Decentralized publishing for the web

What is Nostr?

Nostr stands for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays”. Like HTTP or TCP-IP, Nostr is a protocol; an open standard upon which anyone can build. Nostr itself is not an app or service that you sign up for.

Nostr is designed for simplicity and enables censorship-resistant and globally decentralized publishing on the web. Let’s unpack that a little:

Simple

The protocol is based on very simple & flexible Event objects (which are passed around as plain JSON) and uses standard public-key cryptography for keys & signing. This makes it easy to run relays and build clients and ensures that the protocol can be extended over time.

Resilient

Because Nostr doesn’t rely on a small number of trusted servers for moving or storing data, it’s very resilient. The protocol assumes that relays will disappear and allows users to connect & publish to an arbitrary number of relays that they can change over time.

Verifiable

Because Nostr accounts are based on public-key cryptography it’s easy to verify messages were really sent by the user in question.

How can I participate?

Check out our guide to get started!