A Key Requirement for All 'Trusted Ecosystems'

The key requirement of any 'trusted ecosystem' is to associated an 'identifier' with a 'managed process'. I use those "quoted" terms very liberally because this pattern can apply across a wide array of "ecosystems" and "contexts".

For example in #nostr , the 'identifier' is the #npub and the 'managed process' is reviewing someone's follow list to see if that #npub maps to a real person or not.

In the traditional word, this requirement of mapping an identifier to a managed process is pretty much an implicit assumption. In the web 2.0 world, mostly everyone by default, trusts "example.com" because they assume that whoever "manages" example.com is the legitimate domain name holder and website operator.

Where am I am going with this?

Npubs are a super innovation because they are self-generated and have an independent existence. But (and that's a big 'but'), if they are to be 'trusted' (i.e., relied on because of a 'managed process'), we need to formalize how this can be expressed. Right now the best option I see is #NIP05 because it is somewhat of a managed process (someone manages the #NIP05 website), and it provides an excellent link to the legacy world of domain names. The trick is, of course, is to leverage domain names, but not make it a dependency for the #nostr ecosystem.

Anyway, more thoughts to come....