Nostr: What you need to know about the social network of bitcoiners

From the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, social networks are receiving more and more criticism for their “centralized” management; Having become spaces of censorship and excessive advertising, many people are leaving social networks and looking for alternatives. There is no shortage of attempts and we see the emergence of new social networks gaining ground every day.

There is a network that is getting more attention in the cryptosphere and it is Nostr.

A developer known as @fiatjaf on Twitter has created this new social network protocol close to the philosophy of Bitcoin: Nostr. This social network even integrates payments in Lightning network.

Nostr gained visibility thanks to Jack Dorsey, who is none other than the founder of Twitter. He even donated more than 14 bitcoins (or approximately $250,000) for the development of this very promising new social network.

We will see what Nostr is, why it is particularly appreciated by bitcoiners and finally how to set up your own account on this decentralized social network.

What is Nostr?

Nostr is actually an acronym that stands for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.” It can be translated into French as “Notes and other elements transmitted by relays”.

So, think of Nostr as a social network where you can post “notes” (the equivalent of tweeting), like posts and follow people of your choice.

The thing to understand about Nostr is that it is an open-source protocol. A protocol is a set of rules that servers and clients use to communicate with each other. It's the same thing for Bitcoin or electronic messaging protocols like Gmail for example.

It is important to do not confuse a protocol and an application! In fact, many applications can be built on the protocol. Just like Bitcoin, Nostr is a protocol open-source that can be used by everyone, without censorship or any restrictions.

Thus, there are applications like the one created by the client “Damus”, from a decentralized twitter. And this is the great contribution of Nostr. You can create several types of applications.

What are the advantages of Nostr?

Ultimately, Nostr resembles the social networking applications we know with the advantages of decentralization:

Accessible and Anonymous. No phone number or registration is required. Just type your avatar name and you can use the network.
Secured. It’s a open source software. You can verify that your data remains safe.
Available. It works with multiple networks and no centrally managed servers.

Why is Nostr arousing so much enthusiasm among bitcoiners?

For supporters of freedom of expression, Nostr is the ideal tool. For example, we saw the closure of Donald Trump's Twitter account. For some, this closure is a form of censorship of freedom of speech.

Thus, libertarians seek a completely free medium of communication where no voice is censored. Likewise, there is no advertising, no algorithm that will decide to highlight one content rather than another, etc. There is no private group with investors who generate profits through the voracious use of users.

No ads, no spam, just freedom of expression. It is in the idea and the absolute what a bitcoiner is looking for.

However, let's make one point clear: Nostr is an Internet protocol that is different from Bitcoin. Nostr is not a blockchain and does not have native tokens. Don't confuse the two. Moreover Nostr is not the only protocol decentralized social networks. There are others like Mastodont or Bluesky that we have listed in this article: The 5 alternatives to Twitter in a decentralized version.

What are the steps to follow to “install” Nostr?

Our: When we say “install Nostr”, we mean using one of its “clients” to be able to access the Nostr network.

Here are the steps:

Visit a client:

On the Web : iris.to ou astral.ninja (Iris.to is relatively simple, especially for a beginner).

On iOS: damus
Android: amethyst

For example, here is the screenshot if you choose the “Iris” client. After entering your name, you will immediately have a public key and a private key and you can follow, comment with the members of your choice.

For the pair of keys, save them carefully and securely. This will therefore be your “identity”. You can then share your public key with anyone you want.

The same key can be used on all Nostr clients. If you want to create multiple identities, you can perfectly create multiple key pairs.

You can then immediately start using Nostr. To do this, you can update your profile and add a photo for example. You can add a name and even a small “bio” section.

Now it's up to you to follow the people you want to follow and start conversations. There is a feed on Astral.ninja where you can see and read messages from other users. The nostr.io/stats page shows the most followed and active users.

This is what the Nostr feed looks like on Astral

How does Nostr work?

To use Nostr, you must run what is called a “client”. This name refers to how you will interact with Nostr.

By registering on Nostr, you have two keys:

—>a public key: This is your username (in the same way as your name preceded by an @on Twitter for example.

—>a private key: this is your password.

If you want to find a Nostr username, like on Twitter, you can find them by their public key. This is why many people are currently publishing their keys on Twitter. This is for example the case of Jack Dorsey who even displayed it on the bio of his Twitter account.

How to install Alby web extension?

If all this seems complex to you (it's normal, don't worry), there is a way of doing things that can help you. The method consists of. install an Alby type extension wallet. This wallet allows you to make payments on le Lightning Network.⚡ What's interesting here is that it supports Nostr's native commands and it's pretty simple. to use.

With GetAlby, you will then have a lightning address on which you can receive payments. You can even display your address on Nostr (and even on Twitter).

Final word on Nostr

We hope Nostr is a little clearer to you now. However, this may require some learning that only time can resolve. We don't know if Nostr will become a successful decentralized social network.

—>Read: The 6 alternatives to Twitter in a decentralized version

There is a lot of competition currently in this niche as the need for confidentiality is felt. Elon Musk's recent purchase of Twitter also shows a strong interest on the part of companies to control public forums. However, this goes against the idea of a space for discussion. Twitter looks more like an attention supermarket than a discussion platform...It's a fact. So, with this in mind, the war for decentralized social networks is declared. Let's see who comes out the winner...

In any case, we are only at the beginning of this new social media r-evolution. We can also be happy to see such protocols emerge and their popularity increases. A wind of freedom is blowing and it will be difficult to stop it...

Continue to do your own research and here are some helpful resources:

—> https://gist.github.com/eskema/0d85166980086a8c3335acb8c9990469

—> https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/types-nostr-relays/