NOSTR
Nostr: A Decentralized, Censorship-Resistant Social Media Platform That Works—Join The Party
by Nick Giambruno
Over the years, I've heard many claims of allegedly decentralized and censorship-resistant social media platforms.
None of them lived up to the hype.
That’s why I was skeptical of Nostr… until I tried it.
To my delight, Nostr actually works, and it's clear it has game-changing potential.
Nostr is an acronym for "notes and other stuff transmitted by relays."
It's an open protocol for transmitting social media data that anyone can use. Nostr is based on cryptography and doesn't need a central server, giving it censorship resistance.
Unlike traditional social media accounts, with Nostr, only you own your data and following. As a result, you don't have to worry about losing all your conversations and hard-earned followers for committing an arbitrary thought crime.
Nostr's first and most obvious use case is to obviate Twitter and, later, other social media platforms.
With Nostr implementations now easily available on the web, Apple products, and Android, its use has exploded recently and shows no sign of slowing down.
Nostr also seamlessly integrates with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, allowing for instant and nearly free micro-payments.
In this article, I'll show you how Nostr works and how you can join the party.
It's a different setup experience from what many people are accustomed to, but getting started is easy. Learning how to get started with Nostr is a small price to pay for an enormous reward in sovereignty.
Nostr: A Decentralized, Censorship-Resistant Social Media Platform That Works—Join The Party
by Nick Giambruno
Over the years, I've heard many claims of allegedly decentralized and censorship-resistant social media platforms.
None of them lived up to the hype.
That’s why I was skeptical of Nostr… until I tried it.
To my delight, Nostr actually works, and it's clear it has game-changing potential.
Nostr is an acronym for "notes and other stuff transmitted by relays."
It's an open protocol for transmitting social media data that anyone can use. Nostr is based on cryptography and doesn't need a central server, giving it censorship resistance.
Unlike traditional social media accounts, with Nostr, only you own your data and following. As a result, you don't have to worry about losing all your conversations and hard-earned followers for committing an arbitrary thought crime.
Nostr's first and most obvious use case is to obviate Twitter and, later, other social media platforms.
With Nostr implementations now easily available on the web, Apple products, and Android, its use has exploded recently and shows no sign of slowing down.
Nostr also seamlessly integrates with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, allowing for instant and nearly free micro-payments.
In this article, I'll show you how Nostr works and how you can join the party.
It's a different setup experience from what many people are accustomed to, but getting started is easy. Learning how to get started with Nostr is a small price to pay for an enormous reward in sovereignty.
How Nostr Works
Anyone can create an account on Nostr by generating a pair of public and private cryptographic keys.
Think of the public key as your username, which you share with others who want to follow you, and your private key as the password to your account. Anyone with access to your private key can control your account.
Nostr is a protocol. There is no official Nostr app—just like there is no official "email" app—there are only implementations of the protocol known as Clients. You can find these Nostr clients as apps on your phone and on numerous websites.
Once you have your public and private keys, you can access Nostr on any client you wish. Then, you need to input your private key into the client, and you're ready to go. The number of clients is growing daily, so plenty of options exist.
This contrasts with traditional social media accounts. For example, there are no other implementations of Twitter. There is simply Twitter. You cannot take your account and followers to another platform, as Twitter ultimately owns them, not you. Nostr turns this dynamic on its head and empowers the users.
The data for Nostr does not live on a central server but rather on a decentralized network of computers called Relays. There are countless relays available now for anyone to connect with. Anyone can run their own relay too. That’s why the number of relays is skyrocketing.
To summarize, you are ready to go once you generate a pair of public/private keys, find a Client, and connect to quality relays. It's pretty straightforward. I'll walk through how to do it below.
How to Join the Nostr Party
Once you fire up a Nostr client, giving it a few seconds to load the data from the numerous relays is important.
If you have an iPhone, the easiest way to get started is to download the Damus app and follow the instructions.
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/damus/id1628663131
For Android users, the Amethyst app is a convenient Client to access Nostr.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitorpamplona.amethyst
On the web, here are some excellent Nostr Clients.
https://iris.to/
https://snort.social/
https://astral.ninja/
However, you must create a public/private key pair before using those apps and clients.
Step #1: Create a Pair of Public/Private Keys
The easiest way is to visit the website below, a popular web-based Nostr client.
https://astral.ninja/
There should be a popup that appears. Click "Generate Keys," then click "Proceed." Then a popup box should appear that displays your public/private keys.
Now store your public/private keys in a secure location. Remember, keep your private key secret because anyone with access can control your account.
Step #2: Create Your Profile
Depending on which Client you are using, the exact steps will vary. But no matter which Client you are using, you can update your profile in the Settings area to include your name, profile picture, about, etc.
Step #3: Connect with Quality Relays
A crucial part of Nostr is connecting with quality relays so that you have reliable access.
I have found relays that work well, and you can copy them from my profile at the link below to your client's settings.
https://nostr.directory/p/nickgiambruno
I also recommend obtaining some paid relays. They only cost a couple of dollars (paid on the Bitcoin Lightning Network) and increase the speed and quality of the experience substantially. Input your Nostr public key, pay the invoice, then add the relay to your client's settings.
Here are some paid Relays that I find worthwhile:
https://eden.nostr.land/invoices
https://nostr.milou.lol
https://puravida.nostr.land/invoices
https://nostr.inosta.cc/invoices
https://relay.orangepill.dev/invoices
Step #4: Find People To Follow
If you'd like to follow me on Nostr, look me up in your client by my public key, which is listed below.
npub1wgjh30uxvvepumxhl3qlfzmt4chueprxmcvrxyw0wjtv9m4w8zwq3se082
Or you can search for me through @NickGiambruno.
You can also see the people I am following on Nostr at the link below in case you would also like to follow them.
https://iris.to/#/profile/npub1wgjh30uxvvepumxhl3qlfzmt4chueprxmcvrxyw0wjtv9m4w8zwq3se082
The website below is also a directory of popular accounts on Nostr.
https://nostr.directory/
That’s it.
Once you've completed these steps, you are ready to go.
Optional Steps: Verification, Directory Listing, and Enabling BTC Lightning Payments
An optional step that you can take to improve your experience on Nostr is to obtain verification and listing on the nostr.directory website.
Go to that website and follow the instructions on verifying your Nostr account on Twitter (and other platforms) by Tweeting a verification message on your Twitter account.
There is also another level of verification called NIP-05 that can help increase the reliability of your experience on Nostr.
The easiest way to get NIP-05 verified is to go to the Nostr Plebs website below and follow the instructions.
https://nostrplebs.com/register
It will require a tiny payment made over the Bitcoin Lightning Network. If you do not yet have a wallet allowing Lightning payments, check out Wallet of Satoshi for your phone, which is one of the most accessible options.
(Please note that while Wallet of Satoshi is one of the easiest options to access the Lightning Network on your mobile phone, there are more sovereign options. However, it is beyond the scope of this article to go into those details. For more, you can check out Your Guide to Total Financial Sovereignty With Bitcoin, which shows you how to use Bitcoin in the most sovereign and private ways possible.)
Once you have gone through all the steps, you will obtain some text that you will need to paste into your settings on your client in the NIP-05 field. Once you save your settings, wait a few minutes for the network to recognize it, and your account will be NIP-05 verified.
A fantastic feature of Nostr is that it works seamlessly with Bitcoin's Lightning Network for micropayments. That allows people to tip you for insightful messages or interactions you post on the network.
Again, the easiest—but not the most sovereign—way to do this is with the Wallet of Satoshi mobile phone app mentioned above.
You need to open the app, click "Receive," then click "@ Lightning Address." Then click the QR code to copy your Lightning address (it should start with LNURL…). Then take this Lightning address, go to your Nostr client's settings, paste it into the Bitcoin Lightning Address field, and click save.
Once you have done that, people on Nostr can send you tips and other payments that will go directly to your Lightning Wallet on your mobile phone's Wallet of Satoshi application.
Conclusion
Nostr works, and the implications are profound.
Never before has the world had a truly decentralized, censorship-resistant social media platform that works.
Now it does.
It’s an exciting advancement in free speech. I encourage you to check it out for yourself and to join the party.
I think you'll quickly understand why Nostr is growing exponentially… the quality of the conversation and the signal/noise ratio are much more favorable than on traditional social media.
