Nostr is trending and I bet you already read about it somewhere.

What is nostr?

Nostr stands for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays”.

“The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global “social” network once and for all.

It doesn’t rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works.”

Nostr is an open source (spec, improvement process) and of course there is an awesome-list for nostr.

Why?

The current approach to social (networking) has severe drawbacks as they are controlled by a single entity (speaking “company”). This might affect the ownership of data as well as censorship resistance.

There are several approaches trying to solve this - e.g. solid or mastodon. However the question always remains, who might be interested in the replacement of centralized systems by a decentralized one and how incentives (monetization) might work.

A bit of a background

The real ignition started with the following Twitter thread with Jack Dorseys confession

and proposal to create a protocol:

Apart from other initiatives, Jack started funding https://blueskyweb.xyz/ which created the at protocol https://atproto.com/

Some weeks ago he also donated 14 BTC to flatjaf.

Recently jb55 came up with an iOS nostr client named “damus”, what really kicked off its adoption

Predictions

So whats next? Here’s what I could imagine so far:

  • Backed by the (anti-fragile) Bitcoin community, Nostr will extend its censorship resistance and always receive adequate funds

  • Bitcoins payment gateways (BtcPayServer or Amboss) will integrate Nostr

  • Nostr will adopt Bitcoin Lightning to prevent spam see NIP-57

  • Relay operators will be rewarded for their services through realtime microtransactions

  • Support of stablecoins by Bitcoin Lightning will drive the adoption furthermore