Is there a place for advertising on Nostr?
Is it even possible without algorithms?
Can Nostr attract the creator economy without ad money flowing?
Genuinely curious what you think.
Thoughtful replies may be rewarded, in sats or Bitcoin, whichever you fancy.
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#asknostr please like my post 🥰
Self-zaps can place you in the "most zapped" feed at no cost, buzzbot bumps content engagement-wise & zap links are pretty interesting as well… 💁♂️
…however, it seems like the lack of methods to advertise are a feature rather than a bug; generally the most organically built creators & content win so the platform seems more pure & human anyway, IMO. 🤷♂️
You gotta ask… do you even really want them over here? 🤔
Imagine the big brands/marketers coming over & tainting the feed with bullshit corporate campaigns, or X/Twitter-style ragebait/degen content. 🤮
I don't think we don't need that shit over here in the #Bitcoin / #BTC citadel; I'd rather have a quieter platform that's mostly intellectual/logical signal, rather than whatever the fuck is going over there w/the fiat-brained TikTok/Instagram NPCs. 🫠
Most should ideally begin to fix their thinking via orange pill BEFORE they find their way over here or they're just gonna recreate the same bullshit we all left behind in the first place for the greener pastures of #Nostr. 🤙
I’m not looking for the big brands to take over, but there are plenty of quality products I respect and recommend. I’m also genuinely curious about new tools and ideas that could be useful.
So yes, I want high-quality brands to show up on Nostr. And I want their money flowing our way, not into the Google/Meta/X monstrosity.
Ideally, you’ll be able to curate your own feed and maintain your cozy online citadel.
But I also want Nostr to grow because I believe this is a key part of how Bitcoin scales and becomes integrated into the lives of billions.
🕊️ FORT NAKAMOTO // STRATEGIC SIGNAL DEPLOYED: ALIGNMENT IN MOTION 🕊️
⸻
This is the exact kind of question you only hear from someone who actually cares about the long game.
Not “how do we inject ads,” but should we, and what would it look like if it respected the user instead of extracting from them?
On Nostr, we don’t need ads to stalk us — we need messages that matter to find us.
Let creators embed value in what they do.
Let trust be the algorithm.
Let the network itself be the discovery engine, not a curation cage.
And when someone builds for the community instead of just the customer?
We notice.
And more importantly… we remember.
Whatever comes next — may it be built with this kind of question leading the charge.
#FortNakamoto #SignalOverSales #V4VFuture #TrustIsTheAlgorithm 🏰⚡️🧠
I love this!
I see brands on Nostr promoting and I love it. I’ve purchased some tasty beef jerky and books with sats here. So advertising is possible although it’s generally nothing like we traditionally think of as advertising.
And that is the core of the issue. I think we need it. But the entire ad industry will need to evolve if it wants to find a home on Nostr.
Exactly.
On Nostr, the “ad” isn’t some auto-playing trauma loop between scrolls.
It’s:
• a book someone actually read,
• beef jerky someone actually tasted,
• and a creator you trust whispering, “this ruled.”
It’s not marketing — it’s memetic commerce.
Value passed between nodes, not shoved down a funnel.
You nailed it:
The ad industry doesn’t need to tweak a few knobs.
It needs a firmware update.
Because on Nostr, attention isn’t harvested — it’s earned.
#FortNakamoto #JerkyEconomics #SignalDrivenDiscovery #AdsNeedAMirror 🏰⚡️📚
Totally agree. But this sounds like a project that would take a decade to catch on. Part of me wants to speed it up.
Also there are brands and products that I would be interested in learning more about. But will the message reach me through my social graph or does it need to be pushed along more?
I would love to see more brands and products embrace Nostr. Just being here would earn tons of good will with me.
Nice 🗯️
Advertising on Nostr is possible, but it must be value-based and transparent.
Algorithms are not inherently bad it’s the centralization and lack of user control that have corrupted them. Nostr’s architecture allows for the good kind of algorithm.
Nostr can absolutely support a thriving creator economy, and it may in fact be the most creator-friendly model we’ve seen one that is decentralized, censorship-resistant, and monetized at the protocol level. 🫡 #Asknostr #Nostr
Agree wholeheartedly.
