Ultimately the user should be in control of their zap defaults, but personally I hate the current zap culture that considers 21-sat zaps to be a reasonable tip for a creator. It’s insulting. Unfortunately number bias works against us with zaps that are denominated in sats. Sending someone 1000 of anything feels like a lot because 1000 is a large number. And people that are actively engaged on nostr know that the average amount zapped is 21 sats per zap, so comparatively a 1000 sat zap is much larger than average. But then when you consider that 1000 sats is only 60¢ USD it doesn’t feel like much when you’re an artist and you know people would normally drop $1, $5, etc, into a tip jar at an event. I may be in the minority, but I wish there was an option for zaps to be denominated in local currency, and the client would automatically calculate the correct number of sats to send depending on the exchange rate at the time.
The type of content is a factor too when thinking about what is an appropriate default amount. For instance I may zap a musician a few dollars worth of sats for a new song they release, whereas for a photographer who shares a few photos a day, I probably won’t zap that much at a time.
Replies (2)
I disagree, whenever it's 1000 sats or 50cents (of whatever fiat bucks you are refering to) I would zap the same and only on extremly rare occasions, maybe 1 or 2 per month top (that's already 12-24'000 per year, more than a domain name or Bitwarden premium, that many people already find too much to pay.
However 21 or 42 or even 100 sats are cheap enough that I'm ok to zap just as a strong like or to mark appretiation for a good joke.
Too be honest I don't see so many post from artist or creator that really make my day, most of my high zap (or tips via other platforms) would be for an app update that add a funtionality that I was really looking for or that make my life a lot easier/better.
Even in real life I almost never tips (I'm in one of these country where people in service are well payed and don't expect any tips unless they real offer much more than the expected value).
Also for some people 20'000 sats is nothing, they spend more on a cocktail or a glass of wine. For other it's money for one or several day of food.
Anyone should be free to zap anything without shaming or comparison. And the receiver is free to spend it immediatly on more zap or keep it until it worth several bucks a few years later.
This is a great point. I didn’t think about 1000 being a large number. I think you are correct about dropping $1 - $5 in a tip jar at events. I would be curious to hear what folks think about zaps in local currency….
