I kept hearing Bitcoiners talk about a social media called “nostr” It’s supposed to be decentralized. It’s supposed to be the twitter, gab, truth & mastodon killer. That’s what they said about Mastodon in the past so i tried mastodon and it wasn’t decentralized. Mastodon turned out to be centralized. I was banned within a couple of days so i decided to try out Nostr and boom! It was amazing. I really like it and yes it’s true that It’s decentralized.
The problem was joining/creating a nostr account is difficult for beginners or people who are not tech savvy. It was a bit complicated to understand. I can only imagine people who are not tech savvy trying to make an account. So i decided to create a short post on how to make an account.
Nostr looks and acts like twitter. Except twitter is a website and nostr is not.
In simple terms there is many places where you can make a nostr account. But the website only gives you a couple of things the “username & password” then you take the username & password and you have to download an app. There is many apps to choose from which you will use to login into your account.
In the app you can setup your profile. Add profile pictures and make posts. The app doesn’t store your data on a server and the website who made you an account doesn’t either.
It’s a bit strange. It’s decentralized. We haven’t seen anything of this sort.
The username is called: npub. Which is a bunch of numbers and letters.
The password is called: private-key. Which is a bunch of numbers and letters.
You only need the password to sign into your account on the app you chose.
I am a beginner in understanding and using nostr but as far as i know you can never change the password and username. But in the app it lets you add a display name. That big long unique username called npub will be forever yours.
From what i read online your posts are stored on relays and not servers. So no one can really ban, censor you or shadow ban you since it’s not a traditional website.
I will have to read more into this but because of this feature there is really no need for twitter, gab, truth & mastodon.
Nostr reminds me of Bitcoin. When i discovered Bitcoin i realized eventually there will be no need for banks and Bitcoin would slowly make the banks obsolete. Nostr will do the same and most of all It’s free and doesn’t require a subscription.
What I like the most about nostr is that you can receive tips using the Bitcoin lightning network. I have setup my account to receive tips.
So this is how you make an account.
You can go to the iris website:
Type in the display name you want. You can easily change the display name so it’s not important what you name pick. Click next. It will ask you for a display picture. Click next. It’s not important to upload a display picture at this moment.
Once registered. You will see a screen that asks you what are your interests. Ignore that. It’s not important.
Click on settings -> export keys
You will see 3 things:
Public Key
This is your username
Private Key
This is your password
Mnemonic
This is a way to recover your account if you lose your password
You need to copy all this information and store it in a safe place. If you lose that information you will never be able to recover you account. Nostr accounts don’t work with email where you can just reset your password.
Having a nostr account requires much more responsibly.
Just like Bitcoin. “Be Your Own Bank” requires responsibly.
I saved my account details in my email and also on my desktop. But just remember if your email is hacked or computer is hacked and someone steals your private-key(password) They will have access to your account.
I’m not sure if you can change the private key. There must be a way to change it. I just don’t know yet. But if a hacker gets it and changes it. You lose your account. You will have to make a new one and tell people the person using your old profile is a hacker and not the real you.
Now that you have saved that information. You can download an app of your choice. I am using one called “amethyst” It can be found on google play.
Once you download it. All you need is your private-key(password) to sign into your account. Once you’re signed in. You can start adding things to your profile like your Bitcoin lighting address so you can get donations and make money.
This is what my nostr profile looks like. I just joined after spending days trying to understand how it works.
Why did they pick the name “amethyst” It’s really difficult to pronounce and spell.
Remember the app is just a plain app used to sign in and view posts. It doesn’t have a server where it stores your posts. This is what is so great about it. You can use other apps and see which one is faster or better.
The app can’t ban you.
If you don’t want to use an app and just a website. You can use the same website you used to make an account. I found it was a bit buggy. So i rather use an app. There is other websites where you can use your private-key(password) to log in. But i do not know of another website. There are other websites that are strictly used to make you a account and nothing more.
Another place where you can make a nostr account & also a bitcoin lighting wallet account at the same time is voltage cloud. I played around with it a bit but didn’t go in depth into it. Click on the link below to visit the website.
Nostr is fairly new so they are still adding new features but it is going to be way better then twitter because it’s not centralized. They won’t be able to ban us.
I clicked for nostr products on aliexpress but there isn’t any. Probably because nostr is new. I’m sure we will see nostr t-shirts and products soon enough. Maybe you can sell some?
I think nostr will make twitter, gab, truth & mastodon… OBSOLETE.
Because it’s free and you can make money on nostr. But most of all. It’s decentralized.
-mar
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