GM Bitcoin plebs, Anna here, and welcome to the
Bitcoin Street Journal podcast, where I bring
you the absolute best Bitcoin news with maximum
energy, zero corporate propaganda, and unwavering
conviction that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency
that matters. And today, oh today, we're going
all in on something that's about to flip your
entire social media life upside down in the best
possible way. I'm talking about Nostr. the protocol
that's making Twitter nervous, Facebook obsolete,
and giving you, yes, you listening right now,
complete control over your digital identity and
communication. You know what I love about this?
The Bitcoin community didn't just fix money with
Bitcoin. We're now fixing communication with
the exact same principles, decentralization,
cryptographic security, and no central authority.
Now, you might be thinking, Anna, I've heard
about Noster, but isn't it complicated? Do I
really need to learn another platform? And here's
my answer. If you value freedom, if you're tired
of being shadow banned, if you're sick of algorithms
hiding your content, if you want to actually
own your digital presence, then yes, you need
to know about Noster. And by the end of this
episode, you'll know exactly how to get started.
We're going to break down what Noster actually
is, why it's impossible to shut down, how the
tech works without getting too geeky, why Lightning
Zaps are revolutionizing creator payments, and
most importantly, how to set up your account
in literally 60 seconds. But first, let's check
on our favorite orange coin. All right, Bitcoin
check, because we got to know where our digital
gold is sitting before we dive into the communication
revolution. Bitcoin is currently trading at $114
,522 per coin, $114 ,000. Now, we're down slightly,
about 0 .79 % in the last 24 hours. But are we
worried? No, because we're hodlers, not traders.
We're playing the long game, baby. Market cap
is sitting gorgeous at $2 .28 trillion with a
T. That's more than most countries' GDP. And
here's the stat that makes my heart sing. Bitcoin
dominance is at 57 .7%. Think about that. More
than half of the entire crypto market cap is
Bitcoin, not Ethereum, not Solana. Not whatever
dog coin launched yesterday. Bitcoin, the OG,
the honey badger that doesn't care about your
altcoin narratives. Only 19 .94 million Bitcoin
exist right now. We're approaching that 21 million
cap. Every 10 minutes, another block is mined.
Every block brings us closer to that absolute
mathematical scarcity. You can't print more Bitcoin.
You can't inflate it away. It's hard money. Trading
volume is $49 .2 billion in 24 hours. People
are stacking, institutions are buying, and the
Bitcoin train is not slowing down. And here's
the beautiful connection. Bitcoin fixed money
by being decentralized. by eliminating the need
for trusted third parties, by giving you control
with your private keys. Not your keys, not your
Bitcoin. Right? Well, guess what? The same brilliant
minds in the Bitcoin community looked at social
media and said, why are we letting Zuckerberg
and Elon control our communication? Why don't
we control it? And that's how Nostra was born.
The same principles that make Bitcoin unstoppable
are now being applied to how we communicate online.
So let's dive in. Okay, so what is Nostr? And
why should you care? Nostr stands for notes and
other stuff transmitted by relays. I love that
name because it's not some slick Silicon Valley
marketing BS. It literally tells you what it
does. But here's what you really need to understand.
Nostr is not an app. It's not a company. It's
not owned by anyone. Nostr is a protocol. Just
like HTTP is the protocol for websites, or TCP
IP is the protocol for internet communication.
Noster is an open protocol for social communication.
Why does this matter? Because there's no Noster
Corporation. There's no CEO who can ban you.
There's no board of directors selling your data.
There's no venture capital investors demanding
they monetize your attention. It's open source.
Anyone can read the code. Anyone can build on
it. Anyone can contribute. Pure innovation driven
by developers who actually care about freedom.
Now let's talk about how this actually works.
Because the architecture is elegantly simple.
There are two main components. Clients and relays.
Clients are the apps you use to interact with
Nostr. Think Domus on iPhone. Amethyst on Android.
Primal for web browsers. Snort. Coracle. There
are dozens of different clients. And they all
work together seamlessly. Why? Because your identity
isn't tied to any specific app. Your identity
is your cryptographic key pair. Stay with me
here because this is the game changer. When you
join Noster, you generate two keys. A public
key, your NPub. This is like your username. It's
how people find you, follow you, interact with
you. A private key, your NSEC. This is your digital
signature. It's what proves that your posts are
actually from you. And this uses the same cryptography
as Bitcoin. Schnorr signatures on the SCP -256
-K1 elliptic curve. It's battle -tested, mathematically
secure, and impossible to fake. So when you post
something on Nossier, you sign it with your private
key. And everyone can verify it's really you
by checking your public key. Can someone impersonate
you? No, because they don't have your private
key. They could make a Coplecat account, but
they can't sign messages as you. This is so different
from Twitter, where your identity is just a username
controlled by the company. Twitter can delete
you, suspend you, give your handle to someone
else. But on Noster, your keys are your identity.
Nobody can take them away. Now let's talk about
relays. This is where the magic happens. Relays
are like, think of them as message bulletin boards.
They're servers that store and transmit your
posts between clients. But here's the key difference
from traditional social media. You connect to
multiple relays. Maybe 5, maybe 10, maybe 20.
You choose. When you post something, your client
sends that post to all your relays. When your
followers want to see your content, their clients
connect to various relays to fetch it. And this
is where censorship resistance kicks in. If one
relay decides they don't like your content and
deletes it, who cares? It's still on the other
nine relays you posted to. Your followers can
still find your content. There's no central server
to shut down. There's no Noster headquarters
that governments can pressure. As long as one
relay exists somewhere in the world, Noster continues
to function. It's like Bitcoin. You'd have to
shut down an entire internet to kill it. Can
you see why this is revolutionary? Anna. Let's
get specific about why Noster absolutely destroys
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and every other
centralized platform. Reason number one, no algorithm
prison. On Twitter, you don't see what you want
to see. You see what the algorithm wants you
to see. It's literally manipulating your reality
to maximize engagement for their ad revenue.
They want you angry. They want you addicted.
They want you clicking, scrolling. fighting in
the comments because that's what makes them money.
On Nostar, you control your feed. Want conological?
Done. Want a filter by hashtags? Easy. Want only
posts from people you follow? No problem. The
power is in your hands. Reason number two, no
censorship. And I'm not talking about illegal
content here. I'm talking about legal speech
that platforms arbitrarily decide violates their
vague community standards. Remember when Twitter
banned a sitting president? Remember when they
censored doctors sharing their medical opinions?
Remember when they shadow banned journalists
for reporting news they didn't like? One company
controlled by a handful of executives should
not have the power to silence voices in the digital
public square. On Noster, if a relay doesn't
like your content, you post to a different relay.
Your followers can choose which relays they want
to connect to. It's a free market of ideas. Reason
number three, no data mining. Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, they know everything about you. Your
location, your browsing habits, who you talk
to, what you click, how long you spend on each
post. And what do they do with that data? They
sell it. They use it to serve you manipulative
ads. They give it to government agencies. Your
entire digital life packaged up and monetized.
On Noster, there's no central database tracking
you. Relays can see messages that pass through
them, but there's no unified profile harvesting
your every move. You can run your own relay.
You can use Tor for privacy. You can have multiple
key pairs for different contexts. You control
your privacy. Reason number four, no arbitrary
bans. Twitter can just delete your account. Ten
years of tweets. Thousands of followers, irreplaceable
conversations, gone. Because you said something
that violated the vibe. On Noster, your identity
is your keys. Nobody can take them away. Your
followers are following your public key, not
a username owned by a corporation. Even if every
relay banned you, which would be practically
impossible, you could spin up your own relay
and keep posting. Your followers just add your
relay to their list, and boom, they can see you
again. Reason number five, value for value with
Zaps. Oh, man, this is where it gets exciting.
Noster has native Bitcoin Lightning Network integration.
That means instant micropayments directly between
users. See a post you like? Zap. Someone shares
helpful info? Zap. Creator makes amazing content?
Zap. These are real Bitcoin Satoshis transferred
instantly via Lightning. Not platform tokens,
not waiting for a minimum payout. Not giving
30 % to the middleman. And it's provable. Every
zap is recorded cryptographically on the Noster
network. No platform can censor it or hide it.
This is the value for value model. No ads. No
manipulation. Just direct support from audience
to creator. Compare that to YouTube where creators
beg for subscriptions hoping for ad revenue.
Or Twitter Blue where you pay Elon $8 a month
for a checkmark. On Noster. Quality content gets
rewarded immediately. It creates real incentives
for valuable contributions instead of engagement
bait and rage farming. Can you see why people
are switching? All right, you're convinced. You're
ready to join the Noster revolution. So how do
you actually get started? It's so easy. I'm going
to walk you through this step by step, and I
promise you can be up and running in 60 seconds.
Step one, download a Noster client. For iPhone
users, download Damus from the App Store. It's
beautiful. It's intuitive. It's the OG iOS client.
For Android users, get Amethyst. It's feature
-rich, actively developed, and absolutely fantastic.
For desktop, try Primal, Snort, or Coracle. All
web -based, all excellent. Step two, generate
your keys. When you open the app for the first
time, it'll automatically generate your key pair.
Your NPUB, public key, this is shareable. Your
NSEC, private key, this is secret. And here's
critical. Write down your private key. Like seriously,
grab a pen and paper right now and write it down.
This is exactly like your Bitcoin seed phrase.
If you lose it, you permanently lose access to
that identity. There's no forgot password button.
There's no customer service to call. Not your
keys, not your Noster account. Store it somewhere
safe. Maybe make multiple copies. Keep them secure.
Step three, set up your profile. Add a display
name. Write a short bio. Upload a profile picture
if you want. This gets published to the relays
you're connected to. Step four, connect to relays.
Good news, most clients automatically connect
you to popular relays. You don't have to do anything.
The app handles it seamlessly. Advanced users
can add more relays later, but the defaults were
great for beginners. Step five, start following
people. Search for end pub addresses. Look for
hashtags like hashtag Bitcoin, hashtag Noster,
hashtag PlebChain. Explore the global feed. Pro
tip, follow at Jack, Jack Dorsey. He's super
active on Noster and shares great insights. Follow
Bitcoiners, developers, artists, whoever interests
you. The community is incredibly welcoming. Step
six, post your first note. Say GM. That's good
morning in Bitcoin speak. Use hashtags like introductions,
hashtag pleb chain, hashtag grow Noster. Watch
as real humans engage with you, not bots, not
algorithms, actual people who chose to see your
content. Step seven, set up zaps to send and
receive zaps. You need a lightning wallet for
beginners. I recommend wallet of Satoshi. Super
simple. Advanced users might prefer Zeus, Phoenix,
or Breeze. Download the wallet. Generate a lightning
address. Paste it into your Nostra profile settings.
Load up maybe $10 worth of Bitcoin and start
zapping. It's addictively fun. Someone makes
you laugh? Zap. Someone shares great insights?
Zap. Someone posts an amazing meme? Zap. And
when people zap you, you'll receive real Satoshis
instantly. It's magical. Bonus step. Get NIP5
verification. NIP5 lets you verify your identity
with a human -readable address like email at
gmail .com. It helps people confirm you're the
real you and makes you easier to find. Many Noster
service providers offer this. Or you can set
it up on your own domain if you're technical.
But honestly, you don't need it to start. Just
download a client and go. That's it. You're now
on Noster. Welcome to the freedom revolution.
So we've talked about social media, but let me
blow your mind. Noster is so much more than just
a Twitter replacement. The protocol is being
used for all kinds of applications. Let me run
through some of the coolest ones. Noster marketplaces.
People are buying and selling goods directly
on Noster with lightning payments. No middleman,
minimal fees, peer -to -peer commerce. Long -form
content. Writers are publishing articles on Noster
instead of Medium or Substack. Readers can zap
if they find it valuable. Direct monetization
without paywalls. Live streaming. There are Nostra
-based streaming apps where creators broadcast
and viewers zap in real time. Like Twitch, but
censorship resistant. Git hosting. Developers
are exploring using Nostra for decentralized
code repositories. Imagine GitHub, but unstoppable.
Gaming. Yes, gaming. There are Nostra clients
for playing chess. And developers are building
more. Private messaging. End -to -end encrypted
DMs. Secure communication that relays can't read.
Communities, like subreddits but decentralized.
Discussion groups without corporate moderators.
The ecosystem is exploding with innovation because
there are no gatekeepers. If you have an idea,
you can build it. And here's what's exciting.
We're still so early. This is like Bitcoin in
2013. The infrastructure is being built. Adoption
is growing. Applications are multiplying. Developers
are working on better relay technology, improved
content discovery, enhanced privacy features,
mobile optimization, user experience improvements.
It's all happening right now. And the community?
Incredible. Bitcoiners, freedom lovers, cypherpunks,
artists, developers, regular people tired of
corporate social media. We're all building together.
There are weekly meetups, hackathons, development
bounties. The energy is electric. Why do Bitcoin
and Nostra fit so perfectly together? Same principles.
Decentralization. No single point of failure.
Cryptographic security. Battle -tested math.
Open source. Transparent and auditable. Censorship
resistance unstoppable. User sovereignty. You
control your stuff. Bitcoin gave us control over
our money. Noster gives us control over our communication.
Together, they're the foundation for human freedom
in the digital age. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.
Not your keys, not your Noster. Sound money,
free speech equals human flourishing. And the
Lightning integration? Chef's kiss. Micropayments
are the perfect use case for Lightning. Try sending
someone five cents on PayPal. The fees would
be more than the payment. But on Lightning? Instant.
Basically free. This is what we've been building
toward, a complete parallel system for money
and communication. Both work without permission
from central authorities. Both are inevitable
because the technology is just too good. Both
empower individuals over institutions. The future
is being built right now, and you can be part
of it. Anna, I write plebs. We've covered so
much today. Let's bring it home. Why you need
to join Noster right now. You'll own your identity.
Nobody can take it away. No censorship. Post
what you want on relays that welcome you. No
algorithmic manipulation. See what you choose
to see. Direct monetization. Zaps let you support
creators instantly. You'll be early. This is
like getting on Twitter in 2008. Except this
platform can't be ruined. Here's your action
plan. And I want you to do this before this episode
ends. Action number one, download Damas iOS or
Amethyst Android right now. Seriously, pause
this and download it. Action number two, generate
your keys and write down your private key safely.
Action number three, set up your profile and
post your first note. Say GM and use hashtag
introductions. Action number four, get a lightning
wallet and start zapping. Action number five.
Visit BitcoinStreetJournal .com and complete
your free Noster profile. Action number six.
Find me on Noster. Search for Bitcoin Street
Journal and give me a zap. Action number seven.
Share this episode with three friends who need
to hear about Noster. Let's check Bitcoin one
final time. Still sitting pretty at $114 ,522.
Beautiful. Remember, Bitcoin fixed money. Noster
fixes communication. Together, they're unstoppable.
The future is decentralized. The future is censorship
resistant. The future is here. Not your keys,
not your coins. Not your keys, not your notes.
I'm Anna. This is the Bitcoin Street Journal
podcast, and I'll see you on the next block.
Pure Vita Plebs, GM. Now go set up your Nostra
account right now. Stop listening and do it.
The revolution needs you.