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I've had a LOT of conversations with people about Nostr, really people who are aware of Nostr but don't use it. There are a few things that come up. * General admiration for Nostr and how it does tons of interesting things in terms of tech. It's way more flexible than ATprotocol or ActivityPub. * Frustration with the way user accounts / logins / keys work. It's very confusing if you're not somebody who already understands crypto. Mostly it's confusing because of how we talk about it. If we tell people, here's your magic user text, paste this in places and you'll be magically logged in, they love it. If we try and explain custody and wallets and keys and browser extensions and all the ways you can login with Nostr, their eyes glaze over. * Not feeling like it's a place for them. Everybody is talking about Bitcoin and Nostr. Most folks don't care very much about the underlying tools or how payments work. They want to talk about their interests, surfing, food, travel, their friends. or ten million other things. They see Nostr as a bitcoin place. Most people have either no opinion or a negative opinion of bitcoin because somebody tried to evangelize it too hard. * Zaps, folks love zaps. I've heard from board members and the executives of Bluesky that they want zaps. Folks don't like bitcoin and bitcoin content but they do want the functionality. The problem is when creators come to Nostr, they only get zaps for content that is about nostr or bitcoin. There's no good way to build and sustain themselves with other content. * Algorithms - we all have a love hate relationship with algorithms. We say we don't want them, but we choose to use systems with algorithms. We have them in nostr with DVM's and it works. But it's not well integrated in to the apps and most feed services via DVM's are way too slow. The algorithm helps people be seen, grow an audience, find their people, keep being engaged. We built the proof of concept but didn't make it in to a good product. These things that keep people from Nostr are fixable. What i'm going at with my podcast is to build a larger movement, Nostr is a solution, but people on Nostr aren't my intended audience. ;-D

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This is true for us too. We do our bit for information dissemination, archiving that which will get banned by Oligarch-owned media and standing for the Truth, but it doesn't escape us that a random #meme will get wayyyyy more engagement, AND zaps than honest content. Coz no one wants to know the truth, they just want to be distracted.
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People (mainly devs) should have supported and rallied behind your idea of a Nostr Growth Team but it mainly fell upon deaf ears. Hence why it looks like this. I’ve shared the same sentiments about points 2, 3, and 4 above plus more. I also wrote a post about how I envisioned the Nostr Growth Team. If a Nostr Growth Team was in place, Nostr would be a better option for many people. People would have better experiences and the retention would have been better.
> Not feeling like it's a place for them. Everybody is talking about Bitcoin and Nostr. Most folks don't care very much about the underlying tools or how payments work. They want to talk about their interests, surfing, food, travel, their friends. or ten million other things. They see Nostr as a bitcoin place. Most people have either no opinion or a negative opinion of bitcoin because somebody tried to evangelize it too hard. Communities and specialized relays could mitigate that I guess. > * Zaps, folks love zaps. I've heard from board members and the executives of Bluesky that they want zaps. Folks don't like bitcoin and bitcoin content but they do want the functionality. The problem is when creators come to Nostr, they only get zaps for content that is about nostr or bitcoin. There's no good way to build and sustain themselves with other content. I try to zap all anime tities that appear on my feed.
"They see nostr as a Bitcoin place." This is currently an impediment, but not because it's a problem with nostr. It's a problem with how people see bitcoin and it is exactly what will make nostr the leader in the long run. Some of the bitcoin phobia out there is warranted because of ham-handed orange pilling, but it's all love. Most people don't get it yet. NGU is a massive nostr billboard. Everyone who dismissed Bitcoin will be forced to check their assumptions and reconsider their position. I know this because I went through it myself. Probably all of us did (or will). If we continue to solve the other problems you mentioned, develop better UX, come up with more use cases, and create value we will be ready for the flood of devs and uses when they come. This is why I exclusively tell bitcoiners about nostr. Nobody else cares enough to put up with the learning curve and if all the bitcoiners are here this is where the future will be. It's another embodiment of the digital gault's gulch. NGU first, then hypernostrization.
the things built on nostr have to look and feel radically different to attract people tired of what will hopefully become legacy social media. we aren’t there yet because people are still looking at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as models to replicate. we desperately need to move away from these noisy by default platforms.
Everything here is true, I've been talking about "owning your content" and "using websites" on TikTok and it's been doing pretty well. People are really interested in the BENEFITS of nostr, and I find that ONLY referencing the benefits (not the tech/protocol) works best. When they ask, "how does this work?" then I go into nostr The btc/crypto stuff is definitely a barrier, but everyone so far has been dm'ing me about creating their own relays and their own spaces for their communities; it's been awesome. I very much am selling nostr (not hiding that) - just indirectly. View quoted note →
Sounds frustrating, but at least it’s not targeting just Bitcoin content. Consistently zapping active sharers like you and Flash news shows it’s more about volume and visibility than topic. Keep sharing, the right audience will notice.
