Hosted & Rentals:

• Starting off, one of the most simple-to-use services for anyone looking to get more involved in the relay side of Nostr, is Relay Tools. This relay rental service offers highly functional, easy to understand controls, complete infrastructure, and great customer support. You can set up communities, host your personal data, or open up a public space. All rentals come with moderation tools, giving you control of the content that you host.
• Relay.land has a suite of unique and experimental relay implementations, including customizable, user-controlled relays. There is a relay with full reply moderation capabilities, a bookmark-to-relay service, and if you know a little code, relays that you ca ncustomize to your specifications. This is a bit of a laboratory, so pricing is set mainly for spam prevention at this time, but is subject to change as the platform develops.
• Nosflare boasts one click relay deployment to your own Cloudflare account. Plug in your API, set up the details. and go. The one-time fee covers software development and maintenance of management tools. Your only recurring cost is your Cloudflare fees.

Local options:

• Nostr-relay-tray is the fastest and simplest way to host a local relay on your home computer or laptop. Visit the Releases page, find the appropriate package, and download. Installation is automated. Open the file, grant the permissions, and relay tray is ready to store all of your data for you, online or off. You can create custom filters and manage your relay from a simple to understand interface. Start securing your data in less than 5 minutes.
• Citrine, the original "The relay is in the phone!" application. Designed for Android devices, this app doesn't skimp on the features. Import events to your mobile device, store and delete as needed. With a little finesse you can also set this up as a DM-over-Tor relay for your mobile DMs.
• Aegis is a multi-platform Nostr signer with a built-in local relay. Find it on Apple Testflight or Github.
• One of the original local Nostr relays, available from Umbrel. This is a simple backup; all you need to do is hook to it over your wifi with any device, and you're instantly syncing your data. Setup is a breeze, and the app walks you through it. While this may not be the most comprehensive or up-to-date option, it works and works well.

For self-hosters and programmers:

Unfortunately, I am but a believer in the optimistic Nostr-ized future, and not a computer whiz. If you are and you're reading this, thanks! I don't know why you're here but I appreciate it. As a token of gratitude, I've gathered a small collection of resources that are beyond my capabilities, and you probably already know about. This collection works as a to-do list for myself, too, so maybe its not a completely selfless effort. A more comprehensive list is available at nostr.net. A quick Github search yields a plethora of results, as well.

• A collection of ready-to-go packages from utxo the webmaster
• Khatru by fiatjaf
• Grain by 0ceanSlim
• Chorus by Michael Dilger
• Strfry by Hoytech

1. Your client connects to an array of relays that your follows have announced that they write to, in order to find their notes. This is referred to as the outbox model. This helps to ensure that the posts that matter to you are making it to your feed, at the cost of slightly higher data consumption and sometimes slower speeds. This is decentralized social at its maximum capacity. Many users, many relays, and no fear of being cut off from your social circles.

2. Your client connects a predefined set of relays. Your client then requests notes from your follows from only these relays. Some, such as proxy and filter relays, may do a better job of collecting and serving the appropriate posts. This static relay model saves on bandwidth, but may trade off on reliability. Should your contacts choose to publish to other relays, they may go completely unseen. This has a centralizing effect, in that no one wants to be cut off from their friends so they are less likely to publish other places.

What does this have to do with feed comparisons and why is it important? Simply stated, Nostr fails to be censorship resistant, if it fails to decentralize. Big, crowded relays become giant servers and the past repeats itself. Data consumption isn't the only gravitational pull towards centralization, though. Exposure and discovery also play key parts in this battle.

Your follow feed:

It is important. We use this to keep up with the things and people that matter to us, keeping us informed, connected, and entertained. The "follow" action also lends social accreditation, bringing people away from accidentally being labeled as spam on the network. The chronological nature of most follow feeds is also a refreshing change from the algorithmic hellscapes that keep so many under their spells. We can feel life flow more naturally in our follow feed, as people move throughout their days, in different time zones around the world. In a lot of ways, your Nostr follow feed is the most human experience you will find online. It also has the same limitations as in real life, in that synchronicity and organic happenstance take precedent in how encounter new subjects and people. This can lead to beautiful, meaningful connections, but this is not something we can expect to happen on a predictable basis. The siren song of the algorithms of yore beckon loudest when we are bored. We want to seek and find new, interesting, things. We seek stimulation from a screen that has for so long provided endless entertainment. To stave this off, some will advise to follow lots of people. Others try to calculate just how to develop these algorithms, in an environment in which they will flounder without a centralized pool of the notes and other stuff. Another solution exists.

