Nostr 4 Social Apps
Any app that allows users to interact is a social app. Traditionally, social apps are all but required to carry the cost of managing “their own” users’ accounts and data. While some may recoup these losses by selling access to user data, it is the custody of user data itself that drives the cost of developing social apps. Nostr breaks this model with a protocol for user controlled keys and signed content, preserving app independence and access to users without controlling their accounts or data.
Non-Custodial
Nostr is the only protocol allowing social apps to interact freely with user accounts and data. Ownership not required.
User Controlled
Identity on Nostr resides in user managed keys. Verification and privacy travel with signed content. Black boxes not required.
Decentralized
The Nostr network is comprised entirely of independent and interoperable apps and services. Central authority is not required.
Open Protocol
Interoperability itself, the Nostr protocol, is defined exclusively by implementing apps and services. Only NIP-01 is required.
The Cost of Custody
Custodial social apps have to manage their own users in order to serve them. App companies must hold the accounts and the personal data themselves, or rent access from big social. They build their own social graph, pay for their own compute and storage, carry all of the compliance risk, moderate all of the content, and are forced to split profits with payment gateways. Custody is not a value-led decision. It has always been — the only option.
The Value of Nostr
Nostr is the social layer that nobody owns. An app that integrates can release control of its users without ever losing access. Existing users migrate to self-custody, and new ones arrive already carrying their identity, their content, and their reputation across apps. Storage and discovery services are external to apps, and can be chosen by users. Encryption is handled by user controlled keys. Moderation moves to user-controlled algorithms. Payments are peer-to-peer, without gateways. Compliance shrinks to only the user data an app chooses to retain privately. Otherwise, the build out for any Nostr app can be as simple as — the best user experience in the business. The network handles the rest.
Release Custody
Apps that hold accounts and personal data are the primary target of privacy and identity-verification laws. A small tech company carries the same obligations as a big tech platform, without the legal budget. Until Nostr, not holding user data hasn’t even been an option.
Apps integrating with Nostr can release custody of user accounts and content without losing access to either. Regulatory exposure falls, and so does the cost of securing what you no longer store.
Reach Any User
An app with a private social layer has to build out its own social tech stack. Then it has to find every user, one at a time, starting from zero. Big social sells a shortcut through API access. Those APIs have closed before, and thousands of apps can break in a day.
Nostr is the shared social layer that cannot be shut down. Every user on the network is reachable by any app, on day one. Nobody owns the protocol, and nobody can turn it off or remove access to it.
Reduce Bloat
Maintaining one’s own private social layer takes servers, databases, load balancers, and on call tech support. Every one of these costs exists to hold user data safely and serve it quickly. None of these costs add value on their own or differentiate one app from any other.
Relays are the backend for Nostr. Each one is independently operated and independently paid for. Your app writes events to the network instead of warehousing them.
Distribute Risk
Custodial apps that manage their own user data and interactions on “in-house” storage present a single high value surface for bugs to creep in and for hackers to exploit. In 2021, a breach of Facebook exposed the personal information of 533 million users. Apps are legally responsible for protecting user data that they “own” and control.
The Nostr relay network allows apps to offload storage onto any number of independently operated services that each user may choose. Content that is signed, and possibly encrypted, with user controlled keys, can be stored anywhere without the need for apps to gate-keep or to protect.
Offload Moderation
Moderating user content is expensive, thankless, and impossible to get right at scale. Custodial tech companies are shouldered with the entire cost and expectation of delivering quality content as well as the legal burden of providing a “harmless” experience for their users.
Non-custodial content curation is only possible when users have choice over recommendation and discovery services. Nostr apps that adopt a Web-of-Trust standard can provide their own default algos and compute or allow users to BYO. Burden lifted.
Monetize Freely
Moving money inside an app means a payment processor. Processors take 15 to 30 percent. The app stores require their own billing or charge more for going outside it. Building payments yourself can make you a money transmitter.
Nostr supports peer-to-peer digital payments as a native part of the protocol. Users pay you and each other directly, choosing their own on-ramp to digital currency while keeping payment processors and platform restrictions out of “in-app-payments”.
We are Nostr Integration Experts.
We offer concierge services for companies at any stage, from sizing up the protocol to building and shipping on it.
Consultation
We advise on Nostr integration for existing products.
Research
We offer free research groups for existing Nