Good afternoon
I think about Primal all day, every day. It’s a blessing. Couldn’t imagine a bigger moonshot to pursue baked in with something I find meaningful - freedom.
This quick write up will be basically a stream of consciousness. I love being an open book on the internet and putting things out there. And there won’t be any AI used in this article. So enjoy any possible typos, lack of punctuation, lack of similes, and whatever else comes out of my brain this morning.
Twitter Clone NGMI
Part of me wonders where Primal would be if it was in the state it’s in today when the Jackening happened. (Great thread here I remember reading.)
I think part of the reason nostr went so viral was because it was so bad and people felt like cypherpunks when they managed to fire off a tweet. It was new and shiny, and broken af. People had fun zapping, but deep scars were made in terms of UX and overall usability.
So here we are today.. We’ve had to market nostr and its principles while we - as in the social clients - were just trying to catch up to the features of any other social media app.
In hindsight, I think what we’ve done is recruited many of the power users for nostr as a social network. The base of people who will never go away and will always fill the protocol with lively discussion.
My take is that this all happens at “godspeed”. This is all nature’s reaction to our broken platforms and way of communicating online. The alternatives are becoming more viable day after day and you absolutely love to see it.
I’m convinced that Nostr or something eerily similar is on its way to becoming the invisible backbone for the global town square. The path there? Very unclear, but we’ll have to think differently and then benefits of nostr will just be the multiple cherries on top of an already great app.
Learning from other Networks.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time now learning about the origins of social networks. They all have some combo of situational luck, will to survive, excessive hustling, and a killer feature or two. There is always a crystal clear reason why you as a creator would want to spend your time there.
I can’t look at someone straight in the eyes and tell them that Primal is the next TikTok or Youtube Killer etc.
I can look them straight in the eyes and tell them that this is the place for people who care about sovereignty and want to walk the walk. I can say that if you care about bitcoin, this is the place to come for high signal and bitcoin culture. I can say that this is a backbone for much healthier digital experiences with the ability to exit, choose algos, and customize your digital experience.
But this is SOCIAL media. If your friends aren’t there, why would you be there.
How Primal Could Do Better
You look at Bluesky with apparently 40 million users. Their app is pretty barebones, but they were much more able to capitalize on a few viral waves that they’ve had.
It’s interesting looking at bluesky because they have a similar set of principles, but look at me already.. I’m calling it bluesky not that AT protocol.. People came over because of the people who made the switch, the familiarity of the experience (read not being scared of keys), algo choice, and the starter packs that empowered existing power users.
It’s pretty clear that friends were able to onboard friends that actually stayed around.
I don’t think this has really happened on Primal or Nostr yet. I’ve onboarded a TON of people and not many if any stay around. And i don’t blame them. Yes, it’s a cool toy. The Nostr welcome algorithm of showering newbies with zaps is incredible and never needs to change.
Then it just feels like silence soon after, without the potential to just hit a random algo to be shown to millions of people.
Truth is that nobody wants another social media app. It’s hard enough to stay on top of the existing networks and to add another one is a monumental task.
This is a harsh reality, especially when you’re not trying to just create another sticky social app.
But this doesn’t deter me, it’s all just a challenge that I know we at Primal are all up for.
So primal could be better with our onboarding. In all other social networks, there is no auto follow. And i’ve seen first hand how much this deters people.The way we have it right now is not clear that the new user can select their following. We are aware, and will change this flow. There are so many things that we are building that we have not optimized for this first experience of using the app. (which may be even more important than adding features imho). We’ve had terrible retention during the large nostr spikes that we’ve seen and I think part of this is due to Primal imposing too much on people’s follow list instead of letting people explore the app and perhaps us guiding them through or creating tools for discovery (starter packs). I wonder how much this one seemingly little sin has held us back. I should probably hop on claude and figure out how to do it myself instead of just being a couch critic.
Funny story to interrupt this rant -
I went to the nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgcwaehxw309akxjemgw3hxjmn8wfjkccte9e3k7mgqyz49tfre445nf58a0reahky9zhx3egxh5yggztn3zwqdt80htxyn2xct0pm coworking spot to finish this article on new years eve. Lee was like, ‘you try vibe coding yet?’. I said no, but i really wan to make this thing.. We sat down, i got in to claude code on the terminal AND I LITERALLY CANNOT STOP VIBE CODING. Kinda ironic. I'm writing a post without any ai and didn't publish it when i wanted because I got so sucked into AI.
I totally get it now. Must be so fun for existing builders to be able to build faster. It feels so good to have a strong vision about something and make it appear into reality.
No i haven’t touched any of primals code, I’ll leave that to the pros. And turns out my couch critiquing has been loud enough that we’re changing a thing or two “shortly”. Anyways, back to the stream.
/Resume
I’m confident we’ll find a viral onboarding loop that will enable the passionate primal/nostr users and bitcoiners to bring their friends over and those friends will bring their friends.
The age of enshittification is upon us and this is our opportunity.
I’ll spare a bunch of little details of things that could be better, but overall I’m super stoked with how the app works and the features we’ve built. We have an awesome team and let me tell you… we are COOKING.
So what’s next?
Can’t tell ya. But we’re going for it. The pitch will be cleaner. We’re thinking different. How can we make a useful app and in a roundabout way introduce nostr and bitcoin to the masses. It’s just a matter of time before this ecosystem explodes in some way or the other.
How would you do my job?
I’m always open to hearing feedback, ideas, or fun stuff to do. If i could be of service to any communities, hmu. My dms are open and i read everything.
I’ve had a lot of fun so far with where this work has taken me and the friends I've made. Can't wait to see what other doors to open up as we grow.
My north star
Call me crazy but I think we can make a healthy social media. As I mentioned earlier, nostr is a healthier foundation beacuase of how easily you can just leave with all your followers and content. You could even just fork primal!
We weren’t born with the desire to check our phones or even write tweets. But we were born to fit in to a community and contribute to the tribe.
I hope Primal can enable this for millions around the globe. How can we make an app with social features designed to save you time instead of milking your eyeballs for profit so you can just enjoy the real world.
Making videos, writing notes, blogging, vlogging, and shitposting is fun. It’s a new art form. I’m glad there’s a new way to do it in a way that you’re doing it for yourself. It’s yours. We no longer have to be just cogs in extractive profit machines
My thinkboy self thinks there’s something really deep going on here. In fact i know there is.. The excessive programming, censorship, and manipulation that goes on on other networks can’t happen here. Users have actual power because of their right to exit. Your content is actually yours and signed by this unique key that can’t be replicated that was claimed by you. When you post on nostr, it’s actually you on the internet. (and there can be multiple yous, yes).
Nostr is here for catastrophes, but it’s also here for blooming. Great things take time to build, even in the age of vibe coding. But with our human vibes on this protocol, combined with vibe coders, open source developers, and number go up technology, we will be a serious force to be reckoned with.
pv