If you’re into Bitcoin, you’ve probably heard of “Nostr,” a weird, almost unpronounceable word that stands for “Notes and other things delivered by relay”. This summary that has dominated the minds of Bitcoin technologists for years has a great idea. That you don’t have to be locked in the social media giant to talk to your friends.
It was created at the beginning of COVID19 by Fiatjaff in March 2020, today the Nostr protocol has a seemingly unlimited number of websites built around this niche, with world leaders like Edward Snowden and Jack Dorsey famous on the platform.
Unlike the internet and social media today, Nostr allows users to take their followers and content with them from page to page, from app to app, as they see fit. Algorithms are in the hands of users, enabling greater control, diversity and resistance to compression, qualities that are often lost in today’s high-tech internet.
A tool for Bitcoin Evangelism
Built on Bitcoin’s common technology, Nostr has supported bitcoin payments called zaps since almost day one. Its login system is more similar to a Bitcoin wallet than any other login profile, which makes it possible to create new and innovative online transactions.
Artists have begun to find a way to this strange corner of the Internet, as they do, to expand their business in the areas of countries that control Bitcoin, not only to appreciate great art, but to make a point. Proving that, no matter where you are in the world, Bitcoin can be delivered to your door.
Take it pubpayfor example, a Nostr-powered music site built to promote musicians not only online, but live. I saw this app in action at a Bitcoin party in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. The page displayed on the big screen showed the artist on stage, holding a large QR code and a board of Zaps, small bitcoin donations given to the artist on the lightning network. Those who gave more went to the top, boasting, while the artist said sats.
Listen to the progress tab of Wavlakefor example, another song dedicated to the Nostr site with a smooth design and access to amazingly good music.
Stories of promoting new people to Bitcoin through Nostr social media programs like Primal are common at Bitcoin forums and conferences. First thing is a Twitter clone built from the ground up by Nostr, without a doubt the fastest way to enter this social media niche, start growing your followers and start stacking sats by writing great content.
Unlike the same boring Bitcoin wallet whose principles are now more than 15 years old, the Nostr program is new and has a direct pipeline that can be offered to newcomers if they do well, making them fall down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.
Easy to Understand Nostr
Built on Bitcoin’s native cryptography, Nostr uses public addresses and private keys to authenticate its users, similar to Bitcoin wallets. Nostr addresses all start with “npub” while private keys start with “nsec”. Users sign documents or messages they want to transmit to the Nostr network with their private key. The signed documents can be found by checking the public address. Like traditional social media apps, users can track and communicate on the Nostr ecosystem.
Information about who they follow, and what they have published, is stored on relays, special servers that users can manage themselves, and that connect with other connections to different channels, similar to Bitcoin nodes.
Forms and applications can be built on top of Nostr to allow users to view their social network in different ways, and there are many different ways, from Twitter-like clones such as Primal and Amathyst, to blogs, music as well as small movie sites like Divine. Basically, any website can be integrated with Nostr as long as it makes its users follow Nostr, and user generated content is available through links.
If you get tired of one program or don’t like the way it treats you, you can just grab your nsec and move to another one. This new app will scan your npub, find all your friends, posts and interests and let you keep in touch with them without any problems. In other words, the internet results built on Nostr software are yours, controlled by you and not the platform. This is the main idea of Nostr, and that is why many Bitcoiners are obsessed with it.
More than Social Media
It is important to note that Nostr is not an online dating service; it is basically an open and scalable information system that can transfer any kind of data. Devices can communicate with each other through the nose without seeing it. In fact, many programs have already been developed to send data on Nostr; Many of these programs can be found in one of the most important areas of the ecosystem, the Locks.
That’s right, Nostr has its own dedicated store, and it’s impressive. Led by a gentleman known as FranzapsThe open source Nostr-powered app store gives you direct and often quick access to more than 150 apps in the Nostr ecosystem, published directly by its developers, signed privately and publicly with their Nostr keys.
But Zapstore goes beyond its Nostr niche; it allows you to download many popular software published on GitHub. We are talking about 3000 of the most popular programs, according to Fran, who spoke to Bitcoin Magazine in an exclusive interview. Examples like Mullvad VPN and Brave browser can be found on Zapstore, along with many others; it can change the Play Store and App Store easily to the user’s privacy, by passing to giveand points that Google and Apple have been building inside mobile phones.