What ChatGPT said to me today in passing about nostr: "Most of Nostr is Bitcoin + Nostr itself + Ideological Free-Speech Talk." How do "we" change that? I don't think that's a thing. Nostr was built by bitcoiners, that's like saying "I would love to use bitcoin as money, but the only people I can do business with are these dirty ancap bitcoiners". The best way to attract more people is to use the Trump-effect: Sell disillusioned mainstream people on how nostr is the only way the first ammendment can be guaranteed. Their followers will find them.
good summary - just one point - "Not feeling like ..." this is going to CHANGE n will be changing - NOSTR far bigger than bitcoin maxi propaganda tool - in fact i muted words never zap a sat to to those barking 21M all day here - NOSTR will be full of nocoiners growth - expressing much more stuff important to life (than bitcoin papaganadas) - "bitcoin standard" is NOT goona in lifetime of many prominent influening npubs here who pop in top algo selected when app is opened - bitcoin will be real success when stays under the hood.
Censorship and age verification is what will bring new users to nostr. If X implements its own version of zaps, which would be easy then decentralisation is the only key difference. But people won’t know they need it till they need it.
Bitcoin is a very high-risk investment because it's a volatile asset. That means that Bitcoin values may rise or fall dramatically in value over a very short period_ even as quickly as a few hours or days. Like all cryptocurrencies and a good mentor will guide you through this though period to make even with the current drop in cryptocurrencies, I still thank you for the balance financial advice. I started investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies with $1,000 and since I've been following you already! Lol jobless claims up all the right things that show higher rates are doing the job and the market goes up inflation with the best way to find the balance between saving. Text&Wassup +44/7446066295 telegram link trading ~view @financeCryptoGlobalExchange
I much prefer Mastodon over Nostr, though I do like the idea. I agree that the “Bitcoin” part might throw a lot of potential users off. There are people who just don’t like the idea of cryptocurrencies and that’s okay. I was one of those people. I’m only open to Bitcoin because of Nostr. It is kinda a bitcoin circlejerk over here, not that it is necessarily a bad thing, it just throws people off. There are a lot of libertarian leftists looking for a new social media home and I will recommend they come here and to Mastodon. Both platforms are great. #mastodon #nostr #btc #bitcoin
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Welcome, and followed. I feel the same content-wise, but I’m having fun on the “building Nostr” side of things; something I haven’t experienced with ActivityPub in ages. I hope more people like you decide to stay and help break Nostr’s cold shoulder towards non-BTC / non-Nostr subjects. The protocol has merit on its own, even if content-wise it’s still a work in progress on most fronts.
I used to do landscape photography and posted a lot on Instagram. The only person from these days who I followed/watched is @npub1suft...lmh2 and whenever I see his posts (note: I miss a lot because no algorithm) I zap him as much as I can so he will stay and post more of his non-bitcoin content!
@rabble It seems like two things. The platform and the people. My husband is a product designer web dev person and I watched him set up his accounts. He was crawling with anxiety. I just did it... but as I watched him, it did seem like a total ephemeral mess of mystery logins and a feeling of loss of control. He even built a Nostr app to work through it. But he can't get past all the extensions and spread out auth things. So, that was strange since I didn't feel as insecure about the setup. But you're going to get a specific type of people and probably not a diverse group. There's also tons of trouble with all the "freedom" because then you get a bunch of child porn and people having sex with dogs... and you can never delete a post.
After doing the Nostr stand and talk at FOSDEM 2025, we’ve now applied for a devroom for FOSDEM 2026. Your note was really inspiring for the proposal, especially since FOSDEM is going for more cross-domain devrooms this time. I totally agree, Nostr isn’t just a solution, it’s one of the most flexible protocols for a bigger movement. Hope to collaborate if the proposal gets approved. Thanks @rabble Proposal "Trustless Protocols for Cross-Domain Interoperability" The Trustless Protocols for Cross-Domain Interoperability devroom focuses on how open-source systems can work together through cryptographic identity and verifiable event exchange. It looks at what happens when trust is built through signatures and reproducibility instead of accounts, APIs, or centralized services. In most open ecosystems, interoperability still depends on federation or external identity providers. A new generation of protocols shows that collaboration can happen in a simpler and more direct way. By using lightweight, key-based architectures, applications can share information, verify each other’s actions, and stay independent at the same time. This devroom will bring together developers who want to explore how existing FOSS tools can connect through such trustless protocols. Examples include integrating key-based authentication into operating systems authentication, signing and verifying commits in Git workflows, or adding verifiable event exchange between local and self-hosted applications. The focus is on hands-on experimentation and collaboration between different communities. We want to highlight projects that push beyond their own domain, connecting systems for communication, identity, and coordination. The goal is to learn from each other and see what a shared, verifiable foundation could look like for future FOSS development. We expect a full-day schedule with around eight sessions, including talks and short demos. The program will be streamed and recorded under the CC-BY license. A small team of volunteers will manage the room and technical setup throughout the day. https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026-call-for-devrooms/talk/review/UYQ9V89CVKTM8A98W7NPVAKHYUW739UC