I started using Nostr about a year and a half ago. NGL I struggled with it, I wanted it to be that Twitter replacement I was searching for but there were several roadblocks:
• getting content to load
• self-custodial Lightning is a pita
• little to no interaction
• getting a mix of content beyond just Bitcoin
Therefore, I found myself stuck choosing between battling an algorithm or a miserable UX for social media. But that changed when I saw this dude's posts about making a few simple adjustments and that was exactly the unlock I was looking for.
In the last 24-hours I went from totally frustrated with Nostr to operating my own public relay, running a local private relay on mobile, & getting content to load quickly on my 3 favorite clients - first bullet point ✅.
I continued following his suggestions and funded Zeus to manage some inbound/outbound channels which is made easy with their new LSP. With that setup, I installed Minibits to create a mint and get a Lightning address. I topped off the mint from Zeus, then I configured the NWC secrets for my 3 clients and removed the friction to zaps in a self-custodial way - second bullet point ✅.
But then I figured out being an introverted lurker on Nostr doesn't bode well here. I started following more accounts, boosting, posting, liking, commenting... The more I use it, the better it gets - third bullet point ✅.
Finally, YakiHonne was the key to curating the content I was seeing. There are options to choose a number of topics beyond just Bitcoin-related stories and I recommend checking it out - fourth bullet point ✅.
All in all, Twitter is a dumpster fire as you probably know since you're here reading this and if you have hit some friction switching to Nostr hopefully some of this info helps.
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Replies (18)
Respectfully calling bullshit on “little to no interaction.”
As a humble pleb, I’ve never had that issue on nostr and I’ve been here since 2022.
Unfollow everybody and tell me the experience doesn't go to shite.
Bookmarked!
Fair point. Onboarding process absolutely is a grind.
It is useful for new no coin users to be able to send and receive zaps without having to use any perosnal information or pay.
It fills the 0-100k sat gap that users face if nostr native to bitcoin. They need a custodian until they can open a 100k sat self cutodial channel.
This is awesome stuff and I now want to start my own relay and stuff.
I'm still figuring it out myself but from what I understood the differences were that the Zeus Lightning address has a time limitation if the user is offline for more than 24-hours then the payment is returned to the sender. Where as the Minibits Lightning address doesn't. Also, the Minibits wallet can handle ecash along with sats seamlessly, which might be a plus if the user is into ecash. What I'm not so sure about is what happens if the mint operator's server goes down; the ecash is stored on the user's device and any user can run a mint themselves to connect with their client so I think it's easy enough to recover in the event a mint operator gets taken down. I went through the recovery process for good measure by funding the mint, uninstalling/reinstalling the app, and I am in fact in control of my keys/sats so I don't think it's custodial. I suppose a better test would be to restore in a different app altogether.
Check out this guide, it's incredibly helpful. relay.tools makes it easy to spin up and customize a relay. You have to install the Kiwi browser and then add the Nosx2 extension to it to sign into relay.tools with your Nostr profile. But once you do that, it's a12k sats/mo invoice and you're on the downhill run.
https://highlighter.com/a/naddr1qq9hyetvv9uj6um9w36hqq3qgcxzte5zlkncx26j68ez60fzkvtkm9e0vrwdcvsjakxf9mu9qewqxpqqqp65wjvcq4q
cashu ecash is a custodial iou for sats on the ln node of the mint but the tokens are bearer assets on the device
it offers superior privacy over any other custodial LN solution
the "ecash" will typically be denominated as sats but can also be in usd
the mint can't rug an individual but could rug the whole mint
if users are on the same mint tokens can be sent out of band by dm, text, email for free
Minibits pays any ln invoice as well
there are certainly ways to zap self custodially but minibits has amazing product fit for nostr
send out your balance to redeem sats into self custodial ln channel on Zeus for example
thanks 🙏🏻👍🏻
Ah, thanks, that was my confusion; I thought the ecash was the token being stored on the device. Didn't realize ecash was an IOU held by the mint operator. The way it's presented on the website is: "Ecash is a digital barer token that is stored on a user's device, very similar to physical cash."
Cashu.space
Cashu is a free and open-source Chaumian ecash system built for Bitcoin.
iiuc, Alice & Bob can send the bearer tokens amongst eachother intra mint with no Lightning tx but to send inter mint; the token has to be redeemed by the Alice's mint, sats sent via Lightning tx to Bob's mint, and there new bearer tokens are issued to Bob.
NOSTR ONLY
getting content to load = This is a feature to test your patience. If you pass, you are a true nostrich
• getting a mix of content beyond just Bitcoin = Follow me for UFO content 🛸 ✌️
Very helpful and informative, thank you.
🤝
i tried to go nostr only awhile ago but have been slowly pulled back to twitter because there isn't as much mining content here. hopefully it gets better
This, Sir is well worth a follow.. Thank you!