I lately sat down with Vitor Pomplona, creator of Nostr shopper Amethyst, to debate how Nostr in 2025 is loads like what Bitcoin was like in 2012 — a bit tough across the edges, however thrilling to make use of.
Nostr, a decentralized protocol for social media and different types of communication, is just 4 years outdated, and builders are nonetheless determining easy methods to create the absolute best consumer expertise throughout the shoppers they’ve created. These shoppers embrace apps like Primal (which is similar to X) to Olas (which is like Instagram) to Yakihonne (which has similarities to Substack).
What’s distinctive about Nostr shoppers, although, is that customers can “zap” (ship small quantities of) bitcoin to 1 one other to point out appreciation for the content material their fellow customers have created.
And Pomplona is optimistic that increasingly Nostr shoppers are beginning to achieve traction, simply as Bitcoin started to take action 13 years in the past.
“We’re beginning to see communities being shaped and extra money being transferred,” Pamplona instructed Bitcoin Journal within the interview.
A Bitcoin-Fueled Creator Economic system
Pomplona acknowledged that a part of the aim of social media is to allow means for customers to monetize what they create in ways in which they will’t do of their bodily atmosphere.
“[Some social media] customers need to earn a dwelling,” mentioned Pomplona. “They’ve hope that they will obtain extra with social media than they will alone or of their cities.”
Pamplona believes that Nostr shoppers will help remodel that hope right into a actuality, and it’s his mission to assist customers do that.
“That’s our finish objective: If we will get creators to the purpose the place they will earn a dwelling, we are going to win as a platform.”
This potential for customers to earn a dwelling with Nostr turns into better on a regular basis, particularly because the Nostr consumer base expands and it continues to develop as the biggest bitcoin round economic system on the planet.
Amethyst
In creating Amethyst, Pamplona had a imaginative and prescient for a Nostr shopper that served as an all-in-one app, which was impressed by a plan just like the one which Elon Musk had for X (previously Twitter).
“Amethyst got here in on the identical time that Elon was speaking about shopping for Twitter,” defined Pomplona. “He was like let’s make a mega app out of Twitter, and I went for a similar factor.”
Whereas Pomplona understands that Amethyst didn’t fairly obtain this, he’s excited that it’s come to play a unique function. It serves as a lab for people who find themselves creating new Nostr shoppers.
“Amethyst helps all people kickstart their very own functions,” he mentioned. “Olas got here from Amethyst.”
Nostr As A Bitcoin Onboarding Device
Pomplona sees Nostr as an effective way to onboard individuals to Bitcoin, although he doesn’t assume this ought to be the first objective of Nostr shoppers.
“The primary objective for [Nostr] apps is to get individuals to do their factor — to get individuals to be artistic, or to speak to their pals or to have a chat with their household,” defined Pomplona.
“No app ought to ever speak about both Nostr or Bitcoin. They need to simply be what they’re,” he added.
Pamplona believes that, after a while, the app’s customers will inevitably begin to find out about Nostr’s self-sovereignty Nostr gives in terms of customers with the ability to management their very own information and about Bitcoin.
“[They’ll realize that] it simply so occurs that the platform helps them to handle their very own information, and use greatest cost protocol now we have at present.”
And he highlighted that almost all new customers are coming to Nostr due to the liberty and censorship resistance it gives.
“Prior to now two years, many of the new Nostr customers got here in due to freedom, due to some censorship of their nation,” mentioned Pomplona. “And so they discovered about Bitcoin after that.”
