Protocol: a standardised set of rules for formatting and processing data. Protocols enable computers to communicate with one another.

§🥱 Why’s it so great then?

• Easy for nerds to build on (vs activity pub for example) and is growing very quickly (was only launched in 2020)

• Cryptographic key pairs replace user accounts

• Cross platform - use your keys to post and read notes in any client

• Much harder to censor multiple copies of information; impossible if using selfhosted relay

• Can be completely anonymous - no KYC, keys can even be generated offline

• Bitcoin lightning integration through ‘zaps’

• Anyone with a key pair can post notes, anyone can run a relay, ‘anyone’ can build a client

§

§How to Nostr;

1. Generate a fresh set of keys by clicking ‘Sign Up’ / ‘Create Account’ in any nostr client
2. Get zappable - input your lightning address
3. Write an #introductions post, get zapped

§ok, ok I’m joking; here are the stepz

Getting started on Coracle.Social, my favourite microblogging web client First up visit https://coracle.social/login and click ‘Sign up’ to generate a set of fresh keys.

The account creation process will walk you through inputting basic profile information, all of which is ENTIRELY optional. The only thing you need to interact with the nostr network are key pairs (you can make an unlimited amount of these). Coracle helps you out with finding a few accounts to follow based on interest, so you don’t need to start with an empty feed.

Next & very important if you wish to keep this account is to backup your keys. Just like with Bitcoin you will lose access forever if you do not store the private key (nsec) somewhere safe, like a password manager or nostr login extension (nos2x, Alby, flamingo).

Click on the circle bottom left (profile pic if you uploaded one) and select ‘Keys’. Clicking the little copy icon will bring up a box with the option to encode your private key with a password, you can then save the nsec string.

With your nsec in your pocket you can now go and play with any app in the Nostrverse and all of your data will follow you! *in theory 🤪

§wanna get paid for posting pictures of your dog?

‘Lightning Address’ is the field to look out for, in Coracle this can be found under Profile and clicking edit from the three dot menu

Many wallets such as WoS, Breez, Minibits (Ecash), Zeus, Phoenix & Alby will provide you with a static lightning address, paste this into the box to receive sats from the get go.

§Finding stuff to read

At the top of the ‘Feed’ page on Coracle is a Filters(|) button which brings up a yugge range of options

§Anatomy of a Nostr “post”

{ “id”: “4376c65d2f232afbe9b882a35baa4f6fe8667c4e684749af565f981833ed6a65”,
“pubkey”: “6e468422dfb74a5738702a8823b9b28168abab8655faacb6853cd0ee15deee93”,
“created_at”: 1673347337,
“kind”: 1,
“content”: “Walled gardens became prisons, and nostr is the first step towards tearing down the prison walls.”, “tags”: [ [“e”, “3da979448d9ba263864c4d6f14984c423a3838364ec255f03c7904b1ae77f206”], [“p”, “bf2376e17ba4ec269d10fcc996a4746b451152be9031fa48e74553dde5526bce”]
], “sig”: “908a15e46fb4d8675bab026fc230a0e3542bfade63da02d542fb78b2a8513fcd0092619a2c8c1221e581946e0191f2af505dfdf8657a414dbca329186f009262” }

Let’s break that down

• id: a unique number for each event allowing for referencing
• pubkey: the author’s unique public key (npub in hex format)
• created_at: time stamp
• kind: the type of content (known as an event), in this case a simple text note
• content: the note
• tags: this note references another event (it is a reply), and the op’s npub
• sig: verification code proving this note has been signed by the author’s private key

The note displayed in Primal: Get zapping - Primal inbuilt (email kyc, not available in certain location - choose El Salvador?), https://www.zapplepay.com/ or Alby Hub (self hosted)

Options for generating own keys: https://nip06.jaonoctus.dev/ - BIP39 https://gist.github.com/kdmukai/ae9911ed6fb92f8e7d2c553555b0cb86 - via seedsigner (we can dream) https://github.com/guilhermegps/secret-border https://www.nostr.rest/- vanity key mining

