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Nostr (acronym for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a decentralized social media open protocol which was built to resist internet censorship.[2][3]

Nostr can be used for social media and other applications.[3][4]

Development

The Nostr protocol was first written in 2020 by a Brazilian open source developer known by the pseudonym “fiatjaf” as a response to perceived moderation issues on Twitter, as well as both technical and cultural disagreements with other protocols such as ActivityPub and Secure Scuttlebutt.[5][6] In 2024, in an article reporting on the project’s funding, Business Insider claimed to have identified fiatjaf, and had found two websites previously published by this person to disseminate the work of Olavo de Carvalho, a far-right conspiracy theorist.[5]

Nostr is an open standard, and the majority of third-party apps that use Nostr are free and open-source.[7] Data on the Nostr protocol is stored in JSON blobs called Events, which are the only kind of object on the Nostr protocol.[8][9] Users are identified by their public key, tagged as an “npub” key. Different extensions to the Nostr protocol are called Nostr Implementation Possibilities, or “NIPs”.[10] One of these extensions provides integration with the Lightning Network, a separate payment protocol that operates over the Bitcoin network, allowing the sending and requesting of small payments (nicknamed “Zaps”) among Nostr users.[11] Other NIPs include ways to add a human-readable alias to an npub key using a well-known URI hosted on a web server, a method that is used by other protocols such ActivityPub and the AT Protocol.[non-primary source needed]

As a result of its ability to quickly and discreetly create accounts and publish posts to relays, Nostr can propagate spam much more easily if left unchecked. A notable example includes a case where multiple protocol bridges have been used to conduct spam waves on the Bluesky social network (itself connected to a competing protocol, the AT Protocol) by creating posts on Nostr, bridging the post to ActivityPub and bridging it again to Bluesky.[12]

NOSTR has also been used to develop apps other than social media apps. For example, Shakespeare, an open-source AI site builder operates using NOSTR as the base protocol. Additionally, White Noise is a private messenger app that runs over NOSTR.[4]

Users

The Nostr client Damus is a microblogging social networking app akin to Twitter.[13][14] Damus was the first Nostr app to be listed on the App Store.[15] Two days after it was launched in February 2023, Damus was removed from the Chinese version of the App Store per a directive from the Cyberspace Administration of China.[16] According to Reason, some Chinese NOSTR users have used VPNs to bypass the Great Firewall of China.[3]

Other NOSTR social media clients include Primal on IOS, Amethyst on Android, or Coracle for a web client.[3]

According to Fortune in 2023, Nostr had become popular with bitcoin users, with notable proponents including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter.[15] Dorsey donated approximately $250,000 worth of Bitcoin to the developers of the project in 2023,[15][17] as well as a $10 million cash donation to a Nostr development collective in 2025.[4][5]

As of May 2023, Forbes reported that the protocol had over 18 million registered users across its network.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ “basic server relay code. · nostr-protocol/nostr@6158017 · GitHub”. GitHub.
  2. ^ nostr – Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays, nostr-protocol, January 6, 2024, retrieved January 6, 2024
  3. ^ a b c d Gladstein, Alex (August 13, 2024). “Can Nostr make Twitter’s dreams come true?”. Reason.com. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  4. ^ a b c Perez, Sarah (July 17, 2025). “Jack Dorsey pumps $10M into a nonprofit focused on open source social media”. TechCrunch. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c Long, Katherine (June 6, 2024). “Jack Dorsey gave $10 million to an anonymous founder with a deep devotion to a fascist ‘guru’“. Business Insider. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Castillo, Michael del. “Meet @Fiatjaf, The Mysterious Nostr Creator Who Has Lured 18 Million Users And $5 Million From Jack Dorsey”. Forbes. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  7. ^ “Clients – Docs”. nostr.com. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  8. ^ “Events – Docs”. nostr.com. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  9. ^ “nips/01.md at master · nostr-protocol/nips · GitHub”. GitHub.
  10. ^ “GitHub – nostr-protocol/nips: Nostr Implementation Possibilities”. GitHub.
  11. ^ “What are Zaps?”. nostr.how. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  12. ^ Perez, Sarah (May 21, 2024). “The ‘vote Trump’ spam that hit Bluesky in May came from decentralized rival Nostr”. TechCrunch. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  13. ^ Perez, Sarah (February 1, 2023). “Damus, another decentralized social networking app, arrives to take on Twitter”. TechCrunch. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  14. ^ Lovejoy, Ben (February 1, 2023). “Nostr iPhone app Damus makes it to the App Store”. 9to5Mac. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  15. ^ a b c Torpey, Kyle (February 21, 2023). “Here’s why Bitcoiners are flocking to Nostr, a social network supported by Jack Dorsey and Edward Snowden”. Fortune. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
  16. ^ “Removal of Damus social media platform from China App Store was ‘expected’ by developers amid Beijing’s strict censorship”. South China Morning Post. February 6, 2023.
  17. ^ Schreckinger, Ben; Robertson, Derek (April 10, 2023). “Jack Dorsey explains his new obsession”. Politico.