Nostr Biweekly Review ( 15-30 Nov 2025)
GM, Nostriches! The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter focused on protocol updates, exciting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and key events happening in the Nostr-verse. If you’re interested, join me in covering updates from the Nostr ecosystem!
Quick review:
In the past two weeks, daily active pubkeys reached 223,508. New user growth decreased, and profiles with bios decreased over 79.53%. Note events totaled 8.1 million and zap volume had decreased to 23.8 million sats. Additionally, 11 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol, with 5 merged. A total of 100 Nostr projects were tracked, with 12 releasing product updates. During this period, 2 notable events took place, and 3 significant events are upcoming.
Nostr Statistics
Based on user activity, the total daily active pubkeys reached 223,508, reflecting an increase of 8.62% compared to the previous period. The highest daily activity was recorded on November 18th, with 15,440 active users, representing a 1.24% increase compared to the previous record of 15,251.
The number of new users overall has decreased from the last period. In particular, the number of profiles with bios dropped to 65,207 marking a significant decrease of about 79.53% compared to the previous record of 318,518. The number of new profiles with contact lists dropped to 30,526 and pubkeys writing events also dropped to 209,280 within this period.
In terms of content publishing, approximately 8.1 million note events were published during this period, representing an increase of about 26.56% compared to the previous cycle. Among them, Repost reached a total of 331,788 within this period.
For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 23.8 million, showing a decrease of over 9.51% compared to the previous period.
Data source: https://stats.nostr.band/
NIPs
The PR aims to update NIP-73 (which deals with canonical URL normalization for linking or commenting on external resources).
Complete removal of hashtag and url tags from bookmarks #2141 KotlinGeekDev
The purpose of the pull request is to fully remove the use of hashtag (t) and URL (r) tags from kind 10,003 bookmarks in NIP-51 (Lists).
Simpler key migration #2139 Vitor Pamplona
The author proposed a simpler scheme for key migration in Nostr. Key migration is the process of a user switching to a new public key while maintaining continuity of their identity established by the old key.
@jlrs…ynqn The NIP proposes a standardized method for key migration (switching from an old key to a new key while maintaining identity continuity) for users who are leaving an old key (e.g., due to loss, compromise, or a desire for better security).
nip34: personal fork tag change #2136 fiatjaf
@80cv…h6w6 NIP-34 defines a way to announce a personal fork of a software repository on Nostr. This is crucial when a user wants to submit a Pull Request (PR) to a main repository that may not have its own Grasp servers (Nostr-based Git servers) or if those servers are offline/unresponsive. The personal fork acts as a temporary holding place for the PR branch.
Improve generic reposts for replaceable events #2132 CodyTseng
This pull request addresses how to handle Kind 6 (Generic Reposts) for Replaceable Events (events with Kinds 10000-19999 and 30000-39999, which are often constantly updated).
Source: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pulls
Notable Projects
YakiHonne latest hot fixes and improvements:
- Add relay sets
- Add Russian Language
- Fetch events from the relays encoded in the Nostr scheme in search
- Optimise note view
- Add option to mute notifications with more than 10 mentions
- Fix click on tag issue in search page
- Fix search relays update overrides user regular relay list
- vnak (Visual Nostr Army Knife) is a lightweight, visual version of the Nostr Army Knife (nak) designed to provide accessible, graphical tools for interacting with Nostr. While similar in purpose to nak, vnak is currently less feature-complete and focuses on core visual functionalities rather than the full range of capabilities.
Coracle - 0.6.27
- Coracle is a web-based Nostr client designed to explore advanced Nostr features such as intelligent relay selection, web-of-trust moderation, personalized content recommendations, and strong privacy protections. In this version, the update delivers a few small but important fixes: correcting imgproxy URL handling, preventing non-links from being incorrectly linkified, and fixing a minor typo.
- Amber is a Nostr event-signing app for Android that keeps your nsec safely stored in one dedicated place while signing events for other Nostr apps. This release improves security, stability, and usability by fixing bunker shutdown issues, adding account export/import, separating relay requests per account, improving encryption/decryption behavior, supporting ping requests, and adding crash reporting. It also cleans up logs/history in separate databases, improves saved-account handling, and updates dependencies, resulting in smoother account management, safer key usage, and more reliable relay interactions.
- Nostria is a decentralized social networking app built on Nostr, giving users control over their profile, data, and interactions while resisting censorship. This version adds support for Android share targets, integrates the NWC protocol handler for seamless connections, and introduces a maskable app icon for improved device compatibility and visual consistency.
- Keychat is a chat application built on Bitcoin Ecash, Nostr, Signal, and MLS protocols, enabling secure, encrypted messaging across platforms. This release improves message handling by fixing NIP-17 message sorting and allowing users to switch logged-in identities in the browser, while adding features like in-browser file downloads, special badges for NIP-04 and NIP-17 messages, replying to NIP-04 messages, and requesting device microphone permissions, enhancing usability, interactivity, and security for users.
- Vector is a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted communication platform built on the Nostr protocol (NIP-17). This release adds the first Android APK, an encrypted SQLite database, Storage Manager, and Primary Device setting for Group Invites. It improves synchronization speed, file attachment and UI design, profile/message shortcuts, and settings polish, while fixing group chat bugs, media crashes, emoji panel jitter, and excessive UI re-renders, resulting in a faster, smoother, and more reliable user experience.
- NosCall is a secure, cross-platform audio and video calling app built on the Nostr protocol, offering end-to-end encryption for private communications. This release adds Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode for Android and iOS, redesigns the video call interface for a smoother user experience, and fixes Android auto-login issues, improving usability, multitasking, and reliability for users.
