To all the Nostr builders, how is the Nostrability project working out in helping improve interoperability? Is it something you participate in?

GitHub

nostrability/nostrability

Left curve nostr broken stuff and interoperability tracker + json schema validation - nostrability/nostrability

It was a pleasure presenting the Open Design Guide (http://opendesign.guide) last week at FOSS Backstage. It's an effort to provide a smoother path into open-source for designers. Interestingly, there were 3 other talks at the conference that brought up the same problem. The Canonical team did a survey and found that most designers don't realize open-source is a thing, many of the ones that do have no idea how to get started, and many who give it a try don't get far due to the steep learning curve. Let's make that a little easier.

"We've been successfully removing all friction from our apps — think about how effortless it is to scroll through a social feed. But is that what we want? Compare the feeling of doomscrolling to kneading dough, playing an instrument, sketching... these take effort, but they're also deeply satisfying. When you strip away too much friction, meaning and satisfaction go with it." Beautifully done:

Our interfaces have lost their senses

Almost every time I post on here, some insult ends up in the comments. And I’m not even posting anything provocative. Would be nice to keep things civil. Thank you very much.

The Open Tech Fund got killed over the weekend. It supported Signal, Tor, VPN access and lots of other good initiatives. I met some people from their team last year at a conference and asked if they were resilient to a second Trump term (they got almost killed during the first). Sad to see this happen now. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-17/trump-executive-order-cuts-tools-to-fight-censorship-worldwide

I used Penpot (http://penpot.app) for a presentation at FOSS Backstage last week. It worked great, with a few small hiccups. If you're not ready to go 100% Penpot yet, I'd recommend trying it for smaller design tasks (and give the team feedback). One step at a time.

Did my usual voting day routine. Show up at 8 right when they open and then go for a run. I hope we get a strong Germany (and Europe) to tackle our short- and mid-term geopolitical challenges and economic issues, while also staying on track on longer-term climate goals. And no more right-wing nonsense, please.

So, competitive authoritarianism is where this is heading?

Foreign Affairs

The Path to American Authoritarianism

What comes after democratic breakdown.

Defining user experience design is pretty straightforward. Our life is a linear series of events. Things we had never heard of slide into our awareness. Maybe someone tells us about something, maybe we walk around and see something or someone, etc. You brain tries to make sense of it based on existing experiences, familiar patterns, etc. Via more exposure, you form a better understanding. Apps are the same. Someone hears about it and wants to figure out generally what it's for. They see it and form a split-second opinion based on initial presentation. They decide to read about the features/benefits. They download it and use it, etc. At each step information is gathered and decisions are made. Maybe they get it right away, maybe they struggle. Maybe this happens in 1 minute, or over 2 months, etc. As a user experience designer, you consider this general sequence of events, and the many ways people can experience it across all possible touch points, and try to create smooth pathways for people. And you typically have to balance user needs & wants, tech possibilities and limitations, business needs, human psychology, available resources, and other stuff. It's a huge balancing act that benefits from tight collaboration. YMMV

Cool to see that Block has an OSPO (open-source program office, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Program_Office).

Block - Open Source

New page about Human-Readable Addresses ("bitcoin emails" 😀) is live in the @Bitcoin Design guide (focusing mostly on BIP-353 and Lightning Address). Take a peek and let me know what you think.

Bitcoin Design

Human readable addresses

Easy-to-use bitcoin addresses via DNS payment instructions and the lightning address protocol.

When a user sees this, what should their take-away and next actions be?

Any Eliza Nostr AIs out there already?

GitHub

feat: Implement Nostr client by AbdelStark · Pull Request #1203 · elizaOS/eliza

Relates to: Risks Low. It's an optional client to use. Background What does this PR do? What kind of change is this? Features (non-breaking c...

My talk for FOSS Backstage about the Open Design Guide (http://opendesign.guide) was accepted. There are several other talks about the role of design(ers) in the line-up. Looking forward to it.

FOSS Backstage 2025

Sessions

The Saving Satoshi case study in the @Bitcoin Design Guide is live. It provides lots of background about this unique and ambitious project. I'm super thankful to and proud of everyone who chipped in (you're all ₿OSSes).

Bitcoin Design

Saving Satoshi

Discover how Saving Satoshi, an interactive RPG set in 2139, makes learning Bitcoin development engaging through storytelling and hands-on challeng...

Make sure to give it a try and let us know how it can be improved.

Saving Satoshi

Saving Satoshi

Explore the mysteries of Satoshi and learn about bitcoin along the way.

Design should capture and express the essential properties of a product/technology. If users can't tell the difference between self-custodial and custodial bitcoin apps, then we're doing it wrong. Especially open-source community-led projects are well-positioned to provide unique user experiences that companies and custodial solutions cannot offer due to their different goals, structure and incentives.

What time is it? It's PR review time.

Not sure what everyone is so excited about. My chart still shows that 1 bitcoin = 1 bitcoin.