Nostr

Nostr (short for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a decentralised protocol designed for social networks and other communication applications. It’s simple, flexible and built to be resistant to censorship and centralised control.

It’s the most innovative application of the moment, although its development isn’t yet as advanced as that of other services. For now, the community is small and made up mainly of Bitcoin enthusiasts, libertarians and cyberpunks (apologies for the generalisation).

Here’s a more detailed explanation: #AI-generated

• Decentralisation: It doesn’t depend on a central server. Users connect through relays (servers that relay messages), but no one controls the whole system.
• Cryptographic keys: Each user has a private key (to sign their messages) and a public key (which acts as their identity on the network).
• Interoperability: As an open protocol, any developer can build applications that use Nostr for different purposes, such as social networks, chats or any kind of communication.
• Censorship resistance: Because of its design, it’s hard to censor or block content. Although a specific relay might reject certain messages, users can simply connect to other relays.
• Simplicity: Nostr has a basic architecture. Users publish “events” (messages, posts, etc.) that are digitally signed and relayed by the relays.

Immutability and resistance to censorship (and to self-censorship)

On Nostr, published messages are immutable and cannot be deleted or edited once sent. Messages are distributed across multiple relays, which reinforces censorship resistance and immutability. From what I’ve seen, not all clients allow you to delete your own messages, which can be a limitation depending on the use case.

Considering that messages are cryptographically signed — ensuring that only the owner of the private key can send messages from a specific identity — you have to be very careful about what you say or, if you prefer, act anonymously.

Cryptographic keys

• A key is made up of two strings of numbers, one public and one private.
• A key is not associated with any personal data or email. This favours anonymity but, if it’s lost, you permanently lose access to your data.
• A user can have more than one key.

Nostr applications

Here’s a list of applications that work with the Nostr protocol. The friendliest one, closest to what we’re usually used to, is Primal.