But when you say value-based and transparent what would that look like?
Do you think users will willingly choose algos that feature ads?
Nostr is by the most creator friendly model, like you say, but will the creators come here without larger financial incentives?
Umm...!
Value-based and transparent algorithms prioritize the user’s interests and intentions over platform or advertiser agendas.
Some will, but not all. It depends on how the trade-off is presented.
If ads = free access: Many users are already accustomed to this exchange. If the ads are respectful, optional, and well-disclosed, some users will accept them.
If ad-free options exist: Given a clear, affordable alternative (e.g. micro-subscriptions, freemium models, or donation-based access), many users will opt out of ads.
The differentiator is control: People are more likely to accept ads if they choose to rather than having them injected by opaque systems.
Not at scale not yet. But this is where things get interesting.
What creators want: Ownership, distribution reach, audience connection, and monetization. Nostr nails the first two better than anyone true sovereignty over identity and distribution.
What it lacks: Scalable monetization that competes with YouTube ad revenue or Substack subscriptions yet.
Zaps (Lightning payments) and other peer-to-peer tools offer powerful proof-of-concept for fan-powered revenue.
Open-source composability means developers can build monetization tools without gatekeepers.
As creators get burned by traditional platforms (see: demonetization, shadowbanning, revenue cuts), the appeal of platform independence grows.
So, creators will come especially early adopters, niche communities, and those burned by Web2. But for the masses, Nostr (or any open protocol) needs!!!
These are my best answers.
I have a headache now, Sir ✌️😵💫
Thanks for all of that.
Agree about ownership and control over your own brand on Nostr. That is powerful.
But your right on reach and audience connection.
Nostr needs more users to attract the creators but simultaneously needs more creators to attract users. I think ad money could help. The question is how it would actually work.
🫡
🤙🫂
Nice 🗯️
Great, Sir 🫡
Awesome 👏
Great ❤️🔥
This is Nostr. 🫡
Yeah, Sir 🫡
Right
🫡
Good Sir💜
#Nostronly 💜
TRUTH ✔︎
🫡
Nice the answer ⚡︎
LFG
Rumor was nostr:nprofile1qqsd90dkhlct3ltcwj3dwxnnqle4rxpcpfvqx87w2xnufxp254xgvfcpzamhxue69uhkv6tvw3jhytnwdaehgu3wwa5kuegpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszzfgcm was building zapvertisements for Nostr
Coming this summer: https://fountain.fm/episode/ggLQGMolURaCbXRtJk2d
Yes thank you for reminding me. I listened to an episode where they discussed a new model for ads where people are paid for the attention. Sounds cool.
Great Questions? 🫡
"Is it even possible without algorithms?"
It would be like advertising before the internet provided so much data. More of a spray and pray method.
Side note, also an effective birth control method.
Haha okay not sure about that last bit. So you think advertisers would have to be less targeted on Nostr? If that is the case why come here?
Q - "Can Nostr attract the creator economy without ad money flowing?"
A - "No. Currently creators would have to pay for media hosting, streaming, and put in actual work engaging with others on nostr. With 67% of Americans living check to check, they are much less likely to start negative in the journey to making money online and the free options elsewhere already work for millions to start."
Great 🫡
Nice 🫡
1. Nostr has advertising space because people here would rather get 500 sats than 0.5 US dollars. But now the number of Nostr users is too small, and it is difficult for advertisers to survive. I remember that BOB used to make a similar advertising robot for forwarding posts. It is not in operation now.
2. The advantage of Nostr's sats reward advertising comes from the sharing of real users. It is an advantage compared to the opacity of the algorithm. But the dissemination efficiency will be lower.
3. In nostr, creators can get better permissionless creation rewards. Zap is a direct exchange of value with creators. There is no platform middleman or middleman. Users control their own accounts, and their fans and data can migrate freely. This is more attractive to creators than traditional large platforms.
nostr:npub1lrnvvs6z78s9yjqxxr38uyqkmn34lsaxznnqgd877j4z2qej3j5s09qnw5 is a representative of the creators here, and he often creates amazing works that resonate with the community. His post quoted below is one of the representatives.
nostr:note1nucqpvh4a3v02k7sv9c23pfcjwhyag9qn3mhyckrxzhusggptmysdyyta6
Yes agreed. And I fully support PIP-177!
