#asknostr
I figured I'd ask this question while I'm at work And slinging cheese plates, but....What is something that you, or a user you have introduced nostr to had to Wrap your head around because it wasn't a traditional social media experience. And the fact that it's not a platform but a protocol?
Well I came here with no actual person sitting me down face to face
Trial by fire š„
Having at least ONE 1ļøā£ friend who openly said āHey, You rock. Keep goingā¦ ā would have been nicer.
Instead I got to deal with all manner of scammers, jerks, insecure people & malicious. Not a fan.
Thatās a rough start š« the fact that youāre still here ā despite what sounds like numerous reasons to call it quits ā suggests to me that you do, indeed, rock. You may no longer need the encouragement to keep going (seeing as youāve already made it this far), but I do indeed hope you stick around š¤
As an aside, (and I donāt think weāve met or engaged here yet, but forgive me if Iām wrong ā pfps and handles-vs-npubs come and go a lot on my setup for some reason), it can take time and effort to build the kind of ābloomā environment weāre all seeking, but itās so rewarding work toward it and contribute to that.
A completely open protocol is of course a ready target for trolls and scammers. But in my experience, while itās easy find both here, itās also very possible to create a generally lovely nostr community. āYou get out what you put inā is a bit of a cliche, but also, itās very true here. I try to bring compassion and curiosity to the conversations where I disagree with someone, and frequently find that we both come out the other side feeling more connected and with a broader perspective on life, nostr, each other, whatever it may be.
My two sats āļø
10 months Iāve been here.
Nothing surprises me anymore.
I got everything I didnāt want.
Most would be content with that.
Thatās fair, and Iām sorry to hear that was your experience. Iām not so much trying to convince you to stay, just to engage with a note/person that caught my attention. Whether on nostr or elsewhere, I hope you find (and/or create) the fulfilling community and energy youāre looking for š«
Instant micro payments seamlessly transferred to one another. š¤š½
Key leakages are a big big big problem. Keyrotation are a priority afaic.
Also need a hardware note signing device. The Blockstream Jade open source hardware should be sufficient. It has a screen and camera and enough programmability to support HD keygen.
There are a couple of hardware signers that exist out there already, but nothing is very mainstream yet.
So far I'm gathering that a public and private key distinction is important. I already plan on mentioning zaps but it's not the primary focus of the article. And yes, this is very much me farming for information.
As a technical person who had experience with Bitcoin and has used plenty of decentralized technologies before coming to nostr, I'm sure I have blind spots. Also, I'm trying to write this in a way that will be digestible for somebody who is not a technical person or has no experience with Bitcoin or using something decentralized.
Well Iāll give you what Iām faced with right now in setting up my accountā¦
I created it all via Damus client
I entered a username REALjasonansley
But see a Nostr addres field too
When I research that, it seems the free nostr verification services want me to input my username which I already have entered in Damus
So Iām confused
Also confused about where I read in https://nostr.how/en/guides/get-verified that āEverything before the @ symbol (ābobā, in our example). This must match the value of the name field in your Nostr profile.ā
Which my name field is different yet and has some branding built intoā¦
Not sure how to reconcile these three seeming different thing that seem to have to match exactlyā¦
Okay, so I'm not exactly sure how it's displayed in Damus. I am on Android. But on Amethyst, it looks like this.
Your display name is arbitrary. It can be whatever you want, and I can see that you have a relatively long display name, which is fine. Nip-05 is It's just an extra verification that says you are who you say you are. If in the example you choose Bob@nosterplebs.com In the nostr address feild in damus you would put Bob@nostrplebs.com there and your should be good to go. Your display name does *not* need to mach your nostr address.
And as far as finding content, hashtags are one of the better options right now. A lot of hashtags have "str" at the end of them. Bookstr, hikestr, foodstr ect.. Because people cheeky like that.
Awesome good insight!
nostr:npub1gnwpctdec0aa00hfy4lvadftu08ccs9677mr73h9ddv2zvw8fu9smmerrq so this is what I see for Damus settings (expand image to see the Nostr address field)
1. How does the username field come into use?
2. In a perfect world Iād like the Nostr address to be brandedā¦such as with my domain name (seems I could do that but I donāt want to mess with setting up json files right now)
So will my nostr address just be whateveriwant@whateververiciationservice.ichoose ? š¤Ŗ and what the domain is doesnāt matter? 
