Nostr, which stands for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relay”, is a decentralized, censorship-resistant social protocol. Nostr is a place where we all escape from darkness and achieve peacefulness.

Nostr has 3 main components; clients, relays, and users. Unlike Twitter where backend servers are controlled by a group of people, anyone and everyone can run relays to maintain Nostr protocol. Clients (web, mobile, desktop apps) fetch data from relayers and send new data from users to relayers. In other words, relays act like the backend server for Nostr. Relayers doesn’t communicate each other.

For example, if Bob use Relay-A and Ken use Relay-B, Bob can’t see Ken. But if Bob use Relay-A and Relay-B, Bob can interact with Ken. That’s why it is best to use multiple relays.

Each user has a pair of public and private keys; generally public keys start with ‘npub’ and private keys start with ‘nsec’. Public key act like username and private key act like password. But private key can’t change like normal password. So, it is best to store private key in safe place.

Since Nostr is the decentralized social protocol which no single people have control, it is not a good idea for each developer to solve common issues with different own solutions and implement it in their own app only. NIP, Nostr Implementation Possibilities, exist to coordinate the process. Currently there are 99 NIPs.

This is my first content about basic understanding of Nostr. Hope u enjoy it and appreciate any feedback.