> [Regarding SSB:] It insists on having a chain of updates from a single user, which feels unnecessary to me and something that adds bloat and rigidity to the t

> [Regarding SSB:] It insists on having a chain of updates from a single user, which feels unnecessary to me and something that adds bloat and rigidity to the thing — each server/user needs to store all the chain of posts to be sure the new one is valid. Why? (Maybe they have a good reason) I think the reason for the chaining is that it creates a causal ordering of posts. You will never see the n+1th post without also seeing the nth post. Not having this means posts being dropped by a peer for some reason may change the meaning of the sequence of posts in the eyes of the readers. Imagine for example sending "The previous post is a joke." If posts aren't chained cryptographically, there's no way to know that you have a complete sequence of previous posts, or if some are missing.