Here are the simple specs how it will work ..but longish ..but give it a quick run through ..
# Content Hosting with Blossom
The first challenge is replacing the centralized hosting of audio files. The Nostr ecosystem's solution for this is Blossom, a protocol specifically designed for storing and retrieving large binary files (blobs).
Blossom introduces a profound architectural shift from location-addressing (the URL in an RSS tag) to content-addressing. A file is identified not by where it is stored, but by the cryptographic hash (specifically, the SHA-256 hash) of its contents. This means the identifier for a podcast episode's audio file is intrinsically linked to the data itself. Any change to the file, no matter how small, would result in a completely different hash.
Blossom integrates tightly with Nostr for two key functions:
Authentication: To upload, manage, or delete files on a Blossom server, a user must prove their identity. They do this by signing a kind:24242 Nostr event and presenting it to the server. This leverages Nostr's native identity layer to authorize actions on a separate but integrated file storage system.
Discovery and Redundancy: To ensure resilience, a creator can upload their audio file to multiple independent Blossom servers. They then publish a kind:10063 Nostr event, which contains a list of the Blossom servers where their content can be found. A Nostr client attempting to fetch the audio file can first look up this list. If the first server on the list is offline, the client can simply try the next one, requesting the exact same file using its universal hash identifier. This provides native redundancy and censorship resistance at the media hosting layer, a direct and powerful solution to the fragility of the single-host RSS model.
## Metadata Publication and Discovery
In the Nostr model, there is no single "feed file." A podcast is simply an ongoing stream of events published by the creator's public key. The metadata traditionally found in an RSS feed is replicated and enhanced using various standardized event kinds, defined in Nostr Implementation Possibilities (NIPs):
## Podcast-Level Metadata:
A creator's kind:0 event serves as their global profile. This can contain the podcast's title, a detailed description, and a URL pointing to the cover art, directly replacing the function of the RSS tags.
## Episode-Level Metadata:
Each new podcast episode would be announced with a new Nostr event. This event would contain tags pointing to all the necessary information. A kind:30023 ("Long-form Content") event is ideal for publishing detailed, Markdown-formatted show notes. The event's tags would include a `` tag and, crucially, a tag pointing to the audio file on Blossom, using its SHA-256 hash.
Interoperability with the Broader Ecosystem: To ensure that Nostr-based podcasts can be indexed and understood by other systems, NIP-73 provides a standard for referencing external content IDs. A podcast episode event could include a tag like ["i", "podcast:item:guid:d98d189b-dc7b-45b1-8720-d4b98690f31f"], using the globally unique identifier from a traditional RSS feed. This allows a Nostr event to be definitively linked to a specific episode, enabling cross-platform commenting and interaction.
# Direct Monetization with Zaps
The Nostr protocol includes a native V4V model called "Zaps," standardized in NIP-57. Zaps are Bitcoin micropayments sent over the Lightning Network. Unlike Podcasting 2.0's V4V, which is an add-on to a protocol with no identity, Zaps are a fundamental, protocol-native interaction.
The process is defined by two event kinds:
kind:9734: A Zap Request, which is a private event created by the sender's client to request a Lightning invoice from the recipient's wallet service.
kind:9735: The Zap itself, which is a public event created by the recipient's wallet service after the invoice is paid. This event is signed by the recipient's wallet and broadcast to the network, serving as a public receipt that includes information about the sender (their public key) and often a reference to the event they were zapping.
This makes sending a Zap a core social gesture within the Nostr ecosystem, akin to a "like" or "retweet" but with real economic value attached. The entire transaction, from the user clicking a ⚡ icon in their client to the creator receiving satoshis in their wallet, happens in seconds with negligible fees.
The Nostr User Experience
The experience of using a Nostr-based podcasting client would be fundamentally different from a traditional podcatcher:
Discovery: A listener would discover a new podcast not by browsing a centralized directory, but by seeing it mentioned or reposted by other users they follow on Nostr. Discovery is social and organic, driven by the user's "web of trust".
Subscription: To "subscribe," the listener's client simply adds the creator's public key to its list of subscription filters. The client will then receive all future events from that creator in real-time from its connected relays.
Consumption and Interaction: When the creator publishes a new episode event, it appears in the listener's feed. The client would parse the event, use the hash to fetch the audio from one of the creator's listed Blossom servers, and display the show notes. The listener could then reply directly to the episode event (creating a new kind:1 event that references it) or send a Zap, all from within the same interface.
This architecture doesn't just decentralize podcasting; it reframes it. In the RSS model, each podcast is a discrete data silo contained in its own XML file. On Nostr, all data—profiles, social notes, podcast episodes, comments, and V4V payments—exists within a single, global, and interoperable data space. A "podcast app" on Nostr is simply a client that is programmed to filter for and render podcast-related event kinds. This means a podcast episode and its associated social interactions are first-class citizens in the same data stream, enabling a level of composability and integration that is architecturally impossible with the siloed RSS model.