Relay feeds:

Until recently, accessing the contents of a single relay had been difficult and cumbersome. There has been lots of progress in multiple clients, to make that experience more accessible to the average user. This enables an ecosystem of unique and powerful relays to grow and expand. Experiments involving user-centric algorithms, communities, topics, languages, user actions, and curation have begun to appear. Plainly, this is the discovery mechanism that the network has lacked. The contents of any public relay can be accessed and browsed. Some relays have leverage conditional interactions. Others are more strictly for browsing, with the intention of acting as discovery and nothing more. All the while, the outbox method discussed above enables these discovery relays to still maintain the social aspects we expect from a social feed, while also bringing a more consistent distribution of the data redundancy that makes Nostr so powerful.

If your follow feed is feeling stale or you simply want to find something new and fresh, check out this list of clients and begin your expedition. Your follow feed will still be there when you're ready to go back. New people can and will work their way into the network through interacting, more simply and genuinely than if they were attempting to stand out in the chaos of "global" feeds. If I were to offer advice for anyone new to Nostr, I would tell them to explore and interact in unique relay feeds, follow who and what you find and enjoy. Build a follow list that you love and use it for just that.

Curated Content:

• wss://relays.land/spatianostra -Curation through dymanic community consensus

• wss://theforest.nostr1.com -paid service. a feed hand-curated by the Alexandria team. Visit https://theforest.nostr1.com to join.

• wss://primus.nostr1.com -2 of the largest public relay feeds. combined, filtered, and refined

• wss://news.utxo.one -all news, all the time... Really... All. The. Time

• wss://algo.utxo.one -an algorithmic feed you control. Visit https://algo.utxo.one to control your algo.

• wss://hotrightnow.nostr1.com -feed with no mention of bitcoin or crypto

• wss://140.f7z.io -all notes 140 characters or less

• https://topic.relays.land -topic specific relays with notes approved by LLM

Community Relays:

• https://lang.relays.land (74 language specific relays) -Members invited through rebroadcasted notes in appropriate language.

• wss://relay.nostr.moe -Japanese community relay

• wss://relay.nostrarabia.com -Arab community relay

• wss://noornode.nostr1.com -Muslim community relays

• wss://christpill.nostr1.com -Christian community relay

• wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com -Closed to write, open to read community

Interactive Relays:

• wss://imp.relays.land (craftily hidden notes)

• wss://23gmt.nostr.technology (chat relay, open for an hour a day)

• wss://feedback.relays.land (buy credits at https://feedback.relays.land to write. Earn credits by leaving quality feedback.)

• wss://lockbox.relays.land (write notes to the people you follow)

• wss://pow.relays.land (only accepts proof of work notes)

For Creators:

• wss://creatr.nostr.wine (Patreon-like creator content by subscription) Visit https://creatr.nostr.wine to subscribe.

• wss://zapbox.relays.land (publish special notes for your biggest fans) Visit https://zapbox.relays.land to post.

Full Suite:

• wss://nostr.land -Visit https://nostr.land to sign up.

• wss://jellyfish.land -Visit https://jellyfish.land to join.

• wss://nostr.wine , wss://filter.nostr.wine , wss://inbox.nostr.wine -Visit https://nostr.wine to sign up.

Personal Services:

• wss://cellar.nostr.wine (paid service. long term note storage) Visit https://nostr.wine to sign up.

• wss://bookmarks.relays.land (paid service, permanent bookmarks) Visit https://bookmarks.relays.land to sign up.

• wss://hist.nostr.land -Contact list restoration

• wss://personal.relays.land -Private, personal notes

• wss://auth.nostr1.com -Free-to-use DM relay

Identity:

Your Nostr identity becomes yours from the moment you generate your key pair. The two parts each provide unique perspective and functionality. (Remember, there is no central entity to issue these key pairs. You can screw up and start over. You can maintain multiple key pairs for different purposes. If all of this is new and unfamiliar, start simply with the intention of trial and error.)

Half of the equation is your nsec. As long as you maintain control of that secret key, the identity is yours. You will use it to sign the notes and events that you create on Nostr. You will use it to access functionality of various tools and apps. You can use it to send monetary tips for content you find valuable. The reputation that you build through posting & interacting on Nostr will signal to others what type of person or profile this is, whether it's a genuine person, a bot (good or bad), a collection of works, etc. You might come across information that compares your nsec to a password. While a fair comparison, its important to remember that passwords can be reset, but your private key CANNOT. Lost access or control of your nsec means a loss of control over that identity. When you have decided to establish a more permanent identity, write it down, keep it safe, and use the appropriate security tools for interacting online.

The other half of this equation is your npub. This public key is used to find and display your notes and events to others. In short, your npub is how your identity is viewed by others and your nsec is how you control that identity.

