Since Nostr now needs to appeal to wider audiences, I'm sharing these carefully selected business and technology images to improve Nostr's look and feel.
EZ
ez@primal.net
npub1s07s...uk63
someday I'll have something original to say
ON DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS
People generally dislike change unless they see or experience obvious benefits of adopting something new.
Nostr is growing slower than centralized media platforms. Currently, it mainly attracts innovators and people looking for new frontiers. People who already love nostr for what it is are more or less idealists - those whose eyes light up thinking about Nostr's potential and all the incredible things being built on it. They are also tinkerers who do not expect things to work ideally on the first try.
THE STAYING POWER
While the advantages of using Nostr are somewhat obvious to some, the implementation part, where the majority of people actually get to experience its relative advantages, still comes with lots of setup friction, including but not limited to:
1. Securing one's nsec
2. Setup up relays, including paid one's
3. Choosing a daily go-to client, experimenting with various interfaces (which often leads to nuking your npub settings)
4. Setting up a Lightning address and wallet for frictionless zapping
5. Building a following feed, discovering more of what you want to see
6. Learning how to upload images and media (some clients do a great job at this already but something like GIF integrations are still missing)
7. Developing a habit to post on nostr consistently and actually building an audience
What I'm aiming here for is that getting to a smooth and optimal Nostr experience for yourself takes some time and work based on your hardware and expectations. Thinks do break sometimes, sometimes they load slowly, other times you have no idea what went wrong.
Nostr is still a highly diverse environment for trying different things out with no clear-cut way forward. You have to proactively seek, test, and find out what works for you and what doesn't.
Most Bitcoiners are already aware that Nostr exists. Many non-bitcoiners know it, too. They have tried it out, made several posts and then disappeared. Starting over your social life on a new frontier is facing the unknown - it's uncomfortable.
You want someone like big poppa Elon or a big corp holding your hand and explain what's happening. And if your engagement is not like what you have on other platforms where you were building out your social presence over years, why would you leave for something so raw and different?
The problem with Nostr's staying power is not that it doesn't have it.
The protocol has the most staying power of all - its our keys and our network, unlike all other centralized panopticon tubes, and you will most definitely be back here at some point later to give it another shot from another angle.
So how can Nostr compete?
THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INSTRUMENT
We'll, it is not be easy but Nostr has many, obvious and not entirely obvious things going for it.
1. Unparalled login experience. Moving through different clients, signing up for new things with a simple click of a button - no email, no bullshit - there's nothing like it on the web.
2. Zaps. Hell yeah, zaps. We're seeing a peer-to-peer content creator economy emerging natively on the web. ON THE HARDEST MONEY IN HUMAN HISTORY.
3. Things and integrations like zapthreads. Nostr is already enhancing the existing web, more of it please.
4. DVMs, AI and productivity. Nostr and AI tools work well. Image generation? You got it. Video transcription? Hell yes.
5. Disposable npubs for privacy. Some may argue that Nostr is bad for privacy, and that is true to a certain degree, but one can't deny some unique ways of utilizing nostr this way, too.
6. All-in-one media experience. I haven't watched football in years but I followed nearly every match of EURO 2024 here because it was just one click away on Amethyst and zap.stream.
7. Ownership of your social presence and the network. There are new business models emerging on Nostr. Paid relays, media servers, wallet services, and more. Or you can host it all yourself. Your network, your choice.
There are many more, and those who have been paying attention know it way better than I do.
People join social networks and install apps with a certain intention, hoping that it will be an effective means to a specific end. Why would a non-user create a Nostr account today? What pain does Nostr or its certain clients alleviate in a way that is unmatched in the current state of the internet? What is getting you hooked for more and what's the fastest way for a new account to experience what you're experiencing on Nostr daily?
The are all important questions to answer moving forward.
It's way too easy to get discouraged if you start comparing Nostr with well-funded, centralized social platforms with their own marketing fluff and business motive but fundamentally they still have nothing on nostr as they appear to be working on a wrong solution.
Nostr seems like the right solution to me. The predominant attitude by non-users is that Nostr is broken and can't compete. They're seeking validation on why Nostr won't work, just like BDS people who can name you every wrong reason for why Bitcoin won't work even when it does. That's fascinating.
Nostr, just like Bitcoin, does not have a juicy marketing budget in terms of fiat, but in bitcoin terms, Bitcoin and Nostr have all the marketing budget in the world.