The Zapstore app goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of apps through cryptography. Fran explained that “Android uses the APK format. All APKs have an app signature, and that’s what Android looks for when updating.” Google now successfully conducts KYCs for its software developers, but Nostr was implemented, to determine if an application was published by the developer, the Nostr certificate is used. “Nostr is a *social* protocol where the keys carry people, so since Zeus signed their wallet, you can be sure it’s the real one.”
This concept of Nostr’s historical evidence is known as the Web of Trust. When you log into the Zapstore with your Nostr key, you can see if anyone you follow has done anything with the app’s publisher, the world’s first trusted site for security and authentication.
Fran estimates that the Zapstore has about 4,000 users every day, installing or updating at least one app. This is an estimate – he explained, “because we consider privacy, we don’t track the client and we have to get it from Blossom’s server data.”
Digital Identity on Hard Mode
Since authentication at Nostr is done through Bitcoin-public encryption, the security measures to protect your identity are the same. Instead of emails, passwords and password resets, at Nostr, you need to be careful to ensure that your nsec (secret key) is not stolen. If it ends up on the dark web somehow, there is not much you can do to recover it, and your information and data cannot be transferred to two new keys either; the destroyer can control. For years, I have been critical of this designbut when the solution to the password reset process in Nostr is not widely accepted, other solutions have emerged, such as remote signers.
Ambera program created by Greenart7c3, a famous Nostr artist, can create and sign Nostr events remotely, giving you full control over nsec, without showing it to any website you connect to. This technology works well, and it takes a lot. It takes advantage of NIP-46 – Nostr’s open concept designed for this purpose.
If you’ve never had a Nostr account, Amber is a great place to start, generate your Nostr key, and use it to access Nostr apps.
Zappa Zappa!
Nostr’s most popular feature, the so-called “moat” of Nostr software, is Zap. Small bitcoin tips, which can be as little as 1 satoshi, although they can be very high, are the new Nostr sites designed mainly around onchain Zaps, making it easy to exceed 1500 sats. Zaps, therefore, are able to provide the recipient with a high level of dopamine compared to the price, the Facebook update “like”, and the weight of the world’s most difficult money behind it. Zap establishes acceptance and value for a product that cannot be manipulated by sock-puppet accounts on social media. If you want to test the popularity of a post, you have to pay.
The potential for Zaps is still in its infancy, but one day it could serve as a form of marketing, paying consumers for content, or as an undeniable token of gratitude from Nostr users to the products they’ve created.
Setting up Zaps on your Nostr account however can be easy, there are two sides to getting your Zaps, sending and receiving, and for both you need the right type of Bitcoin wallet. Not all Bitcoin wallets are created equal, as you may know. Most focus on managing onchain transactions, which, in most cases, are not compatible with Zaps. You need a lightning wallet that supports NIP-57, which gives you email like nym, like (email protected)a public address that can receive lightning payments. And you also have to send Zaps from the lightning wallet, which should not be what you receive.
The easiest way to get started remotely is to use it Primal.netprobably Nostr’s most popular client to date. Primal has a deep arsenal of Nostr users and often acts as a gateway to the universe. This is a bag that is designed to stay on the defensive side of the line of command, as well as being a low-effort, low-cost lightning bag. It does this by using Sparkprotocol 2 similar to lightning.
Most importantly, the Primal wallet supports Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) very powerful and ecologically stable under NIP-47, which allows you to connect Nostr websites to the wallet, to Zaps, without giving any site to store your satoshis.
Other options are based on running and Alby lightning nodewhich costs 12 dollars per month for server fees, too much if you ask me, although a good option for power users. Or running a Electrum Lightning Bag from the home machine and make sure it is always open and online. From there, there are a variety of lightning programs that hobbyists can install and make compatible with NWC and Nostr Zaps.
An overview of the Nostr Ecosystem
To include all the tools mentioned above, here are some of the most popular Nostr sites and tools I found during my deep dive into the Nostr universe, in no particular order.
Social media apps:
Trusted resource website:
Bitcoin Wallets + Nostr:
Remote Sign-in and Key Management:
Other:
