Tbh I still haven’t figured out Nostr- the whole “no algorithm” thing confuses me… but what you say about zapping sats clicked for me… it’s something that is very cool and likely the way forward for all social media
Discussion
Your absolutely right! I’m not a technical guy at all when it comes to programming and algorithms so I’m trying to wrap my head around it as well. Zapping instant value with sats definitely seems to be the most obvious advantage that NOSTR holds over traditional social media platforms. I also think that NOSTR being a decentralized, protocol, tech stack, (like BTC & E-MAIL) rather than a centralized platform (like Facebook & Twitter) gives it another clear advantage. Protocol tech stacks being more global and interoperable obviously.
Yeah very valid- still trying to wrap my head around this decentralised social media. Someone explained to me that it doesn’t have an algorithm like things like instagram etc
but that still doesn’t make sense to me- how do we see anything if there’s no algorithm? Do we only see things from people we follow? So the only way you can find someone new is if someone you follow shares something or they comment on something of theirs?
These are very good questions Mike, thank you for asking! So the NOSTR protocol itself does not curate content or dictate what the users see. It’s decentralized design gives the users more control over their experience by allowing them to choose which “relays” servers to connect to, or create and run their own. Algorithms are not enforced at the protocol level, allowing users to customize their feeds and interactions. All of these “relays”servers agree on the rules of the NOSTR protocol, allowing them to be interoperable with each other. Similar to Bitcoin, NOSTR is a protocol that is decentralized and open rather than being a platform (Facebook & Twitter) that is centralized and closed. Just as BTC nodes all agree upon following the BTC protocol AKA BTC rules, the NOSTR relays all agree upon following the NOSTR protocol. So long story short, there are still algorithms being used, they are just much more open and transparent about them because the users possess the freedom to just leave and choose another NOSTR client to use. This contrasts with traditional social media platforms where algorithms are often hidden and used to control the content users see. Hope this helped a little bit with understanding the algorithms usage. Thanks again for your comments and questions! They have helped me identify opportunities I can use to improve my article.
Ah that makes sense- so there is an algorithm (this is what confused me) but it’s just decentralised. This is so obvious now you say it 🤦♂️😅
Thank you so much for this! This has actually been a lightbulb moment and it feels like it’s clicked more 🙌
WOW! I just realized, you’re the British YouTuber that I discovered about a week ago on, “The Journey to 1 Whole BTC.” I then went to your personal channel and watched the first video and thought it was perfect for introducing normies into bitcoin, so I subscribed! Now I have begun watching your older videos about building websites for businesses. I’ve already found them to be very useful! Really looking forward to watching your new BTC videos in the future! This is so wild! I discover a new YT channel to watch about BTC and quickly become a huge fan! 1 week later, the content creator of that popular YT channel is zapping me some sats and commenting on a Substack article I wrote about NOSTR! 🥹Oh, and just to make it even more cool, our conversation is taking place on NOSTR! Man…I love BTC + NOSTR! 😁
Nice one! I really hope they can help, they are the exact videos I wish I had when I started and I’ve really just made these for close friends but figured I’d just put them on YT. I have zero plan for the channel- but I’ve enjoyed going even deeper down the rabbit hole whilst making them!
Where abouts are you from?
And yeah Nostr is defo more interesting to me now you’ve helped explain it- I just hate social media 😅 so it’s a slow process getting back into it