Latest news with #Nostr
Business Mayor
17-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Nostr In 2025 Is A Lot Like Bitcoin In 2012
I recently sat down with Vitor Pomplona, creator of Nostr client Amethyst, to discuss how Nostr in 2025 is a lot like what Bitcoin was like in 2012 — a bit rough around the edges, but exciting to use. Nostr, a decentralized protocol for social media and other forms of communication, is only four years old, and developers are still figuring out how to create the best possible user experience within the clients they've created. These clients include apps like Primal (which is comparable to X) to Olas (which is like Instagram) to Yakihonne (which is similar to Substack). What's unique about Nostr clients, though, is that users can 'zap' (send small amounts of) bitcoin to one another to show appreciation for the content their fellow users have created. And Pomplona is optimistic that more and more Nostr clients are starting to gain traction, just as Bitcoin began to do so 13 years ago. 'We are starting to see communities being formed and more money being transferred,' Pamplona told Bitcoin Magazine in the interview. Pomplona acknowledged that part of the purpose of social media is to enable means for users to monetize what they create in ways that they can't do in their physical environment. '[Some social media] users want to earn a living,' said Pomplona. 'They have hope that they can achieve more with social media than they can alone or in their cities.' Pamplona believes that Nostr clients can help transform that hope into a reality, and it's his mission to help users do this. 'That is our end goal: If we can get creators to the point where they can earn a living, we will win as a platform.' This potential for users to earn a living with Nostr becomes greater everyday, especially as the Nostr user base expands and it continues to grow as the largest bitcoin circular economy in the world. In creating Amethyst, Pamplona had a vision for a Nostr client that served as an all-in-one app, which was inspired by a plan similar to the one that Elon Musk had for X (formerly Twitter). 'Amethyst came in at the same time that Elon was talking about buying Twitter,' explained Pomplona. 'He was like let's make a mega app out of Twitter, and I went for the same thing.' While Pomplona understands that Amethyst didn't quite achieve this, he's excited that it's come to play a different role. It serves as a lab for people who are developing new Nostr clients. 'Amethyst is helping everybody kickstart their own applications,' he said. 'Olas came from Amethyst.' Pomplona sees Nostr as a great way to onboard people to Bitcoin, though he doesn't think this should be the primary goal of Nostr clients. 'The main goal for [Nostr] apps is to get people to do their thing — to get people to be creative, or to talk to their friends or to have a chat with their family,' explained Pomplona. 'No app should ever talk about either Nostr or Bitcoin. They should just be what they are,' he added. Pamplona believes that, after some time, the app's users will inevitably start to learn about Nostr's self-sovereignty Nostr provides when it comes to users being able to control their own data and about Bitcoin. '[They'll realize that] it just so happens that the platform helps them to manage their own data, and use best payment protocol we have today.' And he highlighted that most new users are coming to Nostr because of the freedom and censorship resistance it offers. 'In the past two years, most of the new Nostr users came in because of freedom, because of some censorship in their country,' said Pomplona. 'And they learned about Bitcoin after that.'
Forbes
14-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Bitcoin Is An Unique Threat To Apple And Google's Business Model
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 23: Google CEO Sundar Pichai (L) and Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) listen as U.S. ... More President Joe Biden speaks during a roundtable with American and Indian business leaders in the East Room of the White House on June 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held the meeting to meet with a range of leaders from the tech and business worlds and to discuss topics including innovation and AI. (Photo by) The tech titans that rule the Internet have many ways to maintain power. One way is to create effective monopolies of their app ecosystems - making them the guardians of what apps people can access when buying devices from Apple or Google. This power is more insidious than most people realize - for example, Apple will take down apps at the request of state powers such as the Chinese Communist Party and the Indian government fairly frequently. In essence, Apple and Google offer a perfect chokepoint for countries worldwide to shape the Internet according to their censorship. Bitcoin offers a hedge against this deal-making system with countries while tech titans sit on piles of cash. For example, Proton's CEO Andy Yen offers a privacy-protecting set of independent tools that aim to be independent of both Apple and Google's power - and has made the point that Apple has essentially signed a "deal with the devil." By concentrating manufacturing in China, Apple is at China's mercy whenever the country wants an app taken down. Proton has also recently moved to become a company that accepts Bitcoin and offers a wallet that allows others to use Bitcoin. The Nostr app Damus is another illustrative example. Nostr is a decentralized social media app where you can take your private key and decide which client you want to use to access the content created on the network. Nostr, like Bitcoin, is structured as a protocol and not a platform. While human teams/CEOs are building parts of the ecosystem, the protocol itself is uncensorable by any individual group. By implementing the ability to do Nostr zaps, which amount to Bitcoin micro-payments, this model poses a dual threat to Apple and Google - by creating an independent option to get payments that don't need to be subject to onerous developer fees. This independence of payments threatens the monopoly and state-platform relationship that drives today's app stores. In interviewing Will, the founder of Damus in the Apple app ecosystem, he noted that the ability of control Apple has can stifle developer innovation ironically. Not only can Apple review apps at their discretion, but they can also review and set strict regulations for how an app performs - Damus was hit with a randomly targeted review where it was stipulated that zaps sent within the app had to be subject to different rules - for example, you can only send zaps to a single person. It has to be structured as a tip after the content. Apple threatened to take down the Damus app in 14 days if it didn't remove the "Zap" button that allows users to send Bitcoin payments to each other. Will also notes that there's no way to support the developers directly, unlike in the Android world - where, for example, another Nostr client provider, Amethyst, allows for donations directly to the developers. As Will notes, getting support for developers directly from users would be amazing for Damus' ability to innovate. As he puts it, "Apple is effectively limiting our innovation just basically, so they have control over the payment system." Will notes that he's okay with Apple integrating Bitcoin and Lightning Network and taking a cut - but a choice of Apple also means wrapping into the legacy financial system along with control. The Google Play Store suffers from similar themes - though Damus is moving to the broader Android ecosystem, with options beyond the Play Store to release content and innovation. Bitcoin represents a change from the old financial order - and as companies like Apple and Google navigate Bitcoin's implications, it's clear that Bitcoin's ability to empower developer innovation and to allow people to pay each other peer-to-peer is something both app stores will struggle to control.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jack Dorsey warns Bitcoin's survival hinges on one thing
