Iām getting really excited about all the possibilities that Nostr brings. Just wrote a blog post on the topic here:
https://www.awhb.dev/blog/nostr-how-it-could-change-the-world
Discussion
Great summary.
One thought on a side regarding this introduction āItās essentially an open-source protocol for creating decentralized social media. The goal is to build a censorship-resistant network, while also enabling private networks ā
You can find many similar premises on multiple shitcoins protocols while this one actually works and does not need any fuckinā native token.
š¤š nostr is the way
Self hosting will be the backbone for web3. There's a growing trend with platforms like Umbrel, where people host their own nodes and even files. Nostr will align perfectly with this movement.
I see Nostr as a digital mailbox, right at home, where people can check if I have something to say or just send their own signed message if they want to connect.
Oh I love that framing. When it really clicked for me was logging into a podcast app with my Nostr private key and having my identity syncedā¦ Thatās such an insane feature. You can essentially have a digital identity follow you on public, and private networks. š¤Æš¤Æ
absolutely, but all those datas, who you follow, where to find them, your social graph basically, can be kept at home, replicated to paid relay or to your siblings home server. It's such a great addition to the web, it's the web3 as it should be
Welcome to nostr š¤
As a dev, what (if anything) is missing or remains unknown as you dig down the rabbit hole of nostr development?
Hmmā¦ thatās such a good question. I think from a dev perspective just having more libraries built out on different languages is going to be a big one. I was writing some Nostr code the other day in Python just to understand how everything works at a lower levelā¦ and it was difficult to get things working initially because the one library I found was in kinda a weird unmaintained state.
From a user perspectiveā¦ I feel like the public private key idea is going to be a bit tricky to get my parents and siblings to understand. That being said.. once they doā¦ I think theyād freaking love it.
what about you what do you think is still lacking? How can it be improved from a user perspective and otherwise?
there is no complete onboarding resource for devs. Nostr protocol github does not contain the lessons and context of the thousands of nostr dev hours.
cc nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 see python feedback package.
On the user side, lmk if you have ideas. My gut tells me no one wants to do homework beforehand about scary topics like public private keypair cryptography. Things should ājust workā, and learning should happen by doing.
I think the no complete onboarding resource for devs is a big one. I think there should be more links at the very least to the community maintained libraries for each language. I think the NIPs are simple enoughā¦ but because we are using somewhat esoteric key generationā¦ that definitely adds some cognitive overhead. Itād be cool to have a basic starter project in a few different languages. Hereās the one I was working on over the weekend that helped me understand the implementation details a lot more: https://github.com/alexwhb/nostr-client-python-learning
I also agree with your perspective on the user side. I think not only thatā¦ but average people are still writing their password as āPasswordāā¦ so to have them managing a public private key pair seems tricky. Maybe if we can figure out a way for that key pair to auto sync with Apple Passwords or Google Passwords or whatever for the people who donāt use password managers might help. Or maybe create some sort of way of translating a password into a public private key pair so the known UX can still happen. Just some thoughts.
Dope ideas
nostr:npub1c878wu04lfqcl5avfy3p5x83ndpvedaxv0dg7pxthakq3jqdyzcs2n8avm was just complaining to me about the bad state of Python libraries today. I think it's just because Python is not a great choice for making Nostr clients because of all the asynchronicity required it got left aside (same as nostr:npub10000003zmk89narqpczy4ff6rnuht2wu05na7kpnh3mak7z2tqzsv8vwqk's and nostr:npub13f5edp5przy3sm0nnrrj205vgstuuul7s98datn7ekqahh54x6kqufgvmt's Ruby).
The thing I wanted to do with Python, though, if I could, was to work on this thing: nostr:nevent1qqs8qq6gyswd55tkvqqeyyxkar6c38654kvfvvh0nxv0fcnznk9064sppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tcpz3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezu7psvchx7un89ucnzyc3
I have this problem too... I wrote something in python using pynostr and it is missing quite a bit of functionality and is not maintained. I figured, I don't need that functionality so I continued on, but now I'm thinking I don't want to rely on something unmaintained, so I am going to rewrite some of it to use this https://pypi.org/project/nostr-sdk/
If you want to have a look at it, tell me what you think. I need to get back to that project soon and get it out the door as soon as I can.
Oh ya I actually took a quick glance at that yesterday. If I was writing something I wanted to be production readyā¦ Iād totally go for that. I do feel a bit apprehensive using python libraries that are non native to python when trying to learn something new, however. Simply because itās harder to debug and understand all the little details, that being said I think this is probably the right way to go if youāre building anything other people will use. I also really love rust (not that Iām good at it).
I recommend reviewing this repository https://github.com/YakiHonne/yakihonne-web-app/tree/main/client I have reviewed most of the web clients for nostr and this one is the easiest to read and understand the code.
How did you find about Nostr?
Haā¦ funny story.. about 2 months ago I got obsessed with the idea of āde big teachingā my lifeā¦ It became incredibly concerning to me how much of my identity was out on the internet and how much data these big tech companies have on me. So I began looking for ways to self host as much as I can and go with much more privacy centric services for the things that still make sense to have on payed for services. Additionally Iāve been hard core into Bitcoin for the last 4 or 5 years.. so Iāve been down the Web 3.0 rabbit hole a bitā¦ So I actually think I asked chatGPT if there are any decentralized social media platformsā¦ and I believe thatās how I discovered Nostr. And the idea just kept blowing my mind in different ways over the last month or so. It weirdly has captivated me wayyyy more than any of the other alternativesā¦ I think because the protocol is just so much bigger than pure social media. I can think of dozens of amazing applications for this network.
Well, this might have been the best thing ChatGPT has ever created then: a new Nostr user and programmer that didn't come from the Bitcoin community.
HAHAHA totally agree! It was certainly one of the most profound things Iāve ever stumbled across. Super excited to be in the community. I really do believe that this could change the world.
How about you.. how did you get involved in Nostr?
You can ignore him š¤Ŗ
that's an awesome story. I have been thinking a lot about erasing my tracks of a couple of decades online. would love to hear more of your journey. I don't really know if it can be done.
Ahhh would love to. Give me a bit and Iāll dive into the details when I have a bit more free time
Hey nostr:npub19aftr8lpgz8knmswjz0d3l9vzwx97dcvqh0zfuxcxu9d57t4yv3sz4v28l I decided to write a post on this topic for anyone else looking to do the same thing. Please let me know if you have any comments / feedback. And I wish you luck on your journey to data sovereignty. :)
#nostr is the new Wild West ā”š¤ š waiting to be conquered.
We, cowboys who ride freely from one place to another (#Nostr clientsš£)
#grownostr #zap #bitcoin #pleb
You can make your blog nostr compatible with https://npub.pro/
Welcome š¤
Thank you! :) happy to be a part of such an exciting new technology
Keep spreading the news! šļø I love it!
Thanks man. Happy to. What an exciting new era we live in
Itās a good time
Totally mis gendered you. Couldnāt see from the little profile pic. My apologies. An exciting time indeed
Hahaha all good! š I have zero feelings about being misgendered. One of the dudes most days anyway š¤ š¤£
I am gen x. I donāt have feelings and I call everyone dude š¤·āāļø
ššš I love that. My people.
Itās always cool to see new points of views come in and people just getting it