No one is going to take the time to understand WTF a cryptographic keypair is, much less invest the care to responsibly handle opsec for that keypair. It's alien tech to them...they don't understand it, and more importantly, they don't understand why it even matters. Why deal with this weird keypair thing when everything else in my life uses a username and password?
Nostr client apps need to offer a way to log in with conventional email/password with the npub/nsec abstracted away in the background. Of course, the keypair should be available for the user to grab in the settings whenever they want if/when their understanding matures and they want to move to another client app.
This might seem like blasphemy to us. I know most Nostr developers would probably flinch at the prospect of having a database of email addresses mapped to npubs, and perhaps even worse, at having a database of nsecs (lol). But it's necessary for us (as those looking to grow this network, aka #grownostr) to realize this is critical if Nostr will have any shot at taking advantage of growth waves and going mainstream. No amount of marketing or influencers or incentives will change this.
Those of us who've been in the Bitcoin world for a while know by now that the chances of getting a normie to take custody of their funds with seed words and an advanced wallet are slim-to-none. A graduated approach starting with something simpler is much more realistic.
Then why are we assuming these same people will use any app that requires the same kind of nerdy mindset for Nostr? It's not realistic. This is partly why PGP failed. We need easier options to start people off upfront, and then provide a gently path toward cypherpunk enlightenment and advancement.
They won't all make it, but at least more will try.
quotingThis is the third or fourth time we've seen a MASSIVE wave of attention hitting the social media censorship problem worldwide—enough to catalyze MILLIONS to delete a major legacy app and download a new one—yet Nostr has received practically zero new users from the exodus.
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I've been posting all over X trying to pull people to the freedom protocol, but it's become a waste of time when there's literally less than ten of us who are consistently sacrificing our time/energy trying to generate Nostr buzz on the legacy apps.
At what point do we direct serious resources away from building a million new Nostr apps everyday that nobody uses, and focus 1000% on marketing, so we can show the world the awesome shit we've been building here?
I don't have a strong handle on the inner workings taking place behind the scenes (especially when it comes to grant money and other funding mechanisms), so I'm asking honestly:
What are the main blockers we have right now that are preventing us from making a significant, organized marketing push aimed at bringing new users to Nostr? (Paying big creators to make videos about Nostr, reaching out to big podcasts to platform our best Nostr educators to a bigger audience, clients hiring commission-based outreach reps that pay based on bringing new users that sign up for Premium, etc.)
Is the problem 100% a lack of money within the ecosystem? I know there have been rumblings in the past about an OpenSats-type funding mechanism to help boost Educators and Content Creators, is that still in the works?
Is it a lack of strong business models among clients that would make new user acquisition a strong enough benefit to allocate resources toward hiring people to go out and hunt down new users to bring over?
Lack of purely marketing-focused entities that could act as a centralized hubs for organizing such campaigns?
If it is one of the above things, what steps do we need to make as a community to clear out the obstacles?
Or am I completely off base on all of this, being too impatient, or focusing on the wrong things when there are more important upstream problems that need to be fixed first?
I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, because this recent UpScrolled saga has been a disappointing signal that we are failing at positioning ourself as the perfect solution (WHICH WE ARE) to the problem millions are facing worldwide. #AskNostr
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