nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays

The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all.

It doesn't rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works.

This is a work-in-progress. Join the Telegram group!

Very short summary of how it works, if you don't plan to read anything else:

Everybody runs a client. It can be a native client, a web client, etc. To publish something, you write a post, sign it with your key and send it to multiple relays (servers hosted by someone else, or yourself). To get updates from other people, you ask multiple relays if they know anything about these other people. Anyone can run a relay. A relay is very simple and dumb. It does nothing besides accepting posts from some people and forwarding to others. Relays don't have to be trusted. Signatures are verified on the client side.

How to start using Nostr

Nostr client feature comparison

List of projects built on Nostr

This is needed because other solutions are broken:

The problem with Twitter

The problem with Mastodon and similar programs

The problem with SSB (Secure Scuttlebutt)

The problem with other solutions that require everybody to run their own server

How does Nostr work?

How does it solve the problems the networks above can't?

FAQ

Protocol specification

See the NIPs and especially NIP-01 for a reasonably-detailed explanation of the protocol spec (hint: it is very short and simple).

Software

There is a list of most software being built using Nostr on https://github.com/aljazceru/awesome-nostr that seemed to be almost complete last time I looked.

License

Public domain.

nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays

The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all.

It doesn't rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works.

This is a work-in-progress. Join the Telegram group!

Very short summary of how it works, if you don't plan to read anything else:

Everybody runs a client. It can be a native client, a web client, etc. To publish something, you write a post, sign it with your key and send it to multiple relays (servers hosted by someone else, or yourself). To get updates from other people, you ask multiple relays if they know anything about these other people. Anyone can run a relay. A relay is very simple and dumb. It does nothing besides accepting posts from some people and forwarding to others. Relays don't have to be trusted. Signatures are verified on the client side.

How to start using Nostr

Nostr client feature comparison

List of projects built on Nostr

This is needed because other solutions are broken:

The problem with Twitter

The problem with Mastodon and similar programs

The problem with SSB (Secure Scuttlebutt)

The problem with other solutions that require everybody to run their own server

How does Nostr work?

How does it solve the problems the networks above can't?

FAQ

Protocol specification

See the NIPs and especially NIP-01 for a reasonably-detailed explanation of the protocol spec (hint: it is very short and simple).

Software

There is a list of most software being built using Nostr on https://github.com/aljazceru/awesome-nostr that seemed to be almost complete last time I looked.

License

Public domain.