§Nostr client examples:

• Damus, Amethyst, Primal, Snort, Iris - Twitter like

• Corale.social snort.social iris.to satellite.earth Nostrudel- web clients for computer browsers

• Habla News https://yakihonne.com/- Long-form content (like this doc)

• Flockstr, inmytown - Calendars

• Fountain - Podcasts

• Wavlake - Music

• Tunestr - music live streaming for zaps

• footstr.com - feet

• cornychat.com nostrnests.com/ live audio rooms

• Zap.stream - more live stuff

• Shopstr, Plebeian.Market cypher.space - p2p buying/selling

• Stacker.news, Oddbean - Forums

• Yondar - Maps

• Jester - Play chess jesterui.github.io/

• lazereyes - Save your lens prescription on nostr:

• Zap.cooking - recipes

• Shipyard.pub - note scheduler

• npub.pro - your notes as a website

• Njump.me - profile preview tool with client chooser, makes easily shareable webpage using lightning address

• mostro - p2p bitcoin exchange

• Pinstr - Create customized public boards of pins

• Listr - edit your lists (mute/bookmarks/follows etc

§

§NIPs:

• NIP-01: Basic protocol flow description

• NIP-02: Contact List and Petnames

• NIP-03: OpenTimestamps Attestations for Events

• NIP-04: Encrypted Direct Message

• NIP-05: Mapping Nostr keys to DNS-based internet identifiers

• NIP-06: Basic key derivation from mnemonic seed phrase

• NIP-07: window.nostr capability for web browsers

• NIP-08: Handling Mentions — unrecommended: deprecated in favor of NIP-27

• NIP-09: Event Deletion

• NIP-10: Conventions for clients’ use of e and p tags in text events

• NIP-11: Relay Information Document

• NIP-13: Proof of Work

• NIP-14: Subject tag in text events

• NIP-15: Nostr Marketplace (for resilient marketplaces)

• NIP-18: Reposts

• NIP-19: bech32-encoded entities

• NIP-21: nostr: URI scheme

• NIP-22: Event created_at Limits

• NIP-23: Long-form Content

• NIP-24: Extra metadata fields and tags

• NIP-25: Reactions

• NIP-26: Delegated Event Signing

• NIP-27: Text Note References

• NIP-28: Public Chat

• NIP-30: Custom Emoji

• NIP-31: Dealing with Unknown Events

• NIP-32: Labeling

• NIP-36: Sensitive Content

• NIP-38: User Statuses

• NIP-39: External Identities in Profiles

• NIP-40: Expiration Timestamp

• NIP-42: Authentication of clients to relays

• NIP-45: Counting results

• NIP-46: Nostr Connect

• NIP-47: Wallet Connect

• NIP-48: Proxy Tags

• NIP-50: Search Capability

• NIP-51: Lists

• NIP-52: Calendar Events

• NIP-53: Live Activities

• NIP-56: Reporting

• NIP-57: Lightning Zaps

• NIP-58: Badges

• NIP-65: Relay List Metadata

• NIP-72: Moderated Communities

• NIP-75: Zap Goals

• NIP-78: Application-specific data

• NIP-89: Recommended Application Handlers

• NIP-94: File Metadata

• NIP-98: HTTP Auth

• NIP-99: Classified Listings

§

§Nostr Vs Mastodon/Twitter/Threads/Bluesky

§Discoverability/finding people to follow/algos

§Privacy/self-custody

§It’s Shit and doesn’t work but I will die on this hill

§Other rabbit holes:

• DVM, data vending machines

• Web of Trust

• Outbox model

––––> https://zapper.nostrapps.org/ <–––––

Some popular Nostriches to follow (import into Listr):

§Handy nostr tools:

https://advancednostrsearch.vercel.app https://nostr.build/upload.php meme uploader https://zaplife.lol/ who zapped who https://zap.store/download - permissionless app store validated by the web of trust https://decenchat.com/ - embeddable nostr live chat widget for website https://highlighter.com/ - Tool to quote articles