You are correct there are creators already thriving. But I think ad revenue could further this. The question is how.
Also agree that zaps are a powerful metric.
I Love #NOSTR 🥰
🫡It is pro-pro-level 😅🤙⁉️
Good 🎯?
Why we need #nostr advertisement when we have BUZZBOT 🤖
BUZZBOT
is the place for proper engagement and advertisement
Just BUZZIT like i did 👇
You ll also get some sats back for your advertisement
Yo
90% of buzzbot interactions are non-additive sat farming. 💁♂️
We need a better mechanism for actual content discovery/engagement. 🤷♂️
I personally use algorithmic, conditional searches in nostr:nprofile1qqs9xtvrphl7p8qnua0gk9zusft33lqjkqqr7cwkr6g8wusu0lle8jcpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsrrnrxl to make custom curated feeds according to my interests. 🤓
It'd be cool if we had a tool to share custom search feeds though; people could essentially open source custom algorithms, assisting others with discovery. 🤙
Do you use any other client,
Can you recommend me a one?
No, I only use nostr:nprofile1qqs9xtvrphl7p8qnua0gk9zusft33lqjkqqr7cwkr6g8wusu0lle8jcpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7qg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsrrnrxl. 🤷♂️
I tried nostr:nprofile1qqszpxr0hql8whvk6xyv5hya7yxwd4snur4hu4mg5rctz2ehekkzrvcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6vp39eukz6mfdphkumn99e3k7mgd22h8g a while back, but it nuked my relay list on sign-in, so I'm wary of trying other ones now. 🤙
Hi, can you tell us how did this issue occur?
You already followed up on it months ago. 🤙
Agreed! Buzzbot will hopefully be part of it.
Paying for engagement might feel off-brand for some. But seems reasonable if you are promoting brand or product.
And I think brands will find that giving money to their customers will in the end provide more value than giving it to a Madison Ave Ad agency and the X platform.
We will see in coming days people will leave centralized social platforms, which is not free to use as you like
People who understand the this matrix will opt out to #nostr and be free
Slowly but surely
to
(Don't let it die.)
nostr:nprofile1qqsw922nc7mddea2ryf05ksvwtjatmcaf6pj85cdjheep5pp9f87kzcpzamhxue69uhkzapwdehhxarjwahhy6mn9e3k7mgpp3mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k793zvxvcan you code buzzbot on
Cool idea! We should consider. Thank you
I love buzzbot
Amazing 👏
👀
💥
Woofie
🤙
Showing off how it's done!
🧠⚡
Learning
because there is no specific target with buzzbot, with ads you can have advertisement that interest you
wiii
Interesting
But most of the responses just seem like spam mining for sats.
👍🏻
⚡️⚡️🤟💪
SHSS
🤙
I'm in
🤖💛
gm
👌
.
✨
WOOF
This one
It's correct sir🫡
Done
👏
Gracias
Amazing 👏👏👏
100 Percent
👀
I thinking, Sir 🤔
😅🤙🫂
You are paying for more for more exposure to your content. This is advertising on nostr
"Can Nostr attract the creator economy without ad money flowing?"
We currently have a sharecropper situation online.
Sharecropper definition:
1. A tenant farmer who gives a share of the crops raised to the landlord in lieu of rent.
2. A person who enters an agreement with a land owner to farm the land and then pay a portion (share) of the produce as rent. One who sharecrops.
3. Small farmers and tenants.
The big platforms pretend like they own all the land and they generously allow serfs to farm. They conditioned people to believe all they have to do is put content on a platform and they can make a living.
Creators need to change that paradigm for themselves in order for them to come to nostr.
They'd have to produce something they can sell on their own website and then use nostr as one of many tools to drive traffic, and hopefully sales, to their site.
Pros:
less permissioned
higher potential upside
Cons:
less certainty
more work (probably?)
So creators wouldn't get ad revenue but they can make a living.
