Linking to External Website Archives

NIP-YY#

Linking to External Website Archives#

draft

Abstract#

This NIP defines a mechanism for referencing archived websites stored on external systems (e.g., IPFS, Arweave, Archive.org) using Nostr events. It enables Nostr clients to share and retrieve links to archived web content, leveraging external storage for scalability while maintaining Nostr’s decentralized discovery.

Motivation#

Archiving websites on external systems like IPFS or Arweave provides scalable, permanent storage. This NIP allows Nostr users to share references to these archives, ensuring discoverability and verifiability within the Nostr ecosystem while offloading storage to specialized platforms.

Event Kind#

• Kind 34205: External website archive reference.

Event Structure#

• content: A JSON object containing:
  • title: The title of the archived website.
  • description: A brief description of the archived content.
  • url: The original URL of the website (if applicable).
  • archived_at: The timestamp of archiving (Unix timestamp).
• tags:
  • ["u", "<archive URL>"]: The URL or identifier of the archive (e.g., ipfs://<CID>, https://arweave.net/<tx-id>, https://web.archive.org/web/...).
  • ["x", "<SHA-256 hash>"]: The SHA-256 hash of the archived content (e.g., a ZIP file or root HTML) for integrity verification.
  • ["m", "<archive type>"]: The type of archive (e.g., ipfs, arweave, archive.org).
  • ["d", "<website identifier>"]: A unique identifier for the website.
• pubkey: The public key of the user sharing the archive link.
• sig: The signature verifying the event’s authenticity.

Example:

{
  "kind": 34205,
  "content": "{\"title\":\"Example Site\",\"description\":\"An archived website on IPFS\",\"url\":\"https://example.com\",\"archived_at\":1738794235}",
  "tags": [
    ["u", "ipfs://QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco"],
    ["x", "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2"],
    ["m", "ipfs"],
    ["d", "f7d8e9a2-4b3c-4e5a-9f6b-3c8d7f1e2a3d"]
  ],
  "pubkey": "27866e9d854c78ae625b867eefdfa9580434bc3e675be08d2acb526610d96fbe",
  "created_at": 1738794235,
  "id": "c9d0e1f2-4b3c-4e5a-9f6b-3c8d7f1e2a3d",
  "sig": "..."
}

Client Behavior#

Publishing an Archive Link#

1. Archive the website on an external system (e.g., upload to IPFS, Arweave, or Archive.org).
2. Compute the SHA-256 hash of the archived content.
3. Create a kind 34205 event with the archive URL, hash, and metadata.
4. Publish the event to Nostr relays.

Retrieving an Archived Website#

1. Query relays for the kind 34205 event using the website identifier (via d tag).
2. Fetch the archived content from the URL in the u tag.
3. Verify the content’s SHA-256 hash against the x tag.
4. Render the website in the client.

Relay Behavior#

• Store and serve kind 34205 events as standard Nostr events.
• Support filtering by kind and d tag.

Backwards Compatibility#

• Non-supporting clients and relays ignore kind 34205, ensuring no disruption.
• Uses standard Nostr tags (u, x, m, d) for consistency.

Security Considerations#

• Integrity: Clients must verify the SHA-256 hash in the x tag.
• Availability: External systems may go offline; clients should support multiple archive URLs (via multiple u tags).
• Privacy: Archive content is public unless encrypted (e.g., via NIP-04 or NIP-44).

References#

• NIP-01: Basic Protocol Flow
• NIP-94: File Metadata