Npub can also act a window into your world for whoever may choose to view it. As mentioned in a previous entry, npub login enables viewing Nostr's notes and other stuff in a read-only mode of any user's follow feed. Clients may or may not support this, some will even allow you to view and subscribe to these feeds while signed in as yourself via this function. It the basis of the metadata for your profile, too.

Profile:

Profile, in general, is a collection of things about you, which you have chosen to share. This might include your bio, chosen display name, other contact information, and a profile photo. Similar to traditional socials, veiwing Nostr profiles often includes a feed of the things you have posted and shared displayed as a single page. People will recognize you based on the aspects of your profile more than they will by your actual identity since an npub is a prefixed random string of characters . Your npub bridges a gap between strictly machine readable data and your human readable name, but it is not as simple as a name and picture. You will choose your photo and display name for your profile as you see fit, making you recognizable. These aspects are easy for copycat scammers to leverage, so your npub will help your friends and followers to verify that you are you, in the event that someone should try to copy your profile.

The Nostr protocol has another profile aspect that is important to know about, but as a general user, you shouldn't have to worry much about it. This is your nprofile. It combines your npub (or the machine readable hex verison of it) with hints to what relays you are using to publish your notes. This helps clients, crawlers, and relays find your stuff for your followers. You may notice nprofile when you share a profile link or used in other actions. When you update your relay list, your client will adjust your nprofile and send a new copy to the appropriate relays. If your believe that a client is not doing that correctly, you can visit metadata.nostr.com and manage it yourself.

Account:

Across Nostr, it is common to see the term 'account' used to refer to the combination of your identity and profile. It is a relatable term, though it may imply that some account issuer exists, but no one issues a Nostr account to you. You create and maintain it yourself.

There are situations where a traditional account will exist, such as with media servers, relay subscriptions, custodial wallet hosts, or NIP-05 providers. These things will almost always be paid services and storage that you choose to use. (Reminder: all of these things are possible to DIY with a little knowhow and an old computer)

What Is The Right Terminology?

There is no simple or correct answer here. Developers and writers will use whatever terms fit their scope and topic. Context will matter, so it's important to differentiate by that, more than any actual term.

Though trust may not be the most clear term, it is the most appropriate. The follow action becomes a testament that any particular account is verifiably considered to be important to another user in some way. It could be a bot that provides valuable information, a legitimate good-natured human, a legitimate awful person who someone feels they need to monitor, or an endless variety of other situations. This variance allows for a looser definition of trust than what we think of on a normal basis. We often think of trust in a very limited way that projects expected positive behavior from another. It is a feeling within ourselves that has been validated by an outside factor enough times that an outcome can be predicted with relative accuracy, an easily met expectation. I can trust that Bob will respond to my notes in kind. Also though, I can also trust that Steve will always go off the rails in an angry fit when questioned about his political opinions. Both of these situations demonstrate the nature of trust. The bot that shows me random facts sourced from Wikipedia at the same time everyday, is trusted by me to be reliable. Steve, though politically opinionated, resonates deeply with Bob, who shares those views, though he doesn't partake in those conversations himself. This is how the web of trust is born and built. Despite my lack of interest in most anything Steve may have to say, he is still a member of my trusted network, and Wiki-bot is a member of his. Even though I don't follow Steve, should he decide to have a conversation around a Wiki-bot post, I will still be able to read and talk about the matter with him if I so choose.

To the contrary, when spam attacks happen or a person is intentionally disruptive, no one (or at least very few people) will be willing to follow those accounts. Their notes and replies may be published to big, open relays that function under a loose set of guidelines, or perhaps to their own that they operate independently. If they are not acting as a node in a web of trust, those notes and replies will only be visible to others that are reading from this more restricted form of relay. In its plainest sense, web of trust relays are a protective filter for keeping the Nostr social experience enjoyable. Just as we choose what to say, we can also choose what we want to hear.

WoT relays do have a major limitation, in making it more difficult for new users to break into the web of trust and start socializing among groups that they find interesting. These people are left dependent on anyone who is willing to read from the less strict public relays, in order to begin building their reputation. Currently, there is no shortage of individuals willing to stay connected through public relays, with the exception of times of high spam volumes. As the network grows and new solutions are tested, many other methods will enable new users to be seen within trusted networks. Nostr is still very much in the building and testing phase, but for the time, WoT relays help to keep the existing network useful and enjoyable.

For a list of WoT relays operated by other Nostr users, check here . This is not an official or comprehensive list, and it is subject to change at any time.

To begin operating your own WoT relay, check this list for suggestions. There are many other WoT implementations, such as an included service on most paid relays. Also take a look at Haven, which also includes many additional features for media, messaging, and personal storage.

