. (ed.: and now with a balance, even the browser draws from here and not my connected wallet. Ugh, hopeless.)
- There is now an extra fee involved in each transaction, so I'm torn between having a low payout threshold (so that funds don't get stuck in SN) and a high payout threshold (so that I economize on fees). Didn't have that worry before, when I could merely hold a small balance and manually withdraw to Alby, Blink, or Phoenix when it was time.
- when(!) something goes wrong, I'll be even less able to troubleshoot wth is up since the whole ordeal is more intertwined and incomprehensible than before.
I know there are some guides (#734359, #816152 etc...) but like @elvismercury says: "This will reveal that I am a dumbass":
the guides seemed less than helpful, either because they were overwhelming or there were steps I had to do that wasn't covered—or worse, because they assumed tech abilities well beyond anything I could master and/or care to learn in a few hours.
I'm pretty new here (#827557) so I don't presume to tell others—much more tech savvy, business-minded and those with with plenty more experience than me—how to run their ships.
What I will say is this:
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the economics slash sustainability of SN was already doubtful, bankrolled by the daily donations, and while I'm happy to take the sats while it lasts, I have pretty low confidence that there will be enough boost/ad/fees to generate such amounts in the future. Since we're all assmilkers here—somebody call Darth!— once the money runs out most of the remaining engagement soon will as well.
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The second thing is the recruitment/spread/growth aspect of this. Switching costs are a thing, most people are busy and don't want to add an extra hassle or learn a new thing: If it's not easier or noticeably better than what I have, why bother? Among the dozen or so people I've explained SN to, no more than one or two have been even remotely interested (and only @Shugard actually showing up and made an effort). Everyone else have been put off mostly by the tech obstacle of yet another app/login/safekeep/walled garden. (At least Nostr has the promise of integrating with everyone...)
With the upgraded noncustodial/connection debacle, we have that tech obstacle so much worse.
Now, for the economics to work, SN needs scale. 10x or 100x the usual suspects on here: More people making more content and comments+posts such that boosting becomes valuable for advertisers and that the activity can generate funds etc—for our beautiful SN overlords as well as ourselves through the leaderboard pot.
But more people means you're catering to a clientele that will be less tech savvy and less willing/able to connect fivehundred things and run them noncustodially, over Tor, from an offgrid location powered by your own diesel-generator. Honestly, guys, nobody gives a shit.
With the next dozen people I tell about SN, I'm going to have even less luck now that I can't even explain what they have to do to get their hands on the sats they're supposedly earning from commenting and shitposting.
Bitcoin is difficult enough, to grasp intellectually or to care for cryptographically.
Hesitantly lukewarm on the future here.
if you don't get the reference, you're in for an internet treat:
