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Nostr's ambitions go beyond replacing Twitter

23-02-03 11:43

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原文标题：《 Nostr 的野心，不止替代 Twitter 》

Alpharabbit research Notes

Today's article tries to explore several issues:

1. Origin and transition of Nostr protocol, such as what ideas and ideas it is created out of, and some traffic analysis.

2. Recent Manifestation and Transmission path of Damus

3. On the use of Damus and the philosophy behind it: What does this decentralization represent?

4. If Damus wants to continue to do well, what is the problem? What else needs to be fixed?

Nostr protocol

Damus, which recently became a hit, is an application built on the Nostr protocol, which focuses on the decentralized social scene (think of it as decentralized Twitter).

NOSTR is a protocol through which you can build a lot of things. It's a relatively lightweight, simple but extensible open protocol on which you can build truly decentralized social media platforms.

This protocol is based on Relays (Relays, relays, relays, etc., this concept is very commonly used in Nostr, you can understand it as relays server, here we translate it as relays in order to correspond with Client client. For the translation, we would like to thank many friends on the instant, thanks can be seen at the end of the article). A relay is a server that can be operated by anyone. By establishing a persistent connection to the server, a client (or application) can interact with events in real time.

Nostr's website

About the account

In nostr, we don't need to use personal data to register an account (see, that's the advantage).

Like Bitcoin, we only need one set of keys, which means two keys.

A public key(Public Key) As your user name, this key can be shared and made public to everyone (just like your Weibo account, wechat ID, bank account, people can find you through this).

A private key(Private Key). This key is like your password and needs to be kept secret. With this key, you can access your account on any platform supported by nostr. Just select a nostr client such as anigma, coracle, or astral and it will generate for you. Here, for added security, it is recommended to use an external signer such as the Alby browser extension or nos2x extension, etc. A separate private key can also be generated using a tool such as Rana.

Be careful to save the private key, as it is the only way to recover and log back into your account in the future, if Damus is an example, the picture I posted yesterday:

Secure the private key! Secure the private key! Secure the private key! On countless roads ahead, safety comes first.

event

Let's take a look at the data:

For the content and created_at fields, these are relatively simple.

The ID is the unique identifier of the event, which is the only way to reference the event across the network.

Pubkey field, which contains the public key (user) that created the event.

The event is one of the most interesting parts of nostr. This is a field that specifies what kind of event it is and why it is interesting, because it means that there is no limit to what kind of event we can design.

For example, if you have an event class that is a plain text note, like a tweet text, but also has end-to-end encrypted information like number 4 above, there are many possibilities here.

The sig field (signature) is a cryptographic proof that the person who published the event is the owner of the private key associated with the public key.

The tags field can contain any tags you want, which gives developers a lot of possibilities! For example, when you reply to a message (event), the id of the event can be set to a tag named "e tag ".

About Relays: The relay end

The trunk is the main part of the nostr protocol and is used to store events received from customers. The relays cannot communicate with each other. Only the relays you are connected to can receive and store your events.

This is also an important feature of Nostr, meaning that Repeaters cannot communicate with each other, so users should be connected to as many Repeaters as possible.

Clients will (always) allow users to connect to as many relays as they want, and users can choose whether they want to read, write, or so on from the relays they are connected to. This one is interesting, because it means that we can connect to a relay to retrieve content, but we can choose not to publish events there, or vice versa.

For example, if the rabbit is connected to A relay A and the bear is connected to a relay B, they will not be able to see each other's events even though they are both using nostr. Users must connect to at least one shared trunk to see the events on the other side. This means that if the rabbit wants to see the bear's events in the above case, the rabbit needs to connect to relay B (or the bear can connect to relay A) and then see the other party's events.

This may sound complicated, but the beauty of it is that you can host a trunk that you don't share with anyone else and publish all of your events there, so you can back up only your own events on your trunk.

For example, there is a relay that wants to talk about entertainment news, and I don't want to participate in it or be a part of it, so I don't add the relay to my client. However, as a user, the Web disk can still communicate with a user who is both on the entertainment news relay and on other relays of which I am a member.

