What is Nostr

You have probably heard Luke and John talk about nostr if you have been listening to the podcast for a while. Although the Dudes have been talking about it, you may not understand what it is or how big a deal it is. No, we wont go into the technical aspects of it, but we would like to help bring more of our followers on board to preserving their digital sovereignty. Here are a few links and easy steps to getting started.

First though, a warning, Nostr is only two years old and is still in experimental phase just like the internet in 1992. There is no one to call for tech support, you will very much be virtual shoulder to shoulder with the same people that are actually developing this technology. You may not think that it is a good idea to use it when you are not a developer, but really it is the best time to join in and give the developers your thoughts and ideas of how they can improve it. For a basic introduction to What Nostr Is, got to Nostr.How

How is Nostr any different than any other social media alternative? Nostr is not just a social media site, it is a protocol just like http or https are an internet protocol and smtp/pop3/imap are email protocols, and stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays. It is funny how humans in search of some sort of community have chosen social media applications as some of the first programs to run on nostr, but really there are about as many possibilities as the internet has if not more. Currently some of the projects available are:

• Livestreaming: Zap.Stream
• Video sharing: Flare.pub
• Forums and Communities: Satellite.Earth or Zapddit
• Social Media: Primal, Snort, Iris, Damus (for mobile iOS), Amethyst (for mobile Android)
• So much more: Nostr apps

Ok browsing these links, you are probably thinking, well it is a lot of bitcoin related material and yes you are correct, however it does not require you to know or use bitcoin to use it. The reason there is a lot of bitcoin, is because from the start, nostr was built with “value for value” in mind meaning that it was built with payment integration already in it so that you could tip or give someone a monetary reward if you like what they did or shared with bitcoin or satoshi which is the smallest increment of bitcoin. Just because this function is available at will, does not require you to use it though.

How do you start if you don’t want to be technical?

1. Go to any of the social media apps like Primal, Damus, Snort, etc
2. Go to Signup
3. Create a profile
4. You will want to backup your login keys and the easiest way is to copy and paste your “npub” (used as your username) and your “nsec” (think of this as your password) into a word document and print it. *NOTE THESE ARE THE KEYS FOR YOUR UNIVERAL NOSTR ACCOUNT, THESE ARE USED FOR YOU TO USE THE ONE PROFILE ON ANY NOSTR APPLICATION YOU WANT. THERE IS NOW REPLACING OR RESETTING IF YOU LOSE THESE, YOU HAVE TO START OVER WITH A NEW ACCOUNT IF YOU LOSE YOUR “NSEC” KEY.
5. Once you have started a profile, find us by putting our npub key in search boxes (npub1rumcrg089rtaea8xgmsandfu3d8s58yjx34y85h97grynt2n6pssa746um) and follow, we will follow back too. Also Luke’s npub is npub1ry930jxmrdtzvqfdrq7846ymzcc0hh0ll68ttvjg7kkrptsa0pds3vqy4m and John is at npub1hjyue5ehdum33ddmt7rynk3lp6ydhhmd3e86c3fmj7luvjy746dqkguakz
6. I know starting on a new social media platform can be boring because you don’t know anyone or how to find anyone, so start looking for content that interests you. Alec has said he hates hashtags, but it is the easiest way to find new content on nostr. #grownostr is a basic tag that was originally introduced by Jack Spirko to be posted with non-bitcoin related posts. Don’t be afraid to just start following people and replying to others, Edward Snowden and Jack Dorsey are two of the most popular follows, but just look around, wish people a good morning, share a picture of your morning coffee with a #coffeechain and introduce yourself. Just like normal social media, don’t share vital information and think security.
7. If one platform doesn’t suite you, take your “nsec” and login to a new one and you will have all the same followers and follows on that new platform. This is why you can’t be censored on nostr, you don’t like a platform or for some reason a platform boots you, you can just login to another platform and still have all the same stuff.