Zaps are the near-term killer feature. Openness is the long-term killer feature. Let’s not talk about zaps in the past tense. They are absolutely the killer feature that makes everyone’s eyes light up. We need to double down on that. Lightning can scale globally through a combination of custodians and self-custody, which is fine. We are totally in the process of winning here, let’s lean into it. Creating a better public square, powered by zaps, is the correct opening move. An ecosystem of apps built on the same open network will seal the deal. Nostr will replace the legacy web. Agreed, censorship resistance is important, but it alone won’t bring in the masses. But using the same identity and social connections in an ecosystem of beautifully executed apps that work well together? Everyone will dig that. That’s Nostr’s checkmate move. IMHO we have a lot of work to do, but everything is moving in the right direction.

Replies (17)

jack's avatar
jack 1 year ago
no doubt zaps makes it click. but i don’t think they yet make people stay.
Chad Lupkes's avatar
Chad Lupkes 1 year ago
If people see zaps and think about how to move the capital into fiat, that's a failure. The true killer feature in my opinion will be clear instructions on how to build a circular economy at all wealth levels. Doesn't matter if you're paying 100 sats or 100,000 sats for something, we are all equal and we deserve the same financial infrastructure and opportunities.
Zaps are cool, the problem is getting people to stick around long enough to see how cool they are, well, that and not everyone is a content creator. A lot of people just like to lurk and scroll.
I think 3 things can bring mass adoption: 1. Simple UI / UX ( we are getting close) 2. Non-tech content creators 3. Some big PR ( news or shoutouts ) I think the masses don't much care about, Censorship resistance, Free speech, decentralized. Masses only care about news, updates, and controversies ( i.e. Dopamine) We should create 2 Marketing campaigns: 1. Bottom-up ( attract audience) 2. Top-down ( attract creators) Things are moving in the right direction, we are just craving for speedy mass adoption.
Masses use social media to learn and interact, they don't care much about earning. Zaps and earning features of #nostr can attract creators but not sure about the masses. We need different USPs to attract the masses.
Zaps features can excite creators but for consumers, we need different features and rewards.
Openness + Convergence. By “convergence”, I mean a trusted identifier that you can freely post, pay and prove with. Implementing NIP-05 gave me that simple vision and I am going down that very path as part of SEC-02 with @Sovereign Engineering
Bogdan Zurac's avatar
Bogdan Zurac 1 year ago
@miljan if "openness is the long-term killer feature", then why isn't @primal allowing 3rd party Lightning wallets for sending zaps? We're currently locked into using your own proprietary wallet. @Damus allows users to use any other wallet they want.