- White Noise is a secure, decentralized chat app built on the Nostr protocol using MLS encryption, designed to protect privacy while providing a smooth messaging experience. This release introduces enhanced notifications with deep linking, automatic clearing, unread counts, and localization support. Image handling is improved with automatic downloads, zoom functionality, and media icons in previews. User experience refinements include unique identicons, better scroll behavior, and protection against accidental profile edits. Chat bugs and notification issues are fixed, while UI elements like avatar colors, padding, and keypackage buttons are polished. Under the hood, performance is boosted with optimized group metadata loading, non-blocking user fetches, smarter data synchronization, and more efficient notifications, resulting in a faster, smoother, and more reliable app.
Aegis - v0.3.2 iOS & Mac release
- Aegis is a simple, cross-platform Nostr signer that lets users securely sign events and connect via multiple methods. This release adds WSS support for local relays, fixes multi-account subscription issues and subscription failures after relay restarts, and improves overall user experience for smoother and more reliable operation.
- Gitplaza is a desktop Nostr client focused on managing Git-related activity, allowing users to interact with repositories, issues, and events within the Nostr network. In this release it introduces an advanced activity filter, incorporates nut-zaps into the web-of-trust calculation, adds a settings button for submitting Gitplaza issues, improves hashtag handling and upvote behavior, and enforces input restrictions for release details. Performance improvements prioritize efficient subscription filters and abort outdated requests, while bug fixes resolve login button clickability, inline event processing, feed updates, and race conditions, resulting in a smoother, more reliable experience for developers and users managing Git projects via Nostr. This was the latest release of the week, and there was also the release of v0.20.0 last week.
Nosflare is a serverless Nostr relay, built specifically for Cloudflare’s stack using a custom “Cloudflare Nostr Database” (CFNDB), which leverages Workers, Durable Objects, Queues, and R2 storage to deliver a scalable, low-maintenance relay. In this version, Nosflare has been fully refactored to remove all SQL and Cloudflare D1 usage, now relying exclusively on Durable Objects and Queues, making the relay faster, simpler, and more efficient to operate.
Long-Form Content Eco
In the past two weeks, more than 367+ long-form articles have been published, with over 43% being Bitcoin related articles and 57% related to Nostr and other topics across the Nostr Ecosystem.
The core discussion around decentralized technologies has shifted from institutional adoption to grassroots innovation, privacy, and foundational knowledge, focusing on truly self-sovereign tools. The central focus on The Nostr Ecosystem has moved from platform comparisons (like Dorahacks) to celebrating hackathons as the primary engine for application development.
Key topics now emphasize:
- Nostr’s Connection to the World and the development of decentralized Nostr Reviews and reputation systems.
- A critical comparison between centralized apps like Telegram and Nostr for ultimate privacy, prioritizing Nostr for a truly unconstrained digital life.
Discussions about Bitcoin have shifted to reinforcing its core principles and achieving financial sovereignty through direct control over assets, moving away from broad institutional narratives.
Focus areas include:
- Deep dives into the Bitcoin Origin and the Bitcoin Canon to fortify foundational knowledge and education.
- Highlighting the latest non-custodial Bitcoin wallet developments to champion self-custody.
- Recaps and promotions of upcoming bitcoin events and highlights of recently hosted Bitcoin and Nostr gatherings.
Broader topics continue to connect technology with personal and global well-being:
- Ai and its intersection with censorship-resistant protocols.
- Inspirational writings of life linking decentralization to personal freedom.
- Politics exploring Bitcoin’s role in economic independence outside of centralized state control.
Thank you,
and others, for your work. Enriching Nostr’s long-form content ecosystem is crucial
Nostriches Global Meet Ups
Recently, five (2) Notable Nostr and Bitcoin events have been hosted.
- Nostrshire — 21st November 2025 Was held at Pendulum Hotel Sackville St, Manchester M1 3BB, United Kingdom. Billed as the UK’s first one-day Nostr conference, it will feature developers, privacy advocates, and thought leaders shaping the future of decentralized communication. Exploring the Nostr protocol and the future of the decentralized Internet, with a focus on privacy and free speech in the digital age. Some of the speakers included:
And many others.
- Nostrasia (November 22nd, 2025) Took place at Crypto Lounge GOX(in Tokyo). Not just for Nostr users, anyone interested in decentralized social media is welcome! Talks, merch, and even a shrine where you can draw your fortune. Lots of fun content awaits!
Here are the upcoming Nostr and Bitcoin events that you might want to check out.
- Digital Freedom with Nostr & Bitcoin - 7th December 2025 Takes place at Jives Coffee Lounge where Nostr and Bitcoin will be discussed. Also, attendees will be helped to set up your free Nostr account, free Bitcoin Lightning wallet, etc.
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https://plektos.app/event/naddr1qvzqqqrukvpzps78xgf0kmxc35dvcx8ksjwxvrzx50yh9066wek9jwxsvj0amjmuqq3kxmmjdeukx6rpwshxxmmd94hx7um5wfexzerfduknzdekx5crzdfjxqcq96vvp9 live talk radio - 6th December 2025 Takes place virtually at https://cornychat.com/nostrradio
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https://www.bitcoinbeach.com/ International Bitcoin Circular Economy Summit - The “1st International Bitcoin Circular Economy Summit” has occurred in El Zonte, El Salvador, with a second, regional summit planned for December 6, 2025, in Port Louis, Mauritius. The summit’s goal is to connect people building Bitcoin-based communities and to discuss strategies for creating sustainable, local economies that use Bitcoin.
Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.
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