Why is Nostr important?

Nostr enables censorship-resistant publishing.

Twitter is great, but it comes with some serious drawbacks: it has ads, uses bizarre techniques to keep you addicted, doesn’t show an actual historical feed from people you follow, bans people, shadowbans people, and is riddled with bots and spam. If you’re interested in the limitations of other Twitter alternatives like Mastodon, check out this resource on GitHub.

Nostr is a tool for free speech and free publishing. In an age where our speech is increasingly restricted in online forums and what we see is controlled by opaque algorithms, Nostr is a refreshing and necessary change.

How do I start using Nostr?

If you have an iPhone, join the Damus App beta on TestFlight (built by @jb55 and coming soon for Android)

Generate a public key and private key (npub, nsec) Save them in a password manager or somewhere safe. Add a few relays (you can find the complete list at https://nostr.watch/) Find and follow friends from Twitter using https://www.nostr.directory/ Start posting notes and liking/boosting posts. Just like that you’re good to go! Start playing around with Nostr on @damusapp or read on to dive a little deeper (Nostr on the web, profile pictures, and NIP-05 IDs).

UPDATE: With the recent updates of the Damus beta on Testflight, users can now have the ability to edit their profiles directly from the Damus app (usernames, profile picture, website, about me, NIP-05 verification). Users can also add a Bitcoin Lightning address for tips directly in the Damus profile editor!

How do I use Nostr on the web?

If you want to use Nostr on the web after getting your keys on Damus, download the Alby browser extension and input your private key. This will allow you to interact with Nostr web clients without inputting your private key directly into the web client itself. Alby uses the nos2x Nostr Signer Extension built by @fiatjaf.

If you do not have an iPhone, go to astral.ninja, create a public and private key, then follow the same steps. If you’re an Android user, fear not; there’s already a project in the works called Nosky.

Can I use Bitcoin and Lightning on Nostr?

YES! You can send Lightning invoices directly on Nostr by simply generating an invoice and pasting it into a note. On clients like Damus, the invoice text automatically changes into a nice little pay button. There are currently a lot of folks sending sats on Nostr…

What do I do now?

Start using Nostr! Follow Nostr developers like @fiatjaf and @jb55 (on Twitter and on Nostr). Check out some of the other awesome Nostr projects people are working on. Start helping others figure out how to use Nostr (here’s a great walkthrough @dergigi put together: nostr tips and tricks). Share your public key with your friends and experiment with an open-source, censorship-resistant protocol.

Remember, we are still very early on Nostr. Right now developers are focusing on building out the protocol; functionality comes first. UI and UX will continue to improve, but may feel rudimentary to non-technical users.