What is Nostr, and how to start using Nostr

[vishalxl]

Nostr is a protocol built using self-owned account/identities so that it enables us to create 'decentralized' social networks and even other types of solutions. Its project page has more technical details. And the 'awesome nostr' page lists almost all current clients and applications, but its also quite a large list. This particular page will give a brief overview of Nostr and how to use it.

Nostr Social Network

The Nostr social network is build much like twitter, where you can create posts ( like tweets), like posts, follow someone or unfollow them, retweet/repost. Normally the term 'post' or 'note' is used to refer to creating a post on the nostr social network.

How to Start using Nostr

Using Nostr means using one of its clients to access the Nostr network. We will go over the clients, and then how you can use the clients.

Nostr clients

Some of more popular nostr clients are:

1. astral.ninja , a nostr web client which has twitter-like social network ( which is also typically called the 'nostr' network)
2. coracle.social has support for public channels.
3. Damus is a MacOS and iPhone app that's available on Apple Testflight. It supports twitter like social network, as well as shows messages from channels too.
4. Nostr Console is another client which is more for people familiar with command line. It's a terminal-UI based client, and has binaries for windows, linux and macOS.
5. A larger comparison list is here.
6. Almost all clients support encrypted direct messaging to other users.

Steps to use Nostr

1. Create a private/public keypair using a nostr client like astral.ninja. The client will ask you whether you want to create such a key pair, and if you agree, it will create that for you. This is used as a 'self-sovereign' identity in the Nostr system.
2. Save the private key: Once you have created a private/public key pair, you should keep or save the private key somewhere, and keep it secret. Also, if you lose your newly created private key, you can always generate a new one, however you may lose access to your old private messages and such, but not public messages.
3. Create multiple keys if needed: The same key can be used on all nostr clients. If you want to create multiple identities or accounts, you can create new such key pairs.
4. Update your profile: From the client you're using, you should be able to update your profile name, picture etc. This depends on the client whether and how much you can update. Typically you can add your name, about me section and profile picture.
5. Make posts: The client should also show you some posts by others. Also it should allow you to create posts, follow others. ( astral damus etc clients do allow you to follow others; anigma.io doesn't since its like telegram and has a public chat rooms).
6. Find users: Astral.ninja has a global feed where you can see posts by others. The page nostr.io/stats shows some of the more prolific users. The page damus.io/channels shows some of the more active public channels.

Note about key formats: Damus, and astral use npub/nsec key format, while other clients use hex. To convert from npub/nsec to hex format, use this tool. Hex keys will be phased out of all user-facing parts of the clients.

Contact and More Info

• Nostr telegram group
• Nostr public channel id: 25e5c82273a271cb1a840d0060391a0bf4965cafeb029d5ab55350b418953fbb
• on well ordrered wiki, an introduction to Nostr
• slightly more technical article on what is Nostr and how Nostr works

[sheldonkotyk]

The link to damus.io/channels is broken. There's a . after io instead of /

[vishalxl]

Fixed, thanks.

[treyda6]

When editing profile, what does it mean to "paste the signature here (as hex)"?

[treyda6]

astral

[vishalxl]

Looks like you logged in using your public key, rather than private key.

Can you make any posts? If you can't then that means you used your public key.

?

[rodrigocipriani]

Going through the same thing with astral, I'm starting just with the public key, and when I try to post something, it asks for a signature, because I've not storage my private key, but I've no clue how to create that signature, I've even tried with Schnorr.
Same thing on nostr.rocks

The image shows what I'm saying.

[vishalxl]

Haven't seen this in a while, but you can ignore this. It seems its asking the user to sign the event using some command line tool like nostril, and then paste the signature from there. You should be able to use getalby extension here rather than doing this. Which will sign your events for you.

[rodrigocipriani]

Thanks for answering. The thing is you'll see it if you use just the public key. I was trying to figure out how to generate this key without using any extension.

[siniradam]

Can someone explain how Private & Public Key pair works?
I use same private key, but seems like, each platform generates another public key.

I'm not sure if I get the logic behind this. astral.ninja providing only Private or Public KEY Option, yet I can pick both on anigma.io

What is happening when I have different public keys with the same private key?

[cogentgene]

but when you 'log' in using just the public key, then you can view the site as that user, but can't send any posts.
What is the point of this? Seems like poor UX?

[vishalxl]

but when you 'log' in using just the public key, then you can view the site as that user, but can't send any posts.
What is the point of this? Seems like poor UX?

Its useful for some, because there are browser extensions that act as your private key store, and when you do not log in to a client like astral.ninja, the client may ask the extension to sign events on your behalf. then the client does not need your private key.

Which is excellent safety, because you are not giving your private key to random online clients.

[ckapilla]

astral.ninja seems to be completely broken in that it doesn't create a private key at all. That can't be right.

[ckapilla]

so then I tried Anigma (thanks for the tip) and got both public and private keys. But then it completely locked up my browser (Brave) and I had to kill the process using task manager. But after restarting astral.ninja was showing both the original public and private keys. Confusing, you say???

