# Benchmark Results Summary

Comparison of three Go Nostr libraries: **NWIO** (code.northwest.io/nostr), **NBD** (github.com/nbd-wtf/go-nostr), and **Fiat** (fiatjaf.com/nostr)

## Quick Performance Overview

### 🏆 Winners by Category

| Operation | Winner | Performance |
|-----------|--------|-------------|
| **Event Unmarshal** | NWIO/Fiat | ~2.5 µs (tied) |
| **Event Marshal** | NWIO | 1.79 µs (fastest, least memory) |
| **Event Serialize** | NBD | 129 ns (3x faster than NWIO) |
| **Compute ID** | Fiat | 276 ns (2x faster than NWIO) |
| **Generate Key** | NBD | 470 ns (80x faster!) |
| **Event Sign** | NBD/Fiat | ~59 µs (2x faster than NWIO) |
| **Event Verify** | NWIO | 99.7 µs (slightly faster) |
| **Filter Match** | NWIO | 7.1 ns (2x faster than Fiat) |
| **Filter Complex** | NWIO | 30.9 ns (fastest) |

## Detailed Results

### Event Unmarshaling (JSON → Event)
```
NWIO:  2,541 ns/op    888 B/op    17 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST, LOW MEMORY
NBD:   2,832 ns/op    944 B/op    13 allocs/op
Fiat:  2,545 ns/op    752 B/op    10 allocs/op  ⭐ LEAST MEMORY
```
**Analysis**: All three are very competitive. NWIO and Fiat are effectively tied. Fiat uses least memory.

### Event Marshaling (Event → JSON)
```
NWIO:  1,790 ns/op  1,010 B/op     3 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST, LEAST ALLOCS
NBD:   1,819 ns/op  1,500 B/op     6 allocs/op
Fiat:  1,971 ns/op  2,254 B/op    13 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: NWIO is fastest with minimal allocations. Significant memory advantage over competitors.

### Event Serialization (for ID computation)
```
NWIO:  391 ns/op    360 B/op    7 allocs/op
NBD:   129 ns/op    208 B/op    2 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST, 3x faster
Fiat:  161 ns/op    400 B/op    3 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: NBD dominates here with optimized serialization. NWIO has room for improvement.

### Event ID Computation
```
NWIO:  608 ns/op    488 B/op    9 allocs/op
NBD:   302 ns/op    336 B/op    4 allocs/op
Fiat:  276 ns/op    400 B/op    3 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST
```
**Analysis**: NBD and Fiat are 2x faster. NWIO should optimize ID computation path.

### Key Generation
```
NWIO:  37,689 ns/op    208 B/op    4 allocs/op
NBD:     470 ns/op    369 B/op    8 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST, 80x faster!
Fiat:  25,375 ns/op    272 B/op    5 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: ⚠️ NWIO is significantly slower. NBD appears to use a different key generation strategy. This is the biggest performance gap.

### Event Signing
```
NWIO:  129,854 ns/op  2,363 B/op   42 allocs/op
NBD:    59,069 ns/op  2,112 B/op   35 allocs/op  ⭐ TIED FASTEST
Fiat:   58,572 ns/op  1,760 B/op   29 allocs/op  ⭐ LEAST MEMORY
```
**Analysis**: NBD and Fiat are 2x faster. NWIO has more allocations in signing path.

### Event Verification
```
NWIO:   99,744 ns/op    953 B/op   19 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST
NBD:   105,995 ns/op    624 B/op   11 allocs/op  ⭐ LEAST MEMORY
Fiat:  103,744 ns/op    640 B/op    9 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: NWIO is slightly faster (6% faster than others). Very competitive across all three.

### Filter Matching (Simple)
```
NWIO:  7.1 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST, 2x faster
NBD:  10.8 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op
Fiat: 16.4 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: NWIO excels at filter matching! Zero allocations across all libraries.

### Filter Matching (Complex with Tags)
```
NWIO:  30.9 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op  ⭐ FASTEST
NBD:   33.4 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op
Fiat:  42.6 ns/op    0 B/op    0 allocs/op
```
**Analysis**: NWIO maintains lead in complex filters. Important for relay implementations.

## Optimization Opportunities for NWIO

### High Priority 🔴
1. **Key Generation** - 80x slower than NBD
   - Current: 37.7 µs
   - Target: ~500 ns (similar to NBD)
   - Impact: Critical for client applications

2. **Event Signing** - 2x slower than competitors
   - Current: 130 µs
   - Target: ~60 µs (match NBD/Fiat)
   - Impact: High for client applications

### Medium Priority 🟡
3. **Event Serialization** - 3x slower than NBD
   - Current: 391 ns
   - Target: ~130 ns (match NBD)
   - Impact: Used in ID computation

4. **ID Computation** - 2x slower than competitors
   - Current: 608 ns
   - Target: ~280 ns (match Fiat)
   - Impact: Affects every event processing

## Current Strengths of NWIO ✅

1. **Filter Matching** - 2x faster than Fiat, fastest overall
2. **Event Marshaling** - Fastest with minimal allocations
3. **Event Verification** - Slightly faster than competitors
4. **Memory Efficiency** - Competitive or better in most operations

## Recommendations

### For Relay Implementations
- **NWIO excels**: Best filter matching performance
- All three are competitive for event parsing/verification

### For Client Implementations
- **NBD/Fiat preferred**: Much faster key generation and signing
- NWIO needs optimization in crypto operations

### Overall Assessment
- **NWIO**: Best for relay/filter-heavy workloads
- **NBD**: Most balanced, excellent crypto performance
- **Fiat**: Good all-around, lowest memory in some operations

## Running Your Own Benchmarks

```bash
# Run all benchmarks
./run_benchmarks.sh

# Compare specific operations
go test -bench=BenchmarkEventSign -benchmem comparison_bench_test.go
go test -bench=BenchmarkFilterMatch -benchmem comparison_bench_test.go

# Statistical analysis with benchstat
go test -bench=. -count=10 comparison_bench_test.go > results.txt
benchstat results.txt
```