I agree that the plethora of vibe coded apps been fun, but content and engagement are down considerably. Nostr feels very slow for me. I'm not bearish, but activity is definitely down.

IDK, man. I got personally insulted by the “Head of Growth™” of @Satlantis: Social Events (an app with seven users) today because I dared point out that I couldn’t get the Nostr sign-in to work. Feels like everyone’s getting punchy and restless. We even have @Alex Gleason dropping straight fucking fire permissionless AI tools on us and still we can’t do more than rookie numbers. Maybe we really don’t have the sauce.

I feel like I’ve been posting and zapping more than I have in a while lately

Every day I see several new apps. We have so many new micro apps and micro services popping up. And with the launch of #Shakespeare, we'll have even more. It's going to be hard to keep track of everything. A one click publish to the NostrHub directory will help with that though 👀

That's good!

I am starting to get the impression that there are a lot of people who are expecting the fish to climb the tree.. I wish I had a better way of stating that but it's the best that comes to mind.

No, what you said is perfect.

I've been noticing the restlessness & thinking about it a lot lately, too. What worked before won't work on Nostr because it's actually different. I need to make some time to write out my full thoughts. I don't know of it will help, but I've wasted my time in worse ways, I'm sure. Lol

“If you build it they will come” only works in movies. Gotta market it, too, or no one comes.

There is no monetary interest, only utility. Everything is different :)

The sauce is still on the stove

I don’t know…the feeling is different here vs xitter, how nostr protocol makes one feel via the algo in other is higher quality. Maybe that better feeling is only appealing to a few folks?

There is monetary interest, it's just scattered all over like the relays & clients. It's probably going to be found in a bunch of little things rather than one big thing.

Yeah. I have not seen nostr marketed anywhere at all. I haven't seen a single ad on any platform for any nostr client.

In our opinion, nostr is only just starting to work. Most people don't have time for glitchy apps. They need to just work from the landing page. Being married to Bitcoin only is a decision that is going to slow growth, most people are only just getting comfortable with Bitcoin the investment, not using it as money. But it's those principled decisions that make nostr avoid being overtaken by scammers and keep it strong.

Wavlake is great for small artists. I just make mashups from screen recordings and a beat looper. I've been paid the equivalent of 5usd in sats over the past week for my work. I'm not a serious artist I have no following, just a nobody. There's definitely monetary value to be gained from nostr by real artists

I was using Bitcoin as money back in like 2011 or 2012 buying things online. It was never an asset to invest in, just like cash isn't an asset. Investing in Bitcoin is called savings. Are you suggesting that people should be able to use USDT on nostr? Because monereo litecoin and doge have such a small number of users and I've never heard of any other crypto actually being used as money.

Maybe the problem with nostr: A) solves the problem 90% population don't even care about, therefore only geeks here B) no VC capital to pay influencers to come here and bring their audience

I think regular credit or debit card payments for services would help reach, as would a nip that allows users to specify what crypto they will accept. Let the free market decide what's better. The decision to be Bitcoin only is a principled decision, but like overlapping venn diagrams it selects for a smaller subset of users. Some of the big apps require kyc to use zaps, so defeat the point of permissionless money. They could be good fiat to Bitcoin onramps. We set up to be Bitcoin only, but all the people we reached out to IRL ignored that and payed cash or didn't come back.

I think B) gets solved by the builders/devs actively focusing on also building a broad audience/community specific to a problem being solved themselves, not just outsourcing that to a happenstance shoutout from someone well known or hoping the app they built gets traction on the merits of the tech alone.

Define „fun“ for me please?

You just gave me some new idea, Sir!

For A) I’m not a geek

This is humbly for normies (where they are): https://shorter.me/AskAboutBitcoin

Lately, I’ve been warming up to the idea of stablecoins, mainly USDT implemented over Lightning. I know this can be a fairly controversial topic, but it doesn’t have to be. Bitcoin is a monetary network, but in order for it to reach the most people possible, it has to serve them where they are right now, not where we want them to be in a future world where everything is priced in magic internet money. It’s simply too many leaps to ask them to take all at once.

USDT would be the lowest priority in my opinion. It has all the drawbacks of crypto without the benefits of sovereignty or scarcity. I'd sooner incorporate Bitcoin Cash.

This is because the handful of nerds with deep pockets tend to only support a small subset of dev teams, and don’t do much to spread awareness for the protocol itself.

That’s short-sighted, IMHO. BCash doesn’t solve a single problem for anyone. USDT solves access to a dollar denomination, something real people actually want all over the world, but with the security of bitcoin and the speed of Lightning. This essay made it make sense for me. View article →

If you need to reach your #40HPW🎧 quota this week, there’s also a podcast here:

Bitcoin Audible • Read_887 - A Half Baked Thesis on Stablecoins • Listen on Fountain

Wavlake is a dark pattern, lnbeats is better

Are you referring to X and "platforms" like that? Can only speak for what we have seen. Over past two years we posted over a hundred video ads about the "Nostr Protocol" right here on Nostr and saw all of them appear on various major platforms. These were high quality. So nostr plebs did share these, I know there were many others on here who did the same who are far more creative than us. Corndalarian and Mickey come to mind and Derek Ross etc. I have seen their Nostr protocol stuff on the platforms. We need more of this. Alot of peeps on here a couple years ago would complain people who posted Nostr ads on here were preaching to the choir by posting Nostr protocol stuff but their intention I think was that others on Nostr would share it elsewhere.

The problem the marketing that does exist suffers from lack of frequency and reach. Nostr doesn’t have a shitcoin. It doesn’t have Andreesen Horowitz. It doesn’t have piles of cash to pay vapid celebrities to promote it.

We do not need those fiat toys any more we have us. We need to tune in the frequency and reach somehow.

Don’t yuck his yum, @npub1ukcr...s9aa!

B) also gets solved by people presenting legitimate business plans to VCs and not just whining about there being no VC money here. Nostr is literally the most underrated opportunity for investment out there right now

Ah yes, the cereal aisle of social media. Perfection.

I get the appeal, it's good for NGU, more money to buy Bitcoin pushing up prices. Stablecoins like USDT also give people access to dollars they can't easily get, and running them over Lightning adds speed and accessibility. But it's not something we are willing to promote. Stablecoins don't fix the system, they reinforce it. They don't inherit Bitcoin's security. USDT is a custodial IOU, not a bearer asset. If the issuer is compromised or pressured, users can be rugged. There's no self-custody and no guarantee. Worse, stablecoins preserve and even intensify the fiat system’s structural flaws. They keep the Cantillon effect alive, benefiting those closest to issuance, while ordinary people suffer dilution. Instead of ending financial injustice, stablecoins put it on faster rails. And we can’t ignore the Triffin dilemma. Stablecoins drive global demand for USD denominated assets. That forces issuers to scale their reserves by acquiring US Treasuries or Bitcoin. This mirrors the same unsustainable dynamic that collapsed the gold standard, global demand backed by finite reserves. A future redemption crisis could lead to frozen convertibility and systemic loss, just like 1971. Only this time, it's Bitcoin that risks being confiscated or over leveraged. Bitcoin wasn’t created to upgrade fiat, it was created to end the theft at its core. Supporting stablecoins means participating in what Austrian economists, Bitcoiners, and sound money advocates have always opposed: a system that steals from the poor and gives to the rich.

If we don’t offer a bridge, people won’t just swim across.