I just lately sat down with Vitor Pomplona, creator of Nostr shopper Amethyst, to debate how Nostr in 2025 is rather a lot like what Bitcoin was like in 2012 — a bit tough across the edges, however thrilling to make use of.
Nostr, a decentralized protocol for social media and different types of communication, is simply 4 years previous, and builders are nonetheless determining the right way to create the very best person expertise throughout the purchasers they’ve created. These purchasers embrace apps like Primal (which is corresponding to X) to Olas (which is like Instagram) to Yakihonne (which has similarities to Substack).
What’s distinctive about Nostr purchasers, although, is that customers can “zap” (ship small quantities of) bitcoin to 1 one other to point out appreciation for the content material their fellow customers have created.
And Pomplona is optimistic that increasingly more Nostr purchasers are beginning to achieve traction, simply as Bitcoin started to take action 13 years in the past.
“We’re beginning to see communities being fashioned and extra money being transferred,” Pamplona advised Bitcoin Journal within the interview.
A Bitcoin-Fueled Creator Financial system
Pomplona acknowledged that a part of the aim of social media is to allow means for customers to monetize what they create in ways in which they’ll’t do of their bodily setting.
“[Some social media] customers need to earn a residing,” mentioned Pomplona. “They’ve hope that they’ll obtain extra with social media than they’ll alone or of their cities.”
Pamplona believes that Nostr purchasers may help rework that hope right into a actuality, and it’s his mission to assist customers do that.
“That’s our finish purpose: If we will get creators to the purpose the place they’ll earn a residing, we are going to win as a platform.”
This potential for customers to earn a residing with Nostr turns into larger on a regular basis, particularly because the Nostr person base expands and it continues to develop as the most important bitcoin round economic system on the planet.
Amethyst
In creating Amethyst, Pamplona had a imaginative and prescient for a Nostr shopper that served as an all-in-one app, which was impressed by a plan just like the one which Elon Musk had for X (previously Twitter).
“Amethyst got here in on the similar time that Elon was speaking about shopping for Twitter,” defined Pomplona. “He was like let’s make a mega app out of Twitter, and I went for a similar factor.”
Whereas Pomplona understands that Amethyst didn’t fairly obtain this, he’s excited that it’s come to play a special position. It serves as a lab for people who find themselves creating new Nostr purchasers.
“Amethyst helps everyone kickstart their very own purposes,” he mentioned. “Olas got here from Amethyst.”
Nostr As A Bitcoin Onboarding Instrument
Pomplona sees Nostr as an effective way to onboard individuals to Bitcoin, although he doesn’t assume this ought to be the first purpose of Nostr purchasers.
“The principle purpose for [Nostr] apps is to get individuals to do their factor — to get individuals to be inventive, or to speak to their pals or to have a chat with their household,” defined Pomplona.
“No app ought to ever discuss both Nostr or Bitcoin. They need to simply be what they’re,” he added.
Pamplona believes that, after a while, the app’s customers will inevitably begin to study Nostr’s self-sovereignty Nostr offers on the subject of customers with the ability to management their very own knowledge and about Bitcoin.
“[They’ll realize that] it simply so occurs that the platform helps them to handle their very own knowledge, and use greatest fee protocol we’ve at this time.”
And he highlighted that almost all new customers are coming to Nostr due to the liberty and censorship resistance it presents.
“Up to now two years, a lot of the new Nostr customers got here in due to freedom, due to some censorship of their nation,” mentioned Pomplona. “They usually discovered about Bitcoin after that.”
