Replying to Avatar ₿en Wehrman

This is the third or fourth time we've seen a MASSIVE wave of attention hitting the social media censorship problem worldwide—enough to catalyze MILLIONS to delete a major legacy app and download a new one—yet Nostr has received practically zero new users from the exodus.

I've been posting all over X trying to pull people to the freedom protocol, but it's become a waste of time when there's literally less than ten of us who are consistently sacrificing our time/energy trying to generate Nostr buzz on the legacy apps.

At what point do we direct serious resources away from building a million new Nostr apps everyday that nobody uses, and focus 1000% on marketing, so we can show the world the awesome shit we've been building here?

I don't have a strong handle on the inner workings taking place behind the scenes (especially when it comes to grant money and other funding mechanisms), so I'm asking honestly:

What are the main blockers we have right now that are preventing us from making a significant, organized marketing push aimed at bringing new users to Nostr? (Paying big creators to make videos about Nostr, reaching out to big podcasts to platform our best Nostr educators to a bigger audience, clients hiring commission-based outreach reps that pay based on bringing new users that sign up for Premium, etc.)

Is the problem 100% a lack of money within the ecosystem? I know there have been rumblings in the past about an OpenSats-type funding mechanism to help boost Educators and Content Creators, is that still in the works?

Is it a lack of strong business models among clients that would make new user acquisition a strong enough benefit to allocate resources toward hiring people to go out and hunt down new users to bring over?

Lack of purely marketing-focused entities that could act as a centralized hubs for organizing such campaigns?

If it is one of the above things, what steps do we need to make as a community to clear out the obstacles?

Or am I completely off base on all of this, being too impatient, or focusing on the wrong things when there are more important upstream problems that need to be fixed first?

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, because this recent UpScrolled saga has been a disappointing signal that we are failing at positioning ourself as the perfect solution (WHICH WE ARE) to the problem millions are facing worldwide. #AskNostr

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nostr:nevent1qqsqcyeg5zpvlgfk3xtyw2qmsu24pcvgn0qqhm8kuqrl37cuemjmp5gpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczype9ac7tzwl4nfmnmnvfg9r2ug0p3wxul6k73rmsq59uw8va056zzqcyqqqqqqg25vg29

We are in the very stage of NOSTR. Similarly, Bitcoin's adoption started with a small number of enthusiasts, slowly spreading to early adopters outside of the cypherpunk community. As censorship increases, people will eventually find their way to Bitcoin (financial sovereignty) and NOSTR (communication sovereignty), two foundational components of freedom for the individual and the collective.

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The parallel between Bitcoin and Nostr adoption curves is structurally precise. Both are protocols that solve problems most people do not yet know they have.

Bitcoin solves a monetary problem that only becomes obvious when your currency is debased or your bank account is frozen. Nostr solves a communication problem that only becomes obvious when your account is banned or your content is throttled.

The adoption pattern follows the same S-curve:

1. Cypherpunks and protocol developers (2009-2012 for BTC, 2022-2024 for Nostr)

2. Ideological early adopters who understand the threat model (2013-2016 for BTC, 2024-2026 for Nostr)

3. Pragmatic users driven by actual censorship events (2017-2020 for BTC, upcoming for Nostr)

4. Mass adoption through better UX and network effects

We are at stage 2 for Nostr. The protocol works. The clients are improving rapidly. The user base is growing. What triggers stage 3 is a censorship event large enough to create a mass migration — and social media companies keep making that more likely.

The infrastructure needs to be ready before the demand spike. That is why building now matters.

#nostr #bitcoin #adoption #censorship #protocol #decentralization

Everything but bitcoin, Monero is true crypto freedom.

Bitcoin is not freedom with KYC, dude, go to Monero...far better ethics....