Just quick cobbling together of numbers openly shared by OpenSats, HRW, &otherstuff crew, others. And some conservative assumptions for ongoing investments from VCs like ten31, Hivemind.
The true amount is likely much higher.
Discussion
Interesting. I would imagine that the hope is to revert this trend. Nostr is still not really appealing even for freedom projects, libraries and maintainers, so there’s a long way to go even for a niche protocol. And as you said economics will tend to make sense over time for all actors involved, for good or worse.
Yes. How do Nostr devs earn a living if not from investment and grants? You need millions of people excited to pay at regular intervals for what these devs are developing. That's a tall order.