I looked into Upscrolled a bit more. One of its major advantages over Nostr is that its onboarding process...it's simple. It's familiar. Download the app, sign up for an account, and off you go.
No one is going to take the time to understand WTF a cryptographic keypair is, much less invest the care to responsibly handle opsec for that keypair. It's alien tech to them...they don't understand it, and more importantly, they don't understand why it even matters. Why deal with this weird keypair thing when everything else in my life uses a username and password?
Nostr client apps need to offer a way to log in with conventional email/password with the npub/nsec abstracted away in the background. Of course, the keypair should be available for the user to grab in the settings whenever they want if/when their understanding matures and they want to move to another client app.
This might seem like blasphemy to us. I know most Nostr developers would probably flinch at the prospect of having a database of email addresses mapped to npubs, and perhaps even worse, at having a database of nsecs (lol). But it's necessary for us (as those looking to grow this network, aka #grownostr) to realize this is critical if Nostr will have any shot at taking advantage of growth waves and going mainstream. No amount of marketing or influencers or incentives will change this.
Those of us who've been in the Bitcoin world for a while know by now that the chances of getting a normie to take custody of their funds with seed words and an advanced wallet are slim-to-none. A graduated approach starting with something simpler is much more realistic.
Then why are we assuming these same people will use any app that requires the same kind of nerdy mindset for Nostr? It's not realistic. This is partly why PGP failed. We need easier options to start people off upfront, and then provide a gently path toward cypherpunk enlightenment and advancement.
They won't all make it, but at least more will try.
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