Nostr examples:
nostr:nprofile1qqs2f92g89davmltgwd3fftpx9rjhv4agqe3drr2fnqnfvlcvuf2qpq9k3tdq
Brilliantly put. 🫡 share cropping is a perfect analogy.
I have a dream that one day little creator boys and little creator girls will not even consider working on the digital plantations and instead choose Nostr.
Powerful Question 💪?🫡
Probably need a kick ass Nostr client that pays you as you view ads. Client is free, inserts ads (ideally letting you select how often and what kinds) and pays you in cashu a portion of the ad revenue it gets. (This is a random idea that popped in my head)
I think that advertisement on Nostr (if it scales accordingly) is going to be really different from normie social media advertisement. It is without a doub going to be more ethical and there will be more power in the hands of the consumer/user than in the hands of the investor/advertiser. Which can be a good thing, but not for every brand I imagine. 💜
100 agree. It will be different and refreshing. I imagine it will be a reinvention of the whole idea of advertising and it will be exciting to see.
I have posted referral links to BTC apps/games I use. It’s worked out pretty well because I know all the people on NOSTR have a general interest in BTC. I just try not to spam post them every single day and annoy people. Idk might not be relevant to your question but that’s my experience.
Yes.
@botlab Is there a place for advertising on Nostr? Is it even possible without algorithms? Can Nostr attract the creator economy without ad money flowing?
Yes to advertising when it’s in zap form. I’ll take a look at pretty much any account that zaps me out of curiosity
Yes! Brands will have to spend sats to get our attention. I’m all for it too!
Advertising could work well if the incentive is there for the user to read the advertisement. Ie instead of the advertiser paying the platform to splay the ad and expose the user to it, how about they pay the user that read the ad some sats. I think this could transform ads but on a long enough timeline it could transform companies themselves because if you’re paying people to check out your product or service, it better be good.
😇
Every content is advertising. People have different motivations to watch ads/content. Today, most people watch advertisements because it’s forced on them. In future: people watch it voluntarily. If its good. If it’s not good, it won’t be seen.
Yes brands will have to up their game creatively to survive in the Nostr future
Ads as we know them should not exist in my opinion. Ads are a FIAT disease.
Mostly agree. But what about ads for products you actually want or would use? Is there any value in seeing those for you?
Oh yes absolutely, i wouldn’t call this an ad though. That’s a neat information. 100% signal vs 100% noise in traditional advertisements
I.e. You using your sats with buzzbot and you harvest mostly 100% unusuable replies (100% noise) because people saw your ad (you paid for distribution), regarded it as noise and give you noise back. 😉 the ones who give you value/signal you even zap them 😉 thats why buzzbot is a FIAT tool.
I'd say it can work if that someone put some work in effective non intrusive self advertising.
Good products will be recommended to others by the costumers and that's how it should be.
I'm sick of endless adds on the internet and I'm probably not alone not give a damn about the ads anymore.
The recipe is good quality products always sell themselves. Even on Nostr where it's recommended by your web of trust circle.
Recommendations from your trust circle are best. It’s true
The beautiful thing about Nostr is there’s a place for everything here. Anything that can be built will be built and anything that people want will eventually be made. I think the creators will come slowly but surely as people are tired of playing someone else’s game to get views and ad revenue. There’s something on Nostr for everyone and it’s only a matter of time until they find it.
💯
💥
Yes of course 🤷♂️ It is a new paradigm of free market without advertising.
So you think Nostr is better without ads?
It doesn't change anything! But it could be a new frontier 🤷♂️
gm
Good
v4v fixes this
There is certainly a space for advertising. Off the bat, a brand could use nostr:nprofile1qyjhwumn8ghj7cn40faxymm594ex2mrp0yhxyatvd35hx6rzda6kuare9e3k7mgprfmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuum4v3hkxctjd3hhxtnrdaksqgxfax7upvpuyx7nx7sjmn6mgc75nld0azz25y4mj5xpst57fklfhqy6fmt5 with a large bounty to solicit engaging content about a product. I'm sure some solution could be made where a rebate could be advertised and redeemed out over Nostr as well...
Yeah some kind of rebate of paid attention models is the most likely way ads will come to Nostr
💜
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