Why Nostr is struggling…
There is too much of an overlap with X, not only in the feature sets among the primary applications, but more importantly, in the kind of audience that Nostr is catering to.
Sure..censorship resistance at the protocol level is a differentiator, but the to the average person, you may as well be talking gibberish. They don’t know wtf a protocol is in the first place - let alone why it matters for censorship resistance to happen at that level, or more importantly, WHY they should trust Nostr to deliver on that promise. “Bcoz nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m said so” is not an argument.
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Bluesky is a case in point here.
It’s got a VERY similar feature set to X, claims to be open source / censorship resistant (similar narrative to Nostr), and is growing MUCH faster than Nostr, bc it has captured a key audience, ie; people with TDS and EDS (Elon Derangement Syndrome).
I’ve been on there a few times, and the content quality is enough to make you want to throw up….but at the very least, it’s working for that kind of content, and for the people who want it.
I don’t have a direct answer here..but I think it’s something to do with the over-emphasis on technicals.
nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 mentioned increasing the emphasis on design the other day. I agree this is a move in the right direction. We’re taking a very design-focused approach with nostr:npub15xd2mmjnh3caykh77djsv73e0zkrp42jp5mwerx8f4m6su40wdvss7t3l3 (we’ll have ALOT more to show in the next 6wks).
That being said, it’s not enough.
IMO, Nostr is technically mature enough for us to go out there and talk about it to more people, and build a narrative BEYOND the 500 of us that are talking to each other on here.
People like nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft or nostr:npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpc can correct me if I am wrong here. Maybe there’s alot more to do technically.
But if I am right, I’d like to see more initiatives that are marketing oriented being supported by nostr:npub17xvf49kht23cddxgw92rvfktkd3vqvjgkgsdexh9847wl0927tqsrhc9as and nostr:npub10pensatlcfwktnvjjw2dtem38n6rvw8g6fv73h84cuacxn4c28eqyfn34f and other coalitions. Maybe we even need a council of Nostr businesses, who together pool some funds to help drive some marketing initiatives?
Whatever the case, we need to expand upon the Nostr narrative, make it more compelling and speak to more people about it.
At the very least, we have to conquer then Bitcoiners. If we can’t get the segment who are into freedom money onto the freedom of speech network, we’re DOA. That’s a first step.
I know nostr:npub1hz5alqscpp8yjrvgsdp2n4ygkl8slvstrgvmjca7e45w6644ew7sewtysa is working on a very cool initiative in relation to this. The Nostr Booth is IMO a great way to make Nostr more “real” for bitcoiners by having a physical presence at all the conferences.
I know nostr:npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8 + nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 are doing some Podcast outreach. That’s super important too. nostr:npub16vrkgd28wq6n0h77lqgu8h4fdu0eapxgyj0zqq6ngfvjf2vs3nuq5mp2va and crew are putting on Nostriga. Amazing. nostr:npub16c0nh3dnadzqpm76uctf5hqhe2lny344zsmpm6feee9p5rdxaa9q586nvr / nostr:npub12vkcxr0luzwp8e673v29eqjhrr7p9vqq8asav85swaepclllj09sylpugg are doing great things with nostr:npub1spdnfacgsd7lk0nlqkq443tkq4jx9z6c6ksvaquuewmw7d3qltpslcq6j7, etc on the content side. I’ve got some things up my sleeve personally which I will begin to do once nostr:npub15xd2mmjnh3caykh77djsv73e0zkrp42jp5mwerx8f4m6su40wdvss7t3l3 is in a position to represent a NEW kind of Nostr-product..
But we need MOAR..
And…we also need to find another angle that is NOT about censorship resistance. That’s clearly not working against X.
I don’t know the EXACT narrative or spin, but it has to be more “running towards” than “running from”.
More white pill, less black pill.
Anyway.
I will probably turn this into an article. I’ve been thinking more and more about “writing in public” as we build Satlantis, and sharing more about how we’re thinking about growing a “network product” on top of a “network protocol”.
If you think this was valuable, please repoast so more people can see and get involved in the discussion.
Nostr is “struggling” because it doesn’t have a CEO basically, and it’s kind of directionless.
Catering to an audience is the “right” step in marketing but not for a global audience.
We should competently solve some problem first.
IMO, Nostr solves the creators problem first: own your audience, monetise, and a second order effect is better content.
But like they say here, opinions are like assholes everyone has one.
Own your audience is one of the best angles.
And yes - perhaps these narratives need to be driven by products and businesses built on Nostr?
I’d hope at the very least though, that orgs like OpenSats, who have some sort of coordination power, can assist. That’s somewhat of an edge against the centralised competition if used right.
But comms is a very important next step. I think the tech is mature enough to move onto that as a focus now.
I actually disagree on this. Zapping UX is *worse* since it first got implemented, I need to use different clients to see all reactions, zaps or replies, I can never easily login on primal in a new browser, I once seemed to lose all follows for days, no idea why, I doubt that if wiki leaks happened on Nostr it couldn’t be censored. All of this is anecdotal of course. But there is a lot of promise and cool fast pace improvement even if scattered.
Rn Nostr is still for the tinkerers, and that’s ok for now, I guess.
But it can’t be a shitcoin, it needs to excel at *something* to succeed first.
The tech is still not there yet, but looks like it’s spastically moving in the right direction.
