Interesting technical solution. However looking at the stats it seems it lost the momentum: https://stats.nostr.band/
What happened?
Why I’m betting on Nostr
71–80 of 166 posts
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it. Either I validate who I am when I log in to Twitter, or I validate who I am when I set up my "Nostr" identity?
You generate a public/private key pair. When you want to send a message (tweet), you sign it with your private key and broadcast it to relay(s). The messages contain your pubkey so others know who sent it. Your messages are signed so others know they came from you.
How is trusting a third party to deliver you the authentic public keys isn't "trusting a third party"?
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#73Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no "zaps balance". Zaps are just receipts of lightning payments. The basic idea is that a lightning node will detect when the invoice with a nostr note inside is paid, and then send the receipt to nostr as a nostr note, with the original bolt11 invoice inside with the signature from the user who sent the zap. It's all described by NIP-57, a spec I put together to support this: https://github.com/nostr-protoc…
I read NIP-57 just now. I guess what confused me is I've used Nostr clients where everyone has a Zap button. Who is holding onto those lighting receive addresses until they specify where they want the funds to go? Like if someone Zaps me right now, I haven't specified a place for those Zaps to go. Do I call the Damus staff and they send the total of the micropayments Zapped to me over Nostr to a Bitcoin receive addre…
> if someone Zaps me right now, I haven't specified a place for those Zaps to go
then you can't be zapped
you can only be zapped if your profile has a tag in it that tells people where to send your zaps to
without that, a zap button shouldn't show up, and if it does show up, it shouldn't do anything
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#75The number of users is almost irrelevant in the context of Nostr because many clients generate a new ID. These aren't email-verified/phone-verified users -- this is literally just a new key/ID being generated. Some web apps auto-create a new ID and join the network every time you use them. Also, the signal to noise ratio is really bad with a lot of spam and almost all discussions related in some way to crypto. Nostr…
It is true anybody (or bot) can spin up new identites so the count of pubkeys doesn't say much. It is also true that there is spam. But it is avoidable. Spam lives in the general feed and in replies. You can configure clients to ignore the general feed, only show posts of people you follow (and maybe of people they follow). If you want to meet new people, then use relays that filter spam. You have choices of how to s…
> If you want to meet new people, then use relays that filter spam.
And tada! You have centralization... Because filtering spam is a very complex operation.
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read NIP-57 just now. I guess what confused me is I've used Nostr clients where everyone has a Zap button. Who is holding onto those lighting receive addresses until they specify where they want the funds to go? Like if someone Zaps me right now, I haven't specified a place for those Zaps to go. Do I call the Damus staff and they send the total of the micropayments Zapped to me over Nostr to a Bitcoin receive addre…
> if someone Zaps me right now, I haven't specified a place for those Zaps to go then you can't be zapped you can only be zapped if your profile has a tag in it that tells people where to send your zaps to without that, a zap button shouldn't show up, and if it does show up, it shouldn't do anything
Ok, this makes sense. I must have been using a client that had 'Zap' icons and because I didn't have a Zap balance I just assumed the buttons didn't work because I had no balance.
I didn't realize every single person who downloads a zap-supporting client had to also set up a separate app to handle the micro-transactions and host that app somewhere where it is available 24/7 in case their post gets zapped.
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#77Why not try xmpp?
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#78Nostr's very cool tech and I'm excited to see where it ends up. But I'm not sure it'll make for good social networks/apps that I'll care about. ActivityPub and Matrix get flak on the account portability issue and it's a valid one but it (and their design in general) provide a pressure on their communities to be very "cozy-web"[0] despite the few leviathan instances. Nostr's more than flexible (almost under-specified) that you can build your cozy spaces on top of it but I'm convinced its design allows it to be a real decentralized contender for the big social and I fear that's where its custodians are headed. It won't be long before we see Nostr service providers that replace all the core functionalities of Twitter like a good algorithm and moderation[1].
Personally, I don't want Twitter with pki. I don't want Twitter at all. I really hope Nostr keeps it cozy but hey, at least you'll get to personally choose your algorithm.
[0]: https://maggieappleton.com/cozy-web
[1]: https://primal.net has a great start
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#79Related. Others?
New content moderation system for Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37343373 - Aug 2023 (2 comments)
Social Media is broken. Can we fix it [with nostr]? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36698217 - July 2023 (1 comment)
How to verify your domain on Nostr and Bluesky (for micro.blog users) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36646598 - July 2023 (40 comments)
Show HN: Zapddit – a Reddit-style open-source client for nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36326468 - June 2023 (1 comment)
Show HN: Agora – Follow your favorite topics across Nostr, Bluesky, and Mastodon - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36210443 - June 2023 (3 comments)
Nostr – Decentralized social network - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35773168 - May 2023 (164 comments)
Nostr (“Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays”) – An Introduction - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35690659 - April 2023 (141 comments)
Decentralized Twitter Alternatives Bluesky and Nostr Experience Growing Pains - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35673764 - April 2023 (5 comments)
Jack Dorsey has set a 10 btc bounty for Nostr based alternative to GitHub - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35020964 - March 2023 (127 comments)
Mostr: A Fediverse Nostr Bridge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34999118 - March 2023 (3 comments)
A decentralized social network with a chance of working - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34937223 - Feb 2023 (9 comments)
Nostr, Love at First Sight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34901659 - Feb 2023 (1 comment)
Blogstack.io: blogging on nostr with lightning tips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34850871 - Feb 2023 (1 comment)
Set up a Nostr Relay server in under 5 minutes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34697020 - Feb 2023 (1 comment)
Nostr.how – A Complete Guide to Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34656925 - Feb 2023 (135 comments)
What do y’all think about Nostr? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34535910 - Jan 2023 (2 comments)
Nostr: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34526562 - Jan 2023 (154 comments)
Snowden on the Lightning Network on Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34507443 - Jan 2023 (91 comments)
Edward Snowden Joins Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34503748 - Jan 2023 (21 comments)
Move over Mastodon, here comes Nostr (and to set up your NIP-05 id) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34442708 - Jan 2023 (1 comment)
A Map of Nostr Relays - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34408692 - Jan 2023 (2 comments)
Awesome Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34406773 - Jan 2023 (2 comments)
Nostr Is the Decentralized Protocol That Might Replace Twitter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34174724 - Dec 2022 (5 comments)
Coracle – a web client for the Nostr protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34144111 - Dec 2022 (2 comments)
How to Start Using Nostr? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34090375 - Dec 2022 (1 comment)
Check Out the Nostr Protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34068676 - Dec 2022 (2 comments)
Jack Dorsey donates to develop decentralized social network protocol [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34002218 - Dec 2022 (9 comments)
Nostr is a stupid simple P2P protocol that works, built by builders - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33746360 - Nov 2022 (128 comments)
Nostr Protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31717981 - June 2022 (9 comments)
Jester: Chess over Nostr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31580536 - June 2022 (1 comment)
Fiatjaf/nostr – a censorship-resistant alternative to Twitter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29749061 - Dec 2021 (138 comments)
Nostr – The final solution to Twitter censorship as an open protocol, not P2P - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25104364 - Nov 2020 (6 comments)
Re: Why I’m betting on Nostr
#80Nostr's very cool tech and I'm excited to see where it ends up. But I'm not sure it'll make for good social networks/apps that I'll care about. ActivityPub and Matrix get flak on the account portability issue and it's a valid one but it (and their design in general) provide a pressure on their communities to be very "cozy-web"[0] despite the few leviathan instances. Nostr's more than flexible (almost under-specified)…
fwiw we’re plugging away at acct portability in Matrix via MSC4014, which is even implemented in the Dendrite server impl now…