[siniradam]

so then I tried Anigma (thanks for the tip) and got both public and private keys. But then it completely locked up my browser (Brave) and I had to kill the process using task manager. But after restarting astral.ninja was showing both the original public and private keys. Confusing, you say???

Unfortunately astral.ninja is hogging immense amount of system resources. I thought my macbook is going to take of and leave the house. Since both chrome and brave are using same engine (chromium) result is the same, on safari it is not working at all. Haven't tried on anything else yet.

I'm still trying to figure out the (nostr) system, once I do I'll release my own client with some local db features, thinking PouchDB.

So far I've designed something like this. But I need to figure out to make it work with svelte.
https://www.figma.com/file/QdL2SoQ0i3TvZ5b7Rw437x/NOSTR-%7C-talking.fyi?node-id=1%3A2&t=v2xEZAV4ul2rHMLV-1

[gap892003]

Can I please suggest removing Twitter references here?
For nontechnical users its fine, but here we can ommit that.

[Mrydnn]

OMIT

[drscotthawley]

One of the profile prompts is for a "NIP-05 Identifier": What is that?

(was randomly assigned to nostr.rocks by nostr.directory).

[vishalxl]

hey, you can ignore NIP 05 if you want; not everybody uses it nor need to. Its for people who own a domain/website and want to 'prove' they own it on nostr so their identity can be 'verified'.

[Mrydnn]

Thank you! I also had that question. I assumed that was what it was, but it's nice to have confirmation.

[metasikander]

maybe you want to add my guide for setting up nip-5?
it might be too out of scope of this getting started guide, but maybe something for people that want to go further?
https://gist.github.com/metasikander/609a538e6a03b2f67e5c8de625baed3e or https://lhote.me/posts/nip05-guide/

[metasikander]

Done! 😄
https://lhote.me/posts/nip-05_github_guide/

[vishalxl]

Done! 😄 https://lhote.me/posts/nip-05_github_guide/

Great guide! one thing: Should mention .nojekyll because as i understand thats needed to serve files in this scenario.

[metasikander]

Thank you!

Are you sure?
i can add it but it looks like it works without it with the repo i used: https://metasikander.github.io/nip05-github/.well-known/nostr.json

[vishalxl]

Thank you!

Are you sure? i can add it but it looks like it works without it with the repo i used: https://metasikander.github.io/nip05-github/.well-known/nostr.json

Ok, i see. I'm not sure.. but was under that impression.

[metasikander]

probably doesn't hurt, so i'll add it anyway ☺️

[aburra16]

Is it possible(or meaningful) to create a "relay-of-relays"? In other words, create a relay hub or aggregator - that way, users can add just one or two big ones, and that covers their events being published across multiple relays (and therefore clients)?

[vishalxl]

Higher level solutions, and improvements in protocols, will almost inevitably happen. So people could go along this way too, but right now no one can be sure what exact forms they'll take...

[offordscott]

The Damus TestFlight is full. 🥺

[PhenDoesStuff]

Thanks for confirming this. That’s sad

[siniradam]

ELI5 guide
https://gist.github.com/siniradam/73cf670871228daeaeeb7593c6d26999

[lucash-dev]

How would I go about setting up a relay that can scale to 1M daily active users or more?
Is there any implementation right now likely to work?
If not, any suggestions on an implementation that could be a reasonable starting point?

[vishalxl]

hey, best place to ask this is the telegram group mentioned above.

[ptrio42]

Would you consider adding this basic newcomers guide to 'More Info' section? https://uselessshit.co/resources/nostr/

[ucanozen]

Minor grammar error: "It's" in "It's project page has" should be "Its".

[Cryptolyfe]

Does anyone have any idea how many users this app has? Rough estimate?

[oqnoj]

source is npub19mduaf5569jx9xz555jcx3v06mvktvtpu0zgk47n4lcpjsz43zzqhj6vzk

[oqnoj]

or here https://nostr.io/stats

[Highrigh6677]

Can anyone explain why everyone is blocked for me?

[vishalxl]

What client are you using? ( Nostr is just a protocol, but your 'client' will define what your experience is. )

[StellarStoic]

Check which relays your client uses. If there are none, add a few ... https://nostr.watch/relays/find

[greg121]

Damus now in Appstore

[CoNETProject]

Great idea.
It has a huge problem is privacy.

E2E networking based on IP address will directly expose the connection between the user's key and IP address, thereby exposing the user's identity.

This is why SEGURO uses CoNET Decentralized Stealth Internet Infrastructure (IP-less network)

ssstwitter.com_1675249116549.mp4

[earonesty]

how do you link to a note? is it like # noteid or @ noteid or something?

[verityj]

Figured it out. Inside your note you write nostr: followed by the note code. Example: nostr:note1z7lysage232ukggx69plhc2gr7y63zvech3grm9td6033w3tetzsrh640q this would link to that specific note of mine. Similar to tagging @username with nostr:npub.... inside a post (if the user is not part of your network, it may not pop up if you type @username - depends on nostr app or site).