I’ve started hearing “nostr is just a shiny toy that is distracting devs” more and more, and honestly think that’s just really, really dumb.

I don’t see the difference between saying this now and saying that lightning was distracting devs in 2017.

lightning needs bitcoin and makes it more valuable via demand pull. nostr needs lightning and makes it more valuable via demand pull. ergo (by the transitive property of “needs” and “makes more valuable”) nostr needs bitcoin and makes it more valuable. this is building in layers. this is the antithesis of crypto’s “world computer” bullshit. like, seriously, what more do you want?

not to mention that the more people who come to bitcoin, the more developer hours you end up creating.

I have absolutely zero on-the-ground info on this, but I strongly suspect that for every core contributor who first got involved in 2019 or later, lightning was a huge part of what motivated them, *even if* their actual output since then has had nothing to do with lightning directly.

open to being convinced this is all completely misguided btw. as mentioned earlier I have a lot of time today to argue …

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I’m assuming you’re hearing this idiotic sentiment from *NON* devs?

haven’t been paying too much attention to who was saying it but I will now.

it’s one of these things you don’t really pick up on or pay attention to in the moment, and what you end up noticing isn’t so much what is being said but the fact it’s being said a lot.

I feel you. Probably crossover with the salty few Bitcoiners who remain defiantly Twitter-only 🫠

Twitter vs Nostr is the new Android vs iPhone

Eating food is distracting devs smh. Think of the opportunity cost!

code, monkey, code!

sleep when you’re dead bro!

The “distraction” narrative sounds like an Eric Wall troll.

Yup. Distracting from what? :) It's not like they work for Bitcoin Inc.

Nostr is a big deal. Just like Bitcoin is a big deal and Lightning is a big deal. Put them all together and, well, you have a very big deal

Very interesting to watch it play out

Great post. Nostr has the potential to pull in a huge number of non-bitcoiners. At the moment it's massively bitcoin centric, which is fine. Other people will come for the censorship resistance of social media etc., but the realize they stumbled into a whole permissionless world.

Agreed, an analogy would be that a rainforest is far more than its lumber content. It is a layed and complex system of meandering energy flows.

If the human spirit and natural instinct pulls you toward something due to its "glowing veracity" for example, than it is a sign of value.

The goal is to create a qualitatative economy rather than a quantitative (extractive only) one, then these varied and useful applications must sprout and grow and increase complexity.

Decentralizing twitter is second importance only to decentralizing money. Lots of "never again", examples to choose from. One of my faves: unity2020 shutdown.

Its for devs to decide if nostr is a distraction or not

distracting because it’s awesome, that’s a win

for awareness of devs and nondevs alike