alp on Nostr: Oh, a few wannabe Nostr thinkers are starting to worry more again about why we are ...

Oh, a few wannabe Nostr thinkers are starting to worry more again about why we are not getting any of that exodus from the big social media platforms. And they think it is because of some hexadecimal IDs or other stuff that does not look exactly like those familiar big platforms. And solutions are being thrown around that all point toward centralization. So for these people, Nostr should basically be represented by just one client. And be as easy to use as the big platforms.

I think they have not understood Nostr at all and they cave in too easily and actually turn back to centralized structures, even if they are supposed to be simulated on a decentralized protocol. We like to talk about a free markets here, but we want the quickest possible consolidation around a quasi platform, a quasi client for all. End the Nostr client development, let us finally do some marketing, they say.

Nothing will come of that. Sacrificing Nostr's strengths just to go back to old centralized structures.

By the way, we already have two examples in internet history, actually three, that show us when a platform built momentum:

1. One chose the private, college approach (Meta)
2. Another drew attention with content that had never been seen on the internet before (Weblogs)
3. And the other introduced citizen journalism and reported for the first time on things that were real but not yet in any newspaper (Twitter). Even if that trend is reversing now.

It was always just about content. Content is king. Still is. None of them had to do excessive marketing, the users came on their own. What are Nostr's unique contents? We haven't created anything unique here that would attract anyone (I include myself in that), except complaining, self praise, and a general relieved "phew, finally free to post what I want". We are still too conditioned by the big platforms and just don't want to be censored with our mostly toxic content. But what is new and productive with us?

Our developers are the most. Except they are still a bit too detached from the mainstream. But the potential is there. AI shows good approaches, Bitchat shows a big niche market. But our real strength has not become visible yet: crisis resilience.

Because we don't have the big crisis yet where Nostr would really flourish. If all fiat ways were closed and no influencer could earn anything anymore, if all big platforms were ruined by over-moderation from algorithms, if all creativity and expression were suppressed, then Nostr would really bloom. We are already on the way, but not quite there yet. But when we get there, when Nostr becomes the only refuge island, we better should have built suitable decentralized structures that affect local life. Then we will not need marketing either, then the masses would come on their own.

We need to keep evolving toward a more human network. Real communities form through free exchange of goods and services for hard money. Not through "hodlers" who stubbornly cling to their coins and wait for the right moment to trade them back for fiat and buy a yacht.

Check out how many Africans and Asians are doing it. They are already benefiting from Bitcoin, from its features of unrestricted commerce free from institutional players. Western hodlers, who treat it like a long term investment and then maybe die or lose access to their coins (oops) before they could do anything with them, don't create such markets and communities.