Yup. The best nostr address is one from your own domain. But if you're not technical, or dont wanna set it up on your server then free services work just fine.
I'm honestly not sure what the username deal is with Damus. Im not sure who to tag aout that
I believe Damus will show both your name and your username, unless theyāre identical, in which case maybe just one. Maybe nostr:npub1zafcms4xya5ap9zr7xxr0jlrtrattwlesytn2s42030lzu0dwlzqpd26k5 can clarify?
All good.
I went with verified-Nostr so just waiting for it to populate to see how it appears.
So the username is pretty flexible: it can be anything, and thereās no restriction on multiple people having the same own. Itās like a display name, for clients to show your āhandleā in a sense, even though it can look a little different in different clients.
The nostr address (or NIP-05 ID) is a little more āuniqueā. Itās created by adding a DNS record on a particular domain that is linked to your specific npub. Some NIP-05s are free: someone owns a domain and will add the record for you, so you could then create yourname@theirdomain.com as your unique ID.
There are also providers, like the one I use, the OG nostrplebs.com from nostr:npub1g6ghj36a9y9d6p4vz4rq6z8rwrqxm6evllnlhkt26e55h9y0q6psv4hu7v (and nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj too, right?) where you can pay a few sats for the ID. This could also be used in a professional environment to be yourname@yourcompany.com which is *sort of* a loose proof of identity, at least with businesses where the domain is recognizable and access to the DNS is relatively secure.
Names/IDs/discovery of users is definitely still a work in progress on Nostr, especially because different clients have different levels of capability when it comes to search and tagging. But you can think of it as different ways to represent your account that can help other users find you (or sometimes not help, lol)
Anyway, hope *this* helps!
Thaaank you i almsot tagged you your really only person off the top of my head who I know regularly uses iPhone. š
Hahaha any time brother š«
Replied to wrong postā¦
All good.
I went with verified-Nostr so just waiting for it to populate to see how it appears.
I chose that one because I thought it might seem more legit from a business use case when someone views it.
That works! Iāve seen it before but not super familiar - is it a paid service? (Not that it matters all that much).
Do you have a website for your business? Most legit would be to have something like jason@yourbiz.com
Hereās how to set the DNS if so:
Yea itās https://abovethelineleader.com
But using oneās own domain to verify oneself seems a bit narcissistic LOL
I can always change my verification method in the futureā¦
Itās not verification
Which is why using a 3rd party to "verify" makes more sense to me š
Congratulations on being misled into thinking you got verification when it is not verification
Itās just a unique username
Eh, it depends though, doesnāt it?
A nip-05 on your companyās domain is presumably āverificationā (for lack of a better term) that you do in fact work with the given business. At least in the majority of non-adversarial situations, where you can expect a companyās domain/registrar isnāt compromised.
A paid nip-05 is āverificationā that youāre willing/able to spend a few sats, and are therefore much less likely to have come from a bot farm. Proof-of-funds if not perfect proof-of humanā¦
A free nip-05 is, I agree, just a unique username. Coming from legacy social media, itās going to take time to re-educate on how identification āworksā. I expect that will happen in tandem with nostr clients becoming more versatile (and/or perhaps more standardized) in terms of how they display user profiles and handle search.
In the transition from legacy social media to nostr/keypair-based communication protocol, people will want to give their legacy followers a familiar way to find them - so if I āverifyā in a Twitter post that you can find me at sexynip05@nostr.love, it provides a unique/reliable way to find me, for users who arenāt familiar with the concept of keypair crypto.
Is it less resilient and censorship-resistant? Of course. And those are important parts of what Nostr is about. Ideally as new users enter, it will pose opportunities for more and more people to learn these concepts and why they matter, such that maybe in 10 years it will be as commonplace as knowing how to attach documents to an email.
Iām curious though, if thereās a significant hole in my thinking here Semi?
