Donations have never proven to be a viable business model, though. Shareware as a concept died out quickly in the 1990s because almost nobody ever chose to pay for what they could get for free. I wish we lived in a world where that wasn't the case, but as a species we're evolved to take what we can get when we can get it. It's a survival mechanism, and it's a real problem for the idea of a donation model.
Discussion
I've been pondering this scenario as pertains to nostr for some time now. It should seem obvious but I think many nostr users are unaware that the work done in clients and relays has been, for the most part, done by people who in many ways are kind of volunteers. The pressure to "sell", for any protocol that gets approached by a big player/ corporation, must be intense. Relays seem to be moving forward to a paid model but as yet clients seem stuck in limbo? Interested to know how you think financial models develop from the client side?
I think developers will sell access to the client or go to an ad-supported model. Those are the only real options. Either that or offer subpar software that only gets updated when you have a bit of free time. I would much rather pay for a software tool than be forced to see ads or put up with buggy software until the dev has the time and inclination to fix problems. Value-for-value. If you want something that brings you benefits, you have to be willing to pony up. Either that or you become the product (ads).
So, for example, a per month subscription or is there some kind of "user streams to client" while they are online using the client?
Fountain app has that feature where sats are streamed to listeners as they listen. Could users stream sats to nostr clients as they use it?
That willingness to pay is true for many, but too many think their contribution is small enough not to make a difference, so they skip on it and consume anyway. Classic tragedy of the commons type problem.
Nostr and bitcoin enable business models. They will evolve. I'm not worried.
There are endless monetisation options.
1). Sell downloads of client
2). Sell Premium version of client
3). Sell add ons
4). Sell ad space
5). Sell data
6). Sell API calls
7). Sell content
8). Sell services
9). Sell apps
10). Sell reach
11). Sell prominence
12). Sell persistence
13). Sell gaming
14). Sell sats
15). Sell channels
I could do this all day!!
Developers don’t appreciate sales.
Sales don’t appreciate developers.
Each think the others job is easy and any old clown could do it but there’s a reason both are some of the highest paid jobs out there - being good at it is hard.
That’s why the field of business development emerged.
It’s not developing it’s not sales, it’s the bit where you think about what could be monetised, what has market fit, what is growing?
It’s unlikely that a single monetisation strategy is good for the full growth cycle. A roadmap (with some agility) is probably the right strategy.
The monetisation puzzle is THE puzzle to solve for pretty much every startup. I would be happy to help absolutely anyone developing on nostr think about their monetisation approach.
Maybe you just just need ramen money, maybe you need growth capital?
But nostr + LN is fundamentally very different to legacy tech models. Vastly more monetisation and bootstrapping options because of LN integration and access to large day zero user base. Each of these alone is a potential game changer, together they are rocket fuel.
No reason at all why there won’t be nostr billionaires. I think it’s likely. Please stay humble whoever gets there. The people who solve their monetisation puzzle first will gain access to huge resources very quickly, but it’s also going to be competitive because there are fewer moats.
It’s all just very exciting, but we should expect a long and brutal road with a lot of shocks.
This stuff is absolute catnip for me 😂 And it’s why I’m enjoying Nostr so much right now, never get to discuss in depth ideas on other platforms as I have here in the past <2 months.
That future though man! There are million dollar businesses everywhere you look. There are billion dollar businesses with a bit of effort, and tons more with a bit of capital/time. On a bitcoin standard that is used globally, a whole new economy of entrepreneurs and influencers and culture..
There will definitely be nostr billionaires, pretty sure I’ve been chatting to a few who don’t realise they will be. Im too ideological to be one myself but like you I would be happy to offer my skills to anyone building here who wants to think through the business side, how to grow through stages, and develop a roadmap.
A lot of grifters are going to be attracted to nostr. People attracted to the growth who bring legacy VC / bizdev / sales / marketing thinking across that mostly wont work here, and definitely wont have the winning formulas for this world.
People who get what’s happening here are the signal to follow. We’re at an intersection of many things which have built up to get us here, it was kind of inevitable, but its so cool to be here and see it and I want to help anyone who wants to make themselves successful here and keep these conversations going!
What if software could help us overcome this survival mechanism?
I am thinking about software that is measuring your monthly use off free content and at the end of the month just divide let's say 20$ or any other sum, you decide is worth it, and sends it to the parties that provided value to you. While browsing content, you just decide what party you want to include in your v4v subscription.
Just an idea...
#[4] would likely disagree that donations/v4v isn’t viable considering No Agenda has been running twice-weekly for 1500+ episodes on that model.
There was no simple means to pay for things like shareware in the 90s so that comparison doesn’t work - people were still using cheques and money orders and stuff for distant commerce.
Lightning changes this dynamic entirely, you are economically connected to every other Nostrich with a lightning wallet, anywhere in the world, on a single monetary standard. That takes out a LOT of friction and will enable new models to evolve.
A big new one I think will be fee sharing - splits on micropayments. If 1% becomes the norm for tx fees, this will either be shared end-to-end or we will end up with preference deals between the lightning layer and others. Maybe Nostrgram has a deal with WoS and gets splits there so you focus all your integration work on their API rather than broad support for example.
Been living the V4V lifestyle for 15 years. It works. Learn here: value4value.info