On a panel the question was asked why Nostr did not exist before, and why its special. Due to time i did not get a shot at answering but let me do it now.
TL:DR; all the other protocols are a bunch of pussies.
Nostr is somewhat an offshoot of secure scuttlebud(SSB), a protocol that already embraced putting cryptography at its core, despite all its apparent issues. Many other protocols never dared to do this, afraid of keyloss, issues with names and what not.
Unapologetically putting keypairs at the center will guarantee you will have a hard time to reach mass appeal initially, but with Bitcoin being around for a while, atleast there is a group of people who are comfortable enough with such a setup.
But Nostr is unapologetic about another thing that even SSB's designers could not seem to let go off, and thats in the realm of consistency, and il throw data availability in the mix there as well irt other protocols out there. Nostr guarentees fuck all, leaving room for other systems on top of it to pretend to guarantee things where ever such pretence is appropriate.
Lastly it kept itself accessible by picking JSON for its data format, making sure to rub puritanical assholes such as myself the wrong way. For however much we hate the inefficiency, it just is straightforward and legible to most regular humans.
The result is a protocol that is so basic, it more or less only points in the direction of a new paradigm without explaining that new paradigm to you. The less you define, the more you imply, which was my first Nostr presentation at Nostriga 2024 (see below). As such, most are still gathered somewhere just passed the entrance unsure of where they actually are, begging for familiarity (muh UI/UX, muh onboarding, muh normies), while more and more realize there is endless new ground to explore and started doing so.
I don't think the point is the protocol really. A standard for what cryptography to use, what dataformat and how to interact with servers, nothing about it is impressive. From a technical perspective it is minimal viable. The only reason this minimal viable thing is enough, is becasue 'we' were ready for it.
Bitcoiners, comfortable with all the rough edges, understanding of the need, capable enough to build and many years of training their conviction muscle. To attack central banking head on with a complete grass-roots approach is madness; attacking an already conquered web in the same way is not much different.
And the fuck you money helps, especially the larger sums from one Bitcoiner in particular. I'd like to pretend Nostr is this path depend systems view of history destiny thing that was merely sped up a bit; but i am not above admitting the great men viewpoint of historical development might had a hand in this thing, for which i am thankfull to the extend that is the case. An idea whose time has come, regardless, as they say.
And there we are, an answer i would have never been able to fit in a short panel discussion anyway, and looking back, also too large for a kind1, but it is what it is.
nostr:nevent1qqsp5uws0ynh72df789yn3y8zyctz4lk7y55tmyn35udpxrzxsjtfdcpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgq3qt6jxfqz9hv0lygn9thwndekuahwyxkgvycyscjrtauuw73gd5k7sxpqqqqqqzrcfu9r
nostr:nevent1qqsqfezwpl4jeulrhytap7jx0y68hpyem6d8ldeqmswwu6htfj8kgacpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqzyp02geyqgka3lu3zv4wa6dhxmnkacs6epsnqjrzgd0hn3m69pkjm6qcyqqqqqqgq4car3