Nostr : A decentralized social network

5tGG...kNBo

25 Feb 2023

Before Nostr became popular, my thought was that it would only spread within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The reason was that it had no token incentives and did not meet the definition of Web3, so it could not attract speculators. Only pure Bitcoin enthusiasts Will try to use it, and the poor user experience in the early days does not have much appeal to ordinary users. Of course, the Bitcoin community already has a huge user base. Even without token incentives, the Nostr protocol can gain huge traction. This is not a short-lived product, but a revolutionary protocol of great significance.

However, the recent development of Nostr has obviously exceeded my imagination, and many people around me who are not Bitcoin enthusiasts are trying to experience it. Looking at it now, some people may mistake it for the Web3 protocol and want to get some airdrops through interaction, and some people, perhaps because of herd mentality, want to experience what the current hot spots are (of course, the feedback result is likely to be Bad), the last part of the participants should be people who have a real need for decentralized social networking.

Here again, Nostr and its ecological applications will not issue tokens, and they have nothing to do with the Web3 protocol. The relationship between the two is opposite, and the idea of making money through interaction is unrealistic.

Return to the essence of decentralization, or focus on ownership incentives?
The development of things made me have to think about a question, that is, does the decentralized protocol need token economic incentives?

No, it is the idea of the Bitcoin maximalist camp. They believe that token economic incentives will attract too many speculators, which will eventually cause the network to deviate from the original goal of decentralization. In addition, speculation will also cause a large number of scam projects, not everyone They are all as uninterested in money as Satoshi Nakamoto. In contrast, Bitcoin can provide the most powerful weapon for tokenless decentralized protocols such as Lightning Network and Nostr. In turn, the growth of Lightning Network and Nostr protocol , and can expand the influence of Bitcoin.

I agree with this very much, so I believe that Bitcoin, Lightning Network and Nostr have great value.

On the other hand, the Bitcoin network initially grew up step by step relying on the economic incentives of BTC. It has the concept of ownership, which is also the core of the Web3 concept that the Ethereum camp represented by a16z has been advocating. A decentralized network needs to start from scratch, and speculation may also have a certain meaning. It can quickly attract user groups. As for whether users can survive, it depends on the persuasion of the product itself.

final opinion

From the perspective of decentralization, I don't think any so-called Web3 social protocol can match Nostr. If you care about anti-censorship, you should pay attention to and use Nostr.

On the other hand, speculation is also an objective phenomenon. In the short term, the concept of Web3 is still attractive, and because of the sacrifice of decentralization, the user experience of Web3 products may be easier to be accepted by the public.

From a long-term perspective, I think there will be a high probability that Nostr will beat the Web3 social protocol of the Ethereum camp.

Thanks for Reading