As you know by now, every user chooses the relays to which they will publish their notes and other stuff. Relays are like small, simple servers. Even the most widely open, public relays are minor in size compared to the servers that traditional data-silo systems utilize. By using publishing and storing data to theses small servers, we are also agreeing to have our content hosted for what could be an indeterminable length of time, or more ideally, by a length of time clearly defined in a relay's policies. Some relays may store any and all posts from all of their users for any length of time, so long as the user is paying to use the service. Others, particularly larger public relays, may only hold data for a few months to a year, when all data is erased at the relay operator's discretion. Others yet will attempt to host any and all events for as long as possible, regardless of who generated the data or where it was published to begin with. There are even relays that will delete everything at a specific hour everyday. Understanding relay policy is the first piece to learning Nostr long term data management. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, as with anything on the internet, but to best achieve your desired result, its a good place to start.

If you consider anything that you publish as important enough to keep it around, you will want to look into publishing to relays that enable some sort of long-term storage. The reasons could be many. Perhaps you are a content creator looking to earn sustained income off of your creations, or maybe, like me, you're simply fond of looking back on memories. Whatever the case, publishing events to relays that will offer longer storage times is where you would want to start. Many subscription relays will keep your data for as long as you remain a subscriber. Simply check their policy page before subscribing to see if what they offer works for your needs. Another alternative is archival relays. These relays offer a paid service to do nothing BUT store your data. Some are readily available to receive publications as they are created, while others will search, pull in, and store all of your data in one command. These relays are not typically publicly readable without a user specifically choosing to do so. Other options for more resilience of your data include broadcasting your notes, and most obviously SETTING UP YOUR OWN RELAY. :)

On the other side, you may want to create as minimal of a footprint as possible and still participate. You can again, look into relay policies and choose ones that will delete your data on a defined schedule, honor all of your delete requests, and require certain criteria for serving your data to others. One of the best ways to minimize your presence and keep control of your exposure is by SETTING UP YOUR OWN RELAY. :)

This is only a basic framework for understanding Nostr data management, and the one that I am able to explain. There are probably many other, possibly smarter or more or less complicate ways of doing so, but if this resonates with you so far, then please read on. Managing your data does not necessarily provide full understanding into the case of the missing note (sometimes nothing may). For that, we need to broaden our view and consider what a decentralized system really looks like and how its pieces fit together, even if sometimes imperfectly.

When a centralized service goes down, every user knows it. No one is able to send or receive anything. When a a relay goes down, only a small number of users are affected. If you are writing to more than one relay, it may not even be obvious to you when that happens. If you read from multiple relays, you may not notice either, due to the way that notes propagate throughout the network. It's part of the beauty behind what makes Nostr work for everyone. Many clients accessing many relays creating a web of notes and other stuff, flowing and duplicating across a wide network that may or may not be tied to other parts of the ecosystem as a whole.

Every now and then, though, you might notice something missing. If a note you are looking for is only located on one relay that you are accessing, and that relay experiences some downtime, that data may be temporarily unavailable. Maybe even permanently, in the case of unexpected or impulsive data wipes. This can happen with your own notes just as easily as with anyone else's. Such is one scenario of the missing note. You do have the option of utilizing search tools that will scan other relays either by the Nostr schema (nevent, naddr, etc) or by a user's public key. You can choose to read directly from some other relay that is likely to host whatever it is that went missing. There is also the likelihood that previously seen events will be available again, once whatever has happened subsides, so patience is an option, too, but who has time for that these days?

There are also some network connectivity mechanisms at play. Some relays may not be available over all connections. It is not uncommon to see a slightly different feed while using wifi vs your cellular data signal, or even on different data signal locations. The best way I have found to mitigate that is to disconnect reading from relays that become unavailable at a given location while spending time in that area. There is a bit of attention to be paid in order to achieve this, but if you are looking for continuity across wherever you may access your Nostr feed, it is worth the mental energy of remembering who you don't see where and what relays they use for publication. Then, its as simple as flipping a switch when you arrive at your sketchy location.

Latency sometimes plays a part in this, as well. Geographic location, access point, hardware, software, and complexity of a relay can all effect how quickly data is returned to your client for you to see. If you notice a note that was NOT in your feed before, but you are connected in the same fashion as before, it might be most easily solved by disconnecting from the bigger, faster relays so that notes that are hosted on smaller or more complex relays can reach your feed before the connections expire.

