Nostr, an open protocol for decentralized social networks, has made its furthest leap towards reaching everyday users after Damus, a censorship-resistant social media app, was approved for release on Apple’s App Store.
Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays, or Nostr, is not a blockchain, nor does it have a native cryptocurrency. Instead, it is an open-source protocol designed for censorship-resistant social networks that utilize “relays” operated by anyone, anywhere, to transmit data and distribute messages.
What’s grabbing everyone’s attention right now is that Damus, a social media app powered by Nostr’s decentralized network, is now available on iOS. The app is being hailed as a step forward for open, decentralized, and censorship-free social networking. Founder and former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, who provided 14 BTC in funding for Nostr last year, called the approval “a milestone for open protocols.”
On the Web3 front, native integration for the Bitcoin Lightning Network is built into Damus, allowing users to send and receive BTC through the app without centralized intermediaries. While not a blockchain protocol, some other clients on Nostr support cryptocurrency payments.
Damus is a tangible Web3 application
The global cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io, which has been an active incubator and supporter of Web3 technologies, said, “Nostr lays out the framework needed to start building an internet owned and run by the user. Decentralized clients like Damus, with its native support for Nostr and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, can now easily reach the masses and represents progress in the early adoption of Web3 applications.”
The Damus app checks many of the boxes of Web3 through its use of decentralized networks, permissionless access, and support of cryptocurrency payment natively. This is the exact type of technology needed to move the needle forward. It allows internet users to control their own data, freely communicate, and transfer value without centralized intermediaries.
Nostr also supports a wide variety of clients that are, at least on the surface, clones of current centralized platforms. For example, Anigma is an application resembling Telegram, and Nvote is similar to Reddit; both applications utilize Nostr’s decentralized network to enable users to communicate and socialize.
Many of these apps are still in their infancy and are primarily developed open-source through developers that volunteer their expertise and time. However, as the popularity of Nostr-based applications grows, the ecosystem will become more fleshed out, and a time may one day come when the experience on Damus won’t feel much different than Twitter.
