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What is Nostr?
The social media protocol that gives you your power back.
And it's way simpler than you think.
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The elevator pitch
Imagine social media where you own your account. Not Twitter. Not Meta. Not anyone. Your identity is a cryptographic keypair that lives on your device. You can take it anywhere, use it with any app, and nobody can ban you from the network.
That's Nostr. It stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays. Yes, the acronym is intentionally playful. That's the vibe.
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Keys, not accounts
Instead of a username and password managed by some corporation, you get two things:
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Public key
Your identity. Like an email address anyone can see. This is how people find you and follow you across the network.
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Private key
Your secret. Like a password that proves you're you. Never share this. It signs everything you post.
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That's it. No email verification. No phone number. No selfie with your ID. No CAPTCHA. No waiting list. Just math.
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Relays, not servers
Your posts don't live on one company's servers. They get sent to relays -- simple servers that store and forward messages. You can use as many relays as you want. If one goes down or kicks you off, your data lives on all the others.
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Think of relays like email servers. You can send mail from Gmail to Outlook because they speak the same protocol. Nostr works the same way -- different apps, different relays, same network.
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Apps, not platforms
Because Nostr is a protocol (not a platform), there are many apps that speak it. Ditto is one of them. You can use Ditto today, switch to another Nostr app tomorrow, and all your followers, posts, and messages come with you.
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Your identity is portable. Your data is portable. Your social graph is portable.
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Why does this matter?
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Traditional Social Media
- Company owns your account
- Posts live on their servers
- They choose the algorithm
- They can ban you
- Locked into one app
- Your data is their product
vs
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Nostr
- You own your keys
- Posts live across many relays
- You choose the experience
- No central authority
- Works with any Nostr app
- Your data is yours