Replying to Avatar Joe Nakamoto

So I’m not allowed to write a story on Cointelegraph about Nostr (Damus) users going 5x in one month or nearly reaching 500k daily users.

“let’s not have the same argument every time there’s a non-profit going on. My stance is clear: Them not making money today doesn’t mean they won’t make tomorrow.”

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Bowtied Peasant 2y ago

I see it like this: think of various internet protocols - TCP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, whatever. Are the profit-making in their own right? No. Does that mean that people haven't built profitable businesses on top of them? Of course not!

Nostr will inevitably create an ecosystem of client programmes, just as we have a variety of web browsers and email clients. If the features are good (e.g. good search, adaptive algorithms) people will pay for them.

Moreover, the phenomenon of true micropayments changes incentives and massively reduces friction in various ways. Quite what this means is still slightly unclear, but we can see from micropayments in other ecosystems (e.g. M-Pesa in Kenya) that it was often transformational in ways which were not entirely expected.

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Joe Nakamoto 2y ago

Interesting reply, thanks. Yeah it’s that line that I am probably butchering: “who knew that the invention of mobile data would disrupt the taxi industry?”