So the important thing about Nostr is that it gives individuals a lot of power, for example, the ability to create portals wherever you want to go. If someone wants to put you in a dark room, you can create a new territory and escape from the dark room. It is inexpensive and easy to set up a trunk at Nostr, which also works on a regular smartphone.

Controlling one trunk does not affect other trunks.

Nostr's ambition: Not just to replace Twitter.

Alternative Twitter

For the purpose of replacing Twitter, the client takes advantage of Class 1 events, which are plain text notes. Some clients include: coracle, astral, nostr.ch, branle, damus, alphaama.com, Nostros, and more. Damus, for example, is the creation of an alternative to Twitter.

Alternative Telegram

Public channels like Telegram can be implemented by using 4X (X being a number between 0 and 9), for example Anigma.io on the home page above is a Telegram clone web application. You can create public channels where anyone can join and chat. In anigma, private end-to-end encrypted information can be sent to users.

Alternative Reddit

Nostr can also be used as an alternative to Reddit, with posts that users can vote on, such as nvote in the larger image of the site above.

Online game

Another interesting use of nostr is to create simple multiplayer online games, such as Jeste, where you can play chess with other users online using Nostr.

Text sharing

Sendstr is an online tool that lets you share end-to-end encrypted text data between two devices using the nostr protocol.

1.2 Data about Nostr

(Since Similar Web only has access to January 30th, this section is for reference only, and the focus should be on February 1st.)

As we can see, most of the traffic comes from natural search, and outbound traffic, since the Nostr website does not provide much explanatory text,The location of Github is placed in an eye-catching way. Information is mainly on Github, so outbound traffic mainly goes to Github.

And then the social part, you can see: all from Twitter, I believe that after Jack Dorsey sent that tweet, the data is still 100%, that is, all from Twitter into Nostr, download Damus.

Recent Manifestation and Transmission Path of Damus

We covered the Nostr protocol above, and then we talked about Damus: including a trip to Reddit to collect some comments.

Damus

On February 1, 2023, Jack Dorsey posted about Damus's release on the Apple Store and Google App Store, and it went viral. I speculate that in addition to Jack's celebrity, it was because the app was available on mobile, After all, most people in the world are using mobile more often, and given the market's recent lackluster performance (compared to last year's peak), it's easy to get noticed.

Damus' picture here I'll take IOS as an example: the ubiquitous decentralized Twitter:

Again, note that:

pubkey: Same as we said before, your address and username, which people use to find you, will start with npub.

Private Key: This is your password and life, please hide it.

One more thing, Logout= logout

Don't click Delete in the heat of the moment

To find other users, you need to know their publickeys: For example, mine is:

Here's the tech part, if you're interested, check it out on Github:

Since Damus is built on Nostr protocol, its operation needs to follow the requirements of Nostr. Then we can see that there is a NIP in damus github document, and this NIP isNostr Implementation Possibilities To document what must, should, and could be implemented by nostr-compatible repeater and client software.

(that is, defines a set of rules and standards). NIPs stand for Nostr Implementation Possibilities. They exist to document what MUST, what SHOULD and what MAY be implemented by Nostr-compatible relay and client software.

Specifically, it is:

NIP-01: Basic protocol flow defines the basic rules and flows, fields, and message requirements that all users need to execute.

NIP-08: Mentions Handling Mentions, which primarily regulates the client's handling of inline mentions of other events in text_notes content and pubkeys.

NIP-10: Reply conventions describe how to use "e "and "p" tags in text events, especially those responding to other text events.

Nip-12: Generic tag queries (hashtags) Generic tag queries. The trunk indicates that the trunk responds to queries with tags because subscription is supported by any tags. That is, the NIP allows the query of any single-letter tags that exist in the events.

On the use of Damus and the philosophy behind it

1. First of all, the broken circle of Damus represents an evolution, that is, our interaction is no longer limited by the so-called "product", but based on protocol. How to understand this, even if I want others to know that I like reading books, this Tag will be marked on my head, while the private interface is still hidden. So, the other person doesn't know my age, gender, or whether I'm really a rabbit, which is, in the process of socializing, concealing the soul carrier, which is our body.