So, no... you're not losing your mind when you know that you've seen a post but you can't find it again. It's just part of learning how to navigate a truly decentralized system. This may seem like a lot, and it kind of is, but only because we have spent so many years seeing only what the big server algorithms wanted us to see. Speaking of that, it's impossible to find some posts in those places. You actually have a better chance of tracking things down on Nostr than you ever would in big tech land.

My first attempt was close to 2 years ago, when I listed one pound bags of coffee for sale. If I remember correctly, there was only one marketplace client then, and it only had support for extension signing. At the time, my old laptop had just died so I couldn't really interact with my listings through that client. (I have never had much luck with extensions on mobile browsers, so I have never attempted to use one for Nostr.) Instead, I used Amethyst to list my product and exchange messages with potential buyers. The Amethyst approach to handling different Nostr events is brilliant to me. You can do some part of each thing but not all. I view it as great introduction to what Nostr is capable of doing and a gateway to discovering other clients. Marketplace listings on Amethyst are handled in that fashion. You can list products for sale. You can browse and inquire about products listed by your contacts or by a more "global" view, which in the case of Nostr, would be products listed by anyone who publishes their listings to any of the relays that I connect with to read. There is no delete option, should a product sell out, and there is no direct purchase option. All sales need to be negotiated through direct messages. Though it has limited functionality, the system works great for items that will be listed for repeated sale, such as my coffee. If one were to list a one-off item and sell it, the flow to delete the listing would be easy enough. Copy the event ID, visit delete.nostr.com , and remove the product. Should there be a price change, it would be necessary to visit a full marketplace client to edit the listing, though one could easily delete and start over as well. Anyway, much to my surprise I sold more coffee than I had anticipated through that listing. People were eager to try out the feature and support a small business. This was an awesome experience and I see no reason to avoid buying or selling products on Nostr, even if the only client available to you is Amethyst. (Which I think might be the only mobile app with marketplace support.) It is completely manageable.

Later, I tried to list a pair of nearly new shoes. Those did not sell. I have a sneaking suspicion that there were very few people that wore size USw6 shoes using Nostr at the time. Even though no one wanted my shoes, I still ended up having some interesting conversations about different styles of running shoes, boots, and other footwear talk. I can't call the listing a total bust, even though I ended up deleting the listing and donating those shoes to the YWCA. After some number of months watching and reading about development in the Nostr marketplace space, I decided to try again.

This second approach, I started with niche rubber duckies that, for reasons unbeknownst to most, I just happen to have an abundance of. It occurred to me that day that I would most likely be creating most of my listings via mobile app since that is also my main method of taking pictures these days. I could sync or send them, but realistically it's just adding extra steps for me. I listed my ducks with Amethyst (all of which are currently still available, surprise, surprise.). I immediately went to check how the listing renders in the marketplace clients. There are 2 where I can view it, and the listing looks nice, clean, organized in both places. That alone is reason enough to get excited about selling on Nostr. Gone are the days of "this item is cross-posted to blah, blah, blah" lest risk being kicked out of the seller groups on silo'd platforms.

Knowing I can't take it personally that literally no one else on Nostr has an affinity for obscure rubber ducks (that they are willing to admit), I leave my duckies listed and move on. My next listing is for artisan bracelets. Ones that I love to make. I made my mobile listing, checked it across clients and this time I noticed that shopstr.store is collecting my listings into a personal seller profile, like a little shop. I spent some time setting up the description and banner, and now it looks really nice. This is great, since the current site acts as an open and categorized market for all sellers. Maybe someone will see the bracelets while browsing the clothing category and stumble upon the rubber ducky of their dreams in the process. That hasn't happened yet, but I was pretty jazzed to sell a few bracelets right away. Most of the sale and exchange happened via DM, for which I switched to Flotilla because it just handles messaging solidly for me. I made some bracelets, waited a few weeks, then visited Shopstr again to adjust the price. That worked out super well. I noticed that a seller can also list in their preferred currency, which is very cool. Meanwhile, back to my social feed, I can see my listing posted again since there was an edit. While not always the best thing to happen with edits, it is great that it happens with marketplace listings. It removes all the steps of announcing a price reduction, which would be handy for any serious seller. I am very happy with the bracelet experience, and I will keep that listing active and reasonably up to date for as long as any interest arises. Since this has all gone so well, I've opted to continue listing saleable items to Nostr first for a few days to a few weeks prior to marketing them anywhere else.

Looking at my listings on cypher.space, I can see that this client is tailored more towards people who are very passionate about a particular set of things. I might not fall into this category but my listings still look very nice displayed with my writing, transposed poetry, and recipes. I could see this being a great space for truly devotional hobbyists or sellers who are both deeply knowledgeable about their craft and also actively selling. My experience with all 3 of these marketplace-integrated clients had been positive and I would say that if you are considering selling on Nostr, it is worth the effort.