Jack Dorsey believes Bitcoin's biggest risk isn't regulation — it's irrelevance. In a conversation with Haley Berkoe on the Presidio Bitcoin podcast, the former Twitter CEO and Block founder said Bitcoin could fail if it doesn't find a real, everyday use case beyond just being a 'store of value.' Dorsey is the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, and the current CEO of Block (formerly Square), a payments company deeply involved in Bitcoin development. He's one of Bitcoin's most vocal advocates in tech, known for supporting decentralized, open-source financial systems. 'So let's fast forward to the future and Bitcoin has failed. How did it fail?' Berkoe asked. 'I think it fails through irrelevance,' Dorsey replied. 'It fails to be relevant to people on a daily basis if it just ends up being store value and nothing more. I don't think it gains relevance at all. I think it has to be payments for it to be relevant on the everyday. Otherwise, it's just something you kind of buy and forget and only use in emergency situations or when you want to get liquid again.' Dorsey argued that for Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to evolve into a true payments network — not just a long-term hedge or emergency fund. 'It just gets increasingly irrelevant and that's failure to me,' he added. But Dorsey is still optimistic. What excites him most about Bitcoin — and other open protocols like Nostr — is their permissionless nature. 'What makes Bitcoin special, what makes things like Nostr special is they're permissionless,' he said. 'You don't need anyone's permission to build what you want to see, and that's just incredible.' He praised the fact that Bitcoin has attracted attention from major institutions like BlackRock — while still remaining open for anyone to build on. 'You still don't need their permission to build on it or to change it or to better it. Where else can you find that at that scale? Nowhere — and only in 16 years.' Dorsey ended with a hopeful message: 'It reminds me so much of the earlier net, where again, the default was you didn't need permission to do anything… Bitcoin, Nostr, and hopefully something in intelligence will be the antidote to that.' 'Permissionless. That's the one thought, one idea. That's a great lasting thought.' As per Kraken's latest price feed, Bitcoin is trading at $83,091.78, down 2.1% in the last 24 hours.
Al Bawaba
13-03-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey suspended on X
ALBAWABA - Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently went viral after being suspended on Musk's X (formerly Twitter) for allegedly violating the platform's rules. A note said that he might have to complete some tasks to unlock it again., according to Nostr. The screenshot circulating on the platform showed a timer with the words "11 hours and 3 minutes" in bold. Dorsey also received a message that stated, "We have determined that you have violated the X Rules, so you'll need to wait some time before using X again." The reason behind his suspension remains unknown, but some social media users took to the same platform to speculate about the incident. Several social media users pointed out that they feel no sympathy for Jack Dorsey, bringing up the CEO's past in "wrongfully" suspending accounts on the platform, named Twitter at the time. One X user wrote, "For all the accounts that were wrongfully suspended while he was the CEO of Twitter... I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for the guy." Another added, "This guy banned me for 2 years off Twitter for saying the 2020 election was rigged. Not shedding any tears for his 12 hour suspension." Tesla CEO Elon Musk initiated his acquisition of Twitter on Apr. 14, 2022, and concluded his purchase on Oct. 27, 2022. Since then Musk has changed the platform's name to X, causing widespread confusion due to the name's nature, and has been posting daily on the platform about several topics including, technology, politics, crypto, and to promote his other companies.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Automattic and others back Openvibe, an app that's unifying the open social web
Openvibe's clever app that integrates multiple open social networks including Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, and Threads, just got a boost toward its future development. The company on Tuesday announced that it has received outside investment of $800,000 in a round led by Czech Founders VC, which includes backing from and Tumblr parent company, Automattic, as well as Tensor Ventures. Czech Founders VC and former CTO of Mews Jan Široky also invested separately from his firm. Launched in 2024, Openvibe initially supported three of the more prominent open social networks, all of which operate using different protocols: Mastodon uses ActivityPub, Bluesky runs on AT Protocol, and Nostr powers a number of third-party apps. Openvibe later added support for Instagram Threads, as that app became further integrated with ActivityPub and opened itself up to the developer community. As CEO Matej Svancer explained at the time, the idea behind his app was to offer users a more friendly and "easy-to-use gateway" to the open social web. Because of the different protocols these networks utilize, it can be difficult for newcomers who end up having to switch apps or limit their engagement to just their preferred platform. But Openvibe doesn't just let people stay connected with friends across all these services in a combined timeline, it also allows cross-posting to multiple networks at once. With the added capital, Svancer plans to accelerate product development, expand Openvibe's user base, work on integrations with other social platforms, refine the user interface, and more. In addition, Automattic's investment is worth noting, as the company historically backs projects in the open source space, particularly those designed to compete with Big Tech. (Unfortunately, Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has created a lot of division and drama within the WordPress community over the past several months, which has some questioning his commitment to open source values.) Still, Openvibe's fundraising signals that there is some appetite among investors for backing apps and services that are taking advantage of the new open social protocols. Recently, for example, celeb investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban put out a call for video apps building on Bluesky's AT Protocol. Bluesky has also raised funding, most recently its $15 million Series A last fall. Openvibe is available as a free app on iOS and Android but plans to later introduce a subscription plan to generate revenue. Sign in to access your portfolio
