Nostr Predictions for 2026: The Year Everything Clicks

1. 2026 Is the Year of the “Other Stuff” - We've been building for this. It's happening. It's finally happening.

2. Shakespeare Becomes the Default Way to Build - Okay, maybe not just Shakespeare, but AI-first is the default in 2026.

3. DMs Finally Work and What Comes Next - NIP-17 DMs on all major clients!

4. Mainstream Media Can No Longer Ignore Nostr - You may not care about mainstream media, but 8 billion other people do, and we're there in 2026.

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzq0mhp4ja8fmy48zuk5p6uy37vtk8tx9dqdwcxm32sy8nsaa8gkeyqyt8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yetvd96x2uewdaexwtcpramhxue69uhkummnw3ez6un9d3shjtnyv4ex26mjdaehxtndv5hsqdtwdaehgu3dwpex2erfvd6xjmmwwvkkvmmj95erqv3k946xsefd09jkzu3dv4mx2unew35xjmn8943kc6trddesw983ze

> Because that is what you sound like to me. Incapable of actually evaluating anything critically, instead leaning on whatever fallacies let you stay the way you are instead of become interested in outside things.

lol. Didn’t you suggest I should only talk about your ideas.

I think we’re done, but good luck with your thing

would be awesome if you promote nostr on rogan

bitchat++ meetup at btc++ riga privacy edition with at least 36 real peers in the mesh.

pentest with ble flooder managed to fake up to 5k peers but network still returned back to normal afterwards. nevertheless a lot of work required to improve robustness and reliability.

it does now work with LND - because LND does not support bolt12, yet.

it works in the standalone version (with the embedded LDK)

Can anyone explain why bolt12 is not the default zap/lightning address in Nostr profiles? Seems a better option than the email address currently used.

Just installed Phoenix which has Bolt12 reusable lightning addresses, anyone got any decent resources on this subject? Never used it before.

The Lightning Network does not scale.

This is why everyone is building fake centralized hybrid Lightning bullshit and using custodial apps.

There are many reasons for this, here are some.

Liquidity - Each channel requires funding, twice. That capital is frozen until you splice, rebalance, or close. As adoption grows, the liquidity requirement grows quadratically. As on-chain fees grow, cost of using LN goes up while security assurances go down.

Complexity - Complexity breeds centralization. most users do not tolerate the base LN experience. Most devs do not tolerate depending on complex buggy self-custodial implementations. You've practically got to be an entire Lightning stack business to reliably provide a self-custodial product. Costs rise, leading to severe centralization at scale.

Routing - Portrayed as the coolest part of LN, but truly the worst aspect due to liquidity requirements, uncertainty, complexity. Results in hubs, then centralization at scale.

Breaking changes - Constant new complexity requires node runners to always run new, potentially insecure software. New channel types, new payment protocols, all destroy interoperability.

Obscure Hacks Required - If you want to provide a LN wallet or app you need to learn all the weird solutions, like LNURL, misc patches & tools, that people hacked in because LN protocol devs and LN implementation companies rarely care about the user space (probably because it is hopeless). We get weird derivative things hacked into others, like subscriptions into one specific payment protocol, but not into others; or, weird email format nicknames that arent actually emails, and are all implemented in trusted ways. This results in LN businesses and LN devs requiring arcane understanding, and endless patience, in the LN world.

Regulatory trap - Running a LSP business safely requires experienced lawyers for a constantly changing compliance landscape. New hybrid LN services like Spark, Liquid swaps, and taproot-asset edge nodes, will draw regulatory scrutiny the moment something goes wrong, or becomes too large.

Lightning is still cool and useful, but it doesn't actually fix Bitcoin payments at scale, so much as kinda-sorta provide efficiencies as long as you don't actually scale too much...

TLDR?

The concept of a high-frequency bitcoin channel is sound, and proven now.

The concept of a bitcoin-based routing network as an efficiency has not been proven, and, arguably, has failed.

Unfortunately no lightning address available to receive zaps

Put your lightening address on nostr and let me buy some ppl some cacao from the backwoods of Kentucky