No way. Make it as easy as possible to try nostr. Growing the network is top priority. They will learn about freedom once they are here.

Not a matter of wanting to...can't afford a Pixel. Would do it today if I could. 🤙🏼

Other's tried this approach before. Not thrilled about it. Better to have an in-app donate option I think

The more important outcome #3 you didn't list: 99% of people with casual interest will just lose interest once they see it isn't free, and never take action #1 or #2. Maybe we were just about to send them down the nostr rabbit hole, but now missed the chance.

They'll just use #plebstr or #twitter

Also, I'd rather support you through zaps than through the Google store.

Go for it

Most likely to make people not to use it

An I going to pay you with fiat google points 😂

At this point I have zero faith in anyone to do the right thing for the right reason when they have to jump thru extra hoops to do so. Look at what's happening to Damus right now. Until a person suffers for their boot licking they will not change. Keep it free, keep the process simple, and wait very patiently for the impending crises that will wake individuals up; only then will they make any significant changes.

Whenever I can, I stay well away from Google's Playstore. I prefer the Aurora Store. Amethyst and many other apps I always use with Obtainium. For most users it can be tricky to use this method.

(my humble opinion:) It all depends on the amount of friction this adds.

If you would make this really smooth transition in Amethyst (e.g. show a popup that the app will be paid soon and link to a website that allows you to download the free option apk and then somehow make it easier to transfer private keys), then I'd guess like 30% of people would actually do it.

If this just happens one days and there is no discoverability of the alternative, then I'd say less than 10% of people would get the free version, others would get Plebstr, Iris or just leave and complain about it on Twitter.

The number of people dropped from Nostr would be the interesting metric to watch. My guess would be 50% of current Amethyst users would drop completely from Nostr.

I believe the best approach would be to incorporate an easy migration option within the Google Play version of Amethyst.

This could involve adding a "Migration" tab to the sidebar, which would provide brief instructions and download shortcuts for the migration process. You can also use popups to encourage users.

In github version you should also include shortcut to install latest version of amethyst from github.

And I think you should also start subscription model for monetization.

Everything is just my personal opinion, please do what you think is best.

How about just concentrate on making the best app that you can and not worry about social engineering other people.

Amethyst is awesome, crippling it (removing zaps for Gplay) just to force people into doing what you think they should do just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Now, giving advice, opinions and educating your customers and having discussions with them is just good business.

F-Droid too!

Yes, in a couple of years tho. Adoption is crucial for now in these early stages.

Then I think we can focus on the much more libertarian aspect.

Btw if people are smart and privacy and freedom oriented, they'd be finding alternatives to Google SpyStore.

I like weird ideas. Maybe some people will move away from it then, but others might take the time to learn to use the tools that work outside centralized control instances.

nostr:nevent1qqsrur2tegy6f8dp8yqkapm2vl6yq0uayvq99v3fwfve0p0kk2mycmqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygzxpsj7dqha57pjk5k37gkn6g4nzakewtmqmnwryyhd3jfwlpgxtspsgqqqqqqsgd83fy

Amethyst base and amethyst pro

I spend a lot of time thinking about the counter culture kids you would find in a highschool, the ones rooting phones, torrenting movies, hacking the schools WiFi to steal teachers passwords, keyloggers in the library. In that sense, its a viable strategy, but it should be reserved for fruit that hangs lower than alternatives, why bother when you have twitter? We already have a relatively limited user base, let's not punish people for wanting to use it.

The other frame to consider is the pipeline to self sovereignty, and this platform is an early step to that path, adding roadblocks may mean people never get started. No user facing app should make it any harder to get going than it needs to be anyways.

In my opinion keep the app free but have an option to donate funds to keep the project going.

We're trying to build up Nostr and I know I'm trying to onboard new users when I can but telling them they need to pay for an app to use it, will quickly turn them off to the idea.

I agree the main focus is to try and grow Nostr as much as we can and show people the freedom and power of decentralization, FOSS and cool features like zaps.

Sure.

But Nostr is not really that compelling yet - if there's an additional payment barrier l, think more likely abandon the installation journey altogether rather than going for the Obtanium version 🤷

If nothing else this thread made me aware of Obtainium and now I've got Amethyst installed through it instead of the play store 👍

I think its a good idea, but you might want to make sure google doesent consider it a violation to charge for FOSS (even if youre the author) and/or for the author to offer it for free. You could also do something silly like make the user pay a lightning invoice from the app after 48 hours to continue to use it if they dont want to install it through obtanium and avoid google's fiat channels altogether.

Good idea !

Always with the ideas, I'm sorry 😂 But fwiw... I say strip it back way back to where it's easy to maintain, call it AmethystLite & leave it on playstore for free. Leave clues like zap-display but clicking it shows a message that you need the full Amethyst app to use feature, maybe do that to some other cool stuff. Create a simple website with a bunch of info about nostr, amethyst & instructions/links on how to access full version other places. Add link to info site in the drawer menu. Make decentralization feel like a mysterious adventure 😁 It will only take moments talking to people on nostr before someone says "get a wallet so I can zap you" and the individual journey away from Google suddenly seems urgent.

I downloaded the apk for amethyst on both my standard android and my Calyx Os phone 😄

I think it will lose a lot of users because many people have no idea of downloading an app outside of Play.

great idea!

I'm relatively new and I did start by downloading the app from the playstore. However, since you post links to update from github I've been updating like that ever since. But I have no idea what obtanium is and a quick Google search failed to fetch any relevant results so I don't know that taking it off the playstore would help, but for those of us determined enough, yes, there's nothing keeping us off here... it's just... most people might get frustrated... I was also kinda worried about installing anything not on the playstore but had to get over that fear to get the updates.

A good video to teach beginners how to use the Obtainium.

https://youtu.be/O1_n0AT9mnE

Maybe it would work, but firstly people must know and trust those alternative app stores. thanks to let me know of obtainium