Welcome back! You're right that more people are starting to realize there are real challenges here.

As for the specific retention issues...

Onboarding. The fact that self-hosting requires some technical know-how and equipment, and the alternative is to pay to play.

It's easy to pay more than a verified check cost on X when you factor in media hosting and spam-resistant relays.

Network effects. People are already established elsewhere and their friends aren't on Nostr. You're posting into a void initially.

Bitcoin echo chamber. Most people talk about Bitcoin ad nauseam. It really is the main topic of the entire protocol. If you're not interested in Bitcoin maximalism, there's still very little content diversity to keep you engaged.

Reach. People want to be heard. The daily active users hover around 10,000-15,000 "trusted" pub keys. Compare that to any mainstream platform and you're talking about a fraction of a percent of potential audience.

If you're trying to build a brand, promote a business, or just want your voice to matter in broader conversations, Nostr simply doesn't have the numbers.

But here's the thing that really gets me—according to nostr.band data, retention of trusted users trends to 0 within 30 days for recent cohorts. Think about that. We're not just failing to onboard people properly; we're losing the ones who actually make it through the initial hurdles.

The message-to-market mismatch is glaring. The marketing focuses on censorship resistance, but most users aren't posting anything that would get them banned elsewhere. The value proposition doesn't match the user experience for the average person.

And then there's the technical complexity that nobody wants to talk about. Even basic features like follow lists don't scale properly, and the relay model creates consistency issues that confuse new users.

I could go on, but these are the main structural hurdles I see that need addressing before Nostr can move beyond its current niche.