As some sidenotes:

• I am aware that Shopstr has been built to be self-hosted and anyone interested in selling for the long term should at least consider doing so. This will help reduce the chances of Nostr marketplaces centralizing into just another seller-silo.

• Plebeian Market is out there, too. From the best I could tell, even though this is a Nostr client, those listings are a different kind than listings made from the other clients referenced here. I like the layout and responsiveness of the site but I opted not to try it out for now. Cross-posting has been the bane of online selling for me for quite some time. If they should migrate to an interoperable listing type (which I think I read may happen in the future), I will happily take that for a spin, too.

• My only purchase over Nostr marketplaces so far was some vinyls, right around the time I had listed my coffee. It went well, the seller was great to work with, everything arrived in good shape. I have made some other purchases through Nostr contacts, but those were conversations that lead to non-Nostr seller sites. I check the marketplace often, though, for things I may want/need. The listings are changing and expanding rapidly, and I foresee more purchases becoming a part of my regular Nostr experience soon enough.

• I thought about including screenshots for this, but I would much rather you go check these clients out for yourself.

Enter Nostr. A protocol designed to resist authoritative censorship, just happens to fix a whole lot of other problems, too. By removing the central authority, Nostr offers its users complete control of what we feed our minds. How do we break our algorithm dependency to find better content and better relationships again? We explore and discover:

The Chronological Life.

The existence of time may be debatable but our dependence on our perception of it is not. We live our lives chronologically. Why do our online lives need to be any different? There is no real reason, other than we've just gotten used to being engulfed by whatever the black box wants us to see. When we remove the algorithms, we find that online information flows just as it would in our daily lives. Important events get talked about by many people, over a long period of time. Things of less relevance fade. We see the rhythm of life reflected in our feed. This is an organic human experience transferred to the digital world. We depend on the people we know and the sources we trust to keep us informed about what really matters. We have fun, we move on. Nearly every Nostr social client brings this experience front and center through the traditional follow feed. Many use replies as a way to show you what is worth talking about for more than a hot minute. Its what old social media gave us, then took away. Nostr gives it back. It's not the only way to enjoy Nostr, though, so let's continue.

"The Human Animal Differs From the Lesser Primates in His Passion for Lists"

Who doesn't love lists? (besides maybe to-do lists.)
List functionality on Nostr is a powerful way to curate your feeds. You can make lists of artists, vendors, friends, or whatever you want. They can be public or private. You can subscribe to other people's public lists too. Make one to share with your friends. Many clients have list support and management. Amethyst, Nostur, Voyage, and Nostrudel are a few that come to mind. Nostr.band and Listr.lol offer in depth list management. Some clients even support lists for specific notes so that you can curate a feed by topic or aesthetic to share with your friends.

Being John Malcovich.

Everyone has a different view of Nostr. Do you want to see what someone else is seeing? Sign in with any npub to get a different perspective. You might find profiles and content that you didn't know existed before. Some clients integrate variations of this feature right into their apps, so you don't have to log out of your account in order to step through that tiny door.

DV-what? DVM.

Data Vending Machines. These fancy little things are AIs tasked with a simple job: to find content for you. Most of these feeds are free, though some more personalized ones require a small fee. Many DVM services are stand-alone apps, like Vendata and Noogle . These clever Nostr clients will let you do a lot more than just create feeds to browse notes. Explore if you wish. A few social clients have DVMs integrated, too, so if you see "discovery" or similar term on a tab, be sure to check it out.

Relays, Man. Relays.

It's right there in the name. Nostr- notes and other stuff transmitted by RELAY. Specialized relays exist for subjects, news, communities, personal spaces, content creators, cats... there's even a relay where everyone just says "Good Morning" to each other. Find a client that lets you browse a relay's contents, and enjoy the purest form of content discovery on Nostr. Unearthing these relays is getting better and better every day. Right now there are relay browsing capabilities in quite a few clients, like Coracle, Relay Tools, Jumble and Nostur.

The Algo Relay.

Maybe you've been busy and missed a lot. Maybe you are a sane person who rarely uses social media. Hook up with a personalized algorithm relay to catch you up on all the things you've missed. This is skirting the sharp edges of Nostr relay development, so keep in mind that not many implementations yet exist. Algo relay currently aims to bring the feel-good vibe of your chronological feed to an algorithmic feed, freeing up your time but letting you stay up with what 's going on in your social circles.

Trendy Trends.

A few clients, relays, and DVM's have developed various Trending feeds. Catch up on what's popular across a wider view of the Nostr ecosystem. If trends are your thing, be sure to check them out.