2. Secondly, Web3 social networking takes the form of whitelist. How do you interpret that? For example, if I add you and I tell you that I'm a rabbit and I like carrots, and there's no need for trust (you don't have to know me), then socialization oriented to specific Object needs, how do you interpret that? Traditional networking is people-oriented, which means I need to know who you are before I decide I know you and ask for your help.

Now, in the future, we do something, you help me change the code, I send you a painting, so the importance of blockchain and wallet here is that they are the basis for the flow of subsequent benefits, which is a pure behavioral social model.

3. There is no Group A includes B, C and D members. Only B C D standalone object has tag A.

4, there is no credit, no social relations, only interaction, there is no so-called security, review, only history.

If Damus wants to keep doing well, what's the problem? What else needs to be fixed?

Product experience: I went to their Reddit and found that there are still a lot of users who don't quite upload their profile pictures.

So that raises some questions, and so, the follow-up product experience is going to be a big test, after all, with mobile apps today that have been honed with time and feedback, the product experience is usually very good. In addition, users' habits and requirements will be higher, and no one will use a product that doesn't work well.

(If you don't have a profile picture here, you can use a website like postimage.org to upload the picture, then create a link to the image, and then copy the URL to your Damus profile here (below).

About growth and retention

Yesterday, I talked to Jike friends, and this is what I said:

Note that in early 2021, there was also a phenomenal-level social software called Clubhouse, which became popular due to the influence of Musk and other celebrities, but it did not develop well thereafter.

According to the ephemeral Clubhouse, Tencent Research Institute published an article in 2021, in which it was mentioned that whether voice social networking is the potential demand of people?

For example, if we look at the history of Internet application, each technology application that has become a trend and trend has effectively solved some human nature. For example, portal website has solved people's need of "one-stop" access to information; Search engine solves people's choice barrier for mass information; Instant messaging solves the need for people to communicate from place to point at any time; Blogs address people's need for self-recording and self-expression; Microblog and other we-media tools empower every member of society to disseminate public information, breaking the monopoly of information production and transmission channels. Wechat has solved people's social needs, and after ten years of development, it has fulfilled the various needs of peer-to-peer private communication, "people by group" social interest and public expression in the square.In terms of the advancement of communication forms, social communication media are constantly upgraded from text, pictures to voice and then to video.

Voice social communication is a way to reduce the dimension of communication.During the 2020 epidemic, the biggest storm in China was livestreaming webgoods, and short video websites such as Douyin and Kuaishou became industry darlings under the spotlight. People are thinking about what's the next generation of interaction after live streaming, is it VR? Is it the holographic Internet?2021 Clubhouse relies on voice social turn popular, to some extent can be seen as a form of communicationThe reduction and backtracking of the model and the lowering of communication interaction threshold again provide more possibilities for social products.

Social distancing has lasted for a year, forcing thousands of meetings and gatherings to be cancelled or moved online. With the advent of Clubhouse, voice social communication lowers the threshold and minimizes the social pressure. People don't need to wash their hair, make up, dress up, care about the light and cleanliness of the room, and fully adapt to those who "stay at home" during the epidemic (please imagine spending 2 months in pajamas during the Spring Festival in 2020). If the epidemic is normal, stay at home, there will be some space for voice social communication. Whether celebrities or ordinary people, at the moment of speaking, other hundreds of thousands of audience will quietly listen to your speech behind the screen, expressing the desire to get the maximum release.

So, what is the future of Clubhouse content precipitation and user retention? At that time, the main attractions were celebrity interviews, quality topic discussions, a certain degree of mystery in the invitation system and ensuring relatively high quality and high-end users, and the intimacy and presence of direct voice dialogue. The user is at a cocktail party, listening and wandering around, staying to listen and participate in discussions on topics that interest him or her, and then jumping to the next room if not. But despite its global popularity, the Clubhouse quickly became a forgotten product.

By the same token, if we look at Damus, we have to ask the same question, which is what does decentralized social serve our needs? And, what about subsequent content accumulation and retention?

The answer to this question needs to be discussed with you. But I think attempts to move in that direction, where data ownership can be owned by each individual, are always worth supporting.