Nostr is growing slower than centralized media platforms. Currently, it mainly attracts innovators and people looking for new frontiers. People who already love nostr for what it is are more or less idealists - those whose eyes light up thinking about Nostr's potential and all the incredible things being built on it. They are also tinkerers who do not expect things to work ideally on the first try.
THE STAYING POWER
While the advantages of using Nostr are somewhat obvious to some, the implementation part, where the majority of people actually get to experience its relative advantages, still comes with lots of setup friction, including but not limited to:
1. Securing one's nsec
2. Setup up relays, including paid one's
3. Choosing a daily go-to client, experimenting with various interfaces (which often leads to nuking your npub settings)
4. Setting up a Lightning address and wallet for frictionless zapping
5. Building a following feed, discovering more of what you want to see
6. Learning how to upload images and media (some clients do a great job at this already but something like GIF integrations are still missing)
7. Developing a habit to post on nostr consistently and actually building an audience
What I'm aiming here for is that getting to a smooth and optimal Nostr experience for yourself takes some time and work based on your hardware and expectations. Thinks do break sometimes, sometimes they load slowly, other times you have no idea what went wrong.
Nostr is still a highly diverse environment for trying different things out with no clear-cut way forward. You have to proactively seek, test, and find out what works for you and what doesn't.
Most Bitcoiners are already aware that Nostr exists. Many non-bitcoiners know it, too. They have tried it out, made several posts and then disappeared. Starting over your social life on a new frontier is facing the unknown - it's uncomfortable.
You want someone like big poppa Elon or a big corp holding your hand and explain what's happening. And if your engagement is not like what you have on other platforms where you were building out your social presence over years, why would you leave for something so raw and different?
The problem with Nostr's staying power is not that it doesn't have it.
The protocol has the most staying power of all - its our keys and our network, unlike all other centralized panopticon tubes, and you will most definitely be back here at some point later to give it another shot from another angle.
So how can Nostr compete?
THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INSTRUMENT
We'll, it is not be easy but Nostr has many, obvious and not entirely obvious things going for it.
1. Unparalled login experience. Moving through different clients, signing up for new things with a simple click of a button - no email, no bullshit - there's nothing like it on the web.
2. Zaps. Hell yeah, zaps. We're seeing a peer-to-peer content creator economy emerging natively on the web. ON THE HARDEST MONEY IN HUMAN HISTORY.
3. Things and integrations like zapthreads. Nostr is already enhancing the existing web, more of it please.
4. DVMs, AI and productivity. Nostr and AI tools work well. Image generation? You got it. Video transcription? Hell yes.
5. Disposable npubs for privacy. Some may argue that Nostr is bad for privacy, and that is true to a certain degree, but one can't deny some unique ways of utilizing nostr this way, too.
6. All-in-one media experience. I haven't watched football in years but I followed nearly every match of EURO 2024 here because it was just one click away on Amethyst and zap.stream.
7. Ownership of your social presence and the network. There are new business models emerging on Nostr. Paid relays, media servers, wallet services, and more. Or you can host it all yourself. Your network, your choice.
There are many more, and those who have been paying attention know it way better than I do.
People join social networks and install apps with a certain intention, hoping that it will be an effective means to a specific end. Why would a non-user create a Nostr account today? What pain does Nostr or its certain clients alleviate in a way that is unmatched in the current state of the internet? What is getting you hooked for more and what's the fastest way for a new account to experience what you're experiencing on Nostr daily?
The are all important questions to answer moving forward.
It's way too easy to get discouraged if you start comparing Nostr with well-funded, centralized social platforms with their own marketing fluff and business motive but fundamentally they still have nothing on nostr as they appear to be working on a wrong solution.
Nostr seems like the right solution to me. The predominant attitude by non-users is that Nostr is broken and can't compete. They're seeking validation on why Nostr won't work, just like BDS people who can name you every wrong reason for why Bitcoin won't work even when it does. That's fascinating.
Nostr, just like Bitcoin, does not have a juicy marketing budget in terms of fiat, but in bitcoin terms, Bitcoin and Nostr have all the marketing budget in the world.
The real marketing budget is the friends we zap along the way
my wife is on a crocheting spree, been focused on it for days, preparing for a fair...
good on her
i really shoudn''t get drunk on Friday at home and start posting random thoughts on Nostr...
HOWEVER