Now that you're equipped with the tools to explore Nostr, its time to go discover some great content and find your people. Feed your curiosity.

Your nsec/private key is your key to controlling all that you do on Nostr. Every action you take is signed by this private key, validating that was you that generated that event, whether it be a note, a like, a list, or whatever else. Like a broken record, I have to state that it is irreplaceable. YOU own your identity and no one else. It is your responsibility to keep your nsec safe, but of course, you also want to be able to use all the different apps and clients available. To aid you in this process, a few different tools have been developed. Let's take a look at some that are more common and easy-to-use, where to use them, and for what.

The Browser Extension

This is probably the simplest and most straight forward form of private key manager available. There are many options to choose from, each compatible with various, commonly used browsers, including mobile browsers. Many provide the option to manage multiple keys for different profiles. Some are simply a signer while others may include other features. The concept is very simple. The extension holds your key and exposes it only only enough to sign an event. These extensions can be set to different levels of manual approval that you can control based on the level of convenience you seek. The ease and convenience does trade off a bit of security, as your private key will be exposed momentarily each time you create an event. It is up to you to choose whether this is appropriate for your use. For casual browsing and social media use, it is a fairly good and easy to use option. Nearly all Nostr apps and clients support signing with this method.

The Remote Signer

Often referred as a "bunker", Nostr remote signers hold your private key completely offline and communicating with clients. Clients send events to the signer to be signed, which then sends back the signed event for publishing. This bunker can be hosted on your own hardware or managed by a truested 3rd party. As long as the signer is online, it can communicate as needed. The signer generates a "bunker string" that is used to communicate. These may seem cumbersome to set up, as each client that you intend to use will need its own permissions. Once all of the pieces and permissions are in place, most of this activity will happen in the background. Bunkers allow for a lot of flexibility. The "bunker string" for a single app can be shared with other users who you may want to be able to make posts on your behalf. Multiple people can manage a social media profile, while the main owner of that identity maintains control of the nsec. These bunker strings can be revoked and replaced at any time. This signing method is growing in popularity and many clients already offer support for it.

The Native Android Signer

Currently, Amber is the only native app available to handle Nostr event signing. It is an incredible tool for managing your Nostr key on your mobile device. The signing flow is similar to remote signing, as described above, but it can communicate with both your Android native Nostr apps and web clients accessed through most mobile browsers, eliminating the need for a browser extension. Similar apps are under development for iOS, but I don't use any of those devices, so covering that here will only happen via other's opinions at a later date. Check this list for current options.

NcryptSec

NcryptSec signing works by encrypting your nsec on a local device, unlocked by a password that you choose. Support for this method is very limited, as the encrypted private key stays on your device. If you intend to use Nostr through one device and few apps, this can be a very secure option, as long as you can remember your password, as it cannot be changed.

NFC and Hardware Signers

Some devices have been developed to store your nsec completely offline on a device or NFC chip, and some clients have added support for scanning/connecting to sign. I haven't personally tried any of these options, nor do I intend to promote the sale of any particular products. If you are interested in these techniques and devices, the information is not hard to find. The price of a devices varies, depending on your feature needs.

There are also DIY options that utilize existing hardware, if you are into that sort of thing.

Higher Security and Recoverability Options

Creating a scheme that allows for recovery of a lost key while maintaining the integrity of a unique identity is no easy task. The key must be fractured into shards, encrypted, and distributed across multiple servers in various locations, while you maintain a portion or portions of your own. These servers are run by trusted 3rd parties who will then sign events "with" you. Some include a scheme of running your own always online hardware to act as host for these shards. I fall short on the technical understanding of certain aspects of these processes, so I will spare you of my attempt to explain. As far as I know, there are a couple of methods underway that are worth paying attention to:

Frostr
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Promenade
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For a List of signers, please visit this post.

NIP-05 is an identifier created by mapping Nostr keys to DNS based identifiers. More technically, it the part of the protocol that defines how to do this mapping, but you will often see the resulting identifier referred to as "your NIP-05". You will also see it referenced as a "Nostr Address", a "Nostr ID", or a "Nostr Verification". None of those terms are fully correct but nor are they wrong.

A NIP-05 identifier does look very similar to an email address (i.e. NostrName @ SomeSite .com). It makes it easier to convey your Nostr profile to friends or collogues, since your chosen name is not unique and the npub format is not exactly something you will be wanting to jot down at a business meeting. It can be used to find you and your notes, so the term, Nostr Address, fits in that sense. There are free services that provide a NIP-05 to you, but you may want to consider contracting this service to a paid provider. Free services tend to be abused by spammers. Paid NIP-05 providers are reasonably priced, more reputable, provide select affiliations, and often other services, along with hosting your Nip-05 file.

