Nostr

Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays
Communication protocol
AbbreviationNostr
PurposeDecentralized social networking
Developer(s)fiatjaf
IntroductionMarch 2020; 4 years ago (2020-03)[1]
Port(s)443, 80
Websitenostr.com

Nostr (acronym for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a protocol for decentralized message transmission, with the intention to be able to resist internet censorship[2] while maintaining session integrity. Nostr consists of users publishing content via a cryptographic key pair to a "relay", a WebSocket server which sends and receives content for users that subscribe to it. This allows users to be able to have verifiable and portable accounts on Nostr, as users have to sign all posts using their key pair to post under its identity.[3]

The Nostr protocol was first written in 2020 by Brazilian open source software developer Giovanni Torres Parra, known by the pseudonym "fiatjaf".[4][5] Nostr was created as a result of perceived moderation issues on Twitter, as well as technical and cultural disagreements with other similar protocols such as ActivityPub and Secure Scuttlebutt.[6]

  1. ^ "basic server relay code. · nostr-protocol/nostr@6158017 · GitHub". GitHub.
  2. ^ nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays, nostr-protocol, January 6, 2024, retrieved January 6, 2024
  3. ^ "nips/01.md at master · nostr-protocol/nips · GitHub". GitHub.
  4. ^ Long, Katherine (June 6, 2024). "Jack Dorsey gave $10 million to an anonymous founder with a deep devotion to a fascist 'guru'". Business Insider. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  5. ^ Castillo, Michael del. "Meet @Fiatjaf, The Mysterious Nostr Creator Who Has Lured 18 Million Users And $5 Million From Jack Dorsey". Forbes. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  6. ^ "nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays". fiatjaf.com. Retrieved July 31, 2024.