why does a protocol even need a brand/logo?
Discussion
we just talked about how we should focus on geeks and push the notion of normies further, and now we are trying to brand a protocol
why?
Because it can be useful to know that the new app your are looking at can be used with the same Nostr account you already have and probably play nice with other apps you are using. This improve the network effect.
Think about it like a "powered by".
what's the demographic here?
techies will care about the protocol itself, not the branding
full-on normies won't even know what a protocol is nor how it works, and will just use the client
or am i being too harsh here? 🤔
bitcoin has a symbol, i think that at some point we will come up with a compelling symbol for nostr, i have no idea what that is but probably someone's gonna spit out some good ones very soon, the heat is getting hot in here... like a sauna
Let me explain what I mean with an example.
You visit a new website, you can have 2 scenarios:
1) Register with email, password
2) Login in with Nostr
For a Nostr user, do you think they have the same appeal? The 2 has less friction, so higher conversion.
For a non Nostr user, see the same logo in several contexts reinforce the idea that this "thing" is sometime valuable, so push to try/learn more about it.
Login with google has the G or Gmail logo.
Login with FB has the FB logo.
nostr:npub1t3ggcd843pnwcu6p4tcsesd02t5jx2aelpvusypu5hk0925nhauqjjl5g4 email protocol had not one, but two recognizable icons: ✉️ and @
A recognizable brand helps nostr in my view.
oh, google's an even better example here, true 🤔💜
yeah, but tell me about the branding of POP, IMAP and SMTP here then
If you don’t want most people to know your protocol, you have 💩 branding like POP, IMAP, SMTP.
Tor has a favorable and known consumer brand, at least among the nerds, and privacy conscious. They also have characters and art in a similar theme - we dont have to bury the nostrich just yet. 
hmm, that tor one is cool indeed
but i don't really know much things built on tor protocol other than tor browser
and i only know of it because the name of the browser is the same as the protocol
like we used to familiarise ourselves with internet through internet explorer
It’s an interesting debate/challenge. I personally think if there’s going to be a logo/icon it should highlight the key pairs in some graphical way.
Iris messenger, and robosats can run on Tor. Relays can run on tor. You can run a node on the network.
Think of nostr as your garden soil.
In there you can plant beautiful roses, fast growing vines, and throw in some compost.
If you do it right you’ll have complementing each other trees, and shrubs with bees that ensure cross polination. The ecosystem depends on a good soil.
i think that the nostr protocol would benefit from being repackaged and presented much more nicely to even start thinking of having such a brand kit, but maybe i'm living in my delulu land
i do agree with you down the line, it's just that it needs to come naturally
Exactly, however it helps if is a neutral, but distinctive, graphic sign
do you think Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp users how the Meta account behind the scenes works and is set up? 🤔
closest to a legacy social media analogy i know to bring here
also is there necessity for "login with nostr" when nsec could eventually become as essential as your personal id code, which you could login with
"login with nsec"
I’ve actually been thinking on it for a while, and was going to do a bit of a longer write up on this:
I think going forward Nostr will flourish as a “login” like Google, Apple, etc. Normies won’t care how Nostr works, but it can replace log in with Google and have more benefits than a Google account offers due to the shared social graph.
Clients will become the “websites” and needs will become login details. At least that’s the way I see it. The nostr protocol will fall in to the background in the same way that no one really knows how email works, other than you can access it from multiple mail clients if you can log in
I’d love to hear other people’s thought on this
Google/Facebook/etc users well know that they can use the "Login with...", and spot them immediatly because the button is graphically recognizable and tied with the company name. No need to know all the tech background.
Given that "Login with nsec" is bad on all the web contexts, and maybe also for apps in the future (we will have signer for that), why add another brand when we have "Nostr"? It only dilutes the effectiveness.
Nostr is both a protocol and a social/functional layer, you need to know that it exists, you cannot hide it.
If you want recognition/expansion, you need to provide a logo that'll stimulate people's visual cortex and memory, it's basics of branding 101.
that'll be for the clients
not the protocol
you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, yet you don't once think about the branding of tcp/ip
bitcoin does, nostr is jealous
why don't we just copy bitcoin and do an N tilted to the right like Bitcoin, except in purple?
or maybe a lower case N
i liked the lower case N with the inverse ostrich head in the middle
nostr is more than just bitcoin
i'd prefer to keep them separated
bitcoin is just a payment method here, you wouldn't brand something based on the currency you use within it
Same reason we have a #Bitcoin logo: for name recognition
It doesn’t.
I'll give some context about how this whole logo conversation started. There's a mural at the cowork where #SovEng is taking place.
This mural is signed by the artist with their instagram handle. Just left of their handle is the tiny, wireframe version of the ig logo - which helps give context for the handle.
What icon would you put next to your NIP-05 was the question that sparked the conversation that came afterwards. It's not just for the sake of having a logo, but a very concrete use-case and this is why the logo had to be simple and easy to draw
nostr:note19ykha2saue4nadqdx57sx88rf8n747te5d63cxhqun9p0dmualxswnaxd6
This seems like an extremely rare and niche use case for a logo. When was the last time you ever needed to hand draw a logo next to your name for other social networks? Most people just write IG, FB, Twitter, etc. I don’t think this is justification at all for proposing a new logo for Nostr.
was about write this, seeing you already put my thought into words
well then the solution must capture the complex and the simple. the transcendent and the based. the hopes and aspirations of a generation.
nostr:npub1t3ggcd843pnwcu6p4tcsesd02t5jx2aelpvusypu5hk0925nhauqjjl5g4 ‘s head must be the logo.
wait, you guys aren't set up at that crazy former socialist industrial site near the trash factory?
oh, just occurred to me that if there was that place there might be others
nice.
no, you are at the place in funchal so no way you even know what i mean when i say the former abandoned industrial site covered in socialist graffiti
you guys have NO IDEA about this place, it's even more awesome than you even suspected but ... ok, apparently your leaders don't want you to know what a fucking awesome and antiauth place this is.
carry on...