Nostr ID might be the appropriate term, in a different way. Your NIP-05 is unique. You are not limited to possessing a single one, but only one may be present on your profile at any given time. You can switch them out as needed. Some Nostr-based services will require that you have a particular NIP-05 provider in order to access their relay communities or other features. In that sense, it is an ID, proving that you are a member of that community. These NIP-05 IDs are created and hosted for you by the community relay hosts, with whatever criteria they choose to require.

Nostr Verification comes into consideration if you own or run a website. It can be used to validate your identity. By hosting your NIP-05 file on your own domain, you are, in essence, validating that the same person has ownership of the website and control of the associated Nostr profile. (i.e. YourName @ YourSite .com) This is exceptionally handy for any well known individual who may be subject to impersonation. This is great, too, if you sell a product or service online and would like to use Nostr as a means of advertising and engaging with your customers. Your NIP-05 can signal to your customers that you, or any employee, are affiliated with your company.

All of this, for me to tell you... that you don't need a NIP-05 identifier to use Nostr. It just makes a lot of the things you might want to do simpler. For clear instructions on how to set up your NIP-05 visit nostr.how

Interoperability

The client/relay relationship on Nostr allows for almost endless data exchange between various apps, clients, relays, and users. If any two things are willing to speak the same sub-protocol(s) within Nostr, they can exchange data. Making a friend list enables that list to be used in any other place that chooses to make it available. Creating a relay to serve an algorithmic social feed makes that feed viewable in any client that displays social feeds. Health data held by a patient can be shared with any care provider, verified by their system, and vice versa. This is the point where I have to acknowledge my own tech-deaf limitations and direct you towards nostr.com for more information.

Data Resiliency

I prefer to use the term resiliency here, because its really a mix of data redundancy and self-managed data that creates broad availability. Relays may host 10, 20, 30+ copies of your notes in different locations, but you also have no assurance that those relays will hosts those notes forever. An individual operating their own relay, while also connecting to the wider network, ensures resiliency in events such that wide swaths of the network should disappear or collude against an individual. The simplicity of relay management makes it possible for nearly anyone to make sure that they have a way to convey their messages to their individual network, whether that be close contacts, an audience, or one individual. This resiliency doesn't just apply to typical speech, it applies to any data intended to be shared amongst humans and machines alike.

Pseudonymity and Anonymity

With privacy encroachment from corporations, advertisers, and governments reaching all time highs, the need for identity protecting tools is also on the rise. Nostr utilizes public key encryption for its identity system. As there is no central entity to "verify" you, there is no need to expose any personal identifiable information to any Nostr app, client, or relay. You can protect your personal identity by simply choosing not to expose it. Your reputation will build as you interact with others on the Nostr network. Your social capital can speak for itself. (As with everything else, utilizing a VPN is recommended.)

Identity and Provability

No one can stop an impersonator from trying to hijack an identity. With Nostr, you CAN prove that you are you, though, which is basically the same as saying "that person is not me" Every note you write, every action you take, is cryptographically signed by your private key. As long as you maintain control of that key, you can prove what you did or did not do.

Censorship Resistance

If you have read our Relay Rundown then you probably get the idea. If not here's the tl;dr: Many small, lightweight relays make up Nostr's distribution system. They are simple enough that anyone can run one. They are redundant enough that you can be almost certain your content exists somewhere. If that is not peace of mind enough, you can run your own with ease. Censorship resistance isn't counting on one company, man, or server to protect what you say. It is taking control of your speech. Nostr makes it easy.

Freedom of Mind and Association

Nostr eliminates the need for company run algorithms that high-jack your attention to feed the advertising industry. You are free to choose your social media experience. Nostr's DVMs, curations, and conversation-centered relays offer discovery mechanisms run by any number of providers. That could be an individual, a company, a group, or you. Many clients incorporate different ways of engaging with these corporate algorithm alternatives. You can also choose to keep a purely chronological feed of the the things and people you follow. Exploring Nostr through its many apps opens up a the freedom to choose what and how you feed your mind.

When we are able to explore, we end up surrounding ourselves with people who share our interests & hobbies. We find friends. This creates distance between ideologies and stark beliefs that often are used as the basis for the term "being in a bubble". Instead of bubbling off, an infinitely open space of thoughts and ideas allows for groups to gather naturally. In this way, we can choose not to block ourselves off from opposing views but to simply distance ourselves from them.

Nostr's relay system also allows for the opposite. Tight-knit communities can create a space for its members to socialize and exchange information with minimal interference from any outside influence. By setting up their own relays with strict rules, the members can utilize one identity to interact within a community or across the broader social network.