I think btc or bust for nostr’s success will not be as successful as one might hope. Mainstream users (aka normies) want key features/unique experiences, value props (does it solve a key problem) and then economic incentives.

Few probably think btc is the key to anything in their immediate futures.

It is not even clear that 100s of million of people care enough about owning their data, privacy, and the ability to carry on without govt control at this point.

While really important issues those are more complex conversations which take time and application maturity to have.

Explaining everything nostr/btc can do is likely to overwhelm normies.

Start with the basics of a conversation, the hello. Help them solve their problems in a unique and engaging way, then you have the trust needed to expand the conversation.

Think about chatting on a 1st date vs asking someone to marry you. You cannot start there. You have to put in the time and earn the right to ask that question.

Crypto has made the same error. Everything is on chain and this is the best way to live and work. So far that narrative is not getting 100s of millions or billions of users to adopt those apps.

I think it can once the conversation moves to simpler and less significant buy in requirements. The same is true of Nostr.

Humans like to nibble, to dabble. Put their toe in the water. Etc. So first experiences will make or break things from a repeat use perspective.

While the same few 10-20 million people (total swag) like to jump into the deep end of the pool you need 100s of millions more to change how the world works (in terms of adoption)

So build new types of apps on nostr along with cloning ones that need to be cloned/improved. Make the UI/UX seamless, beautiful, idiot proof.

In addition to the above UI/UX work I would say Relay scaling and Relay economics is a key pain point. A hobby network wont scale to 10s or 100s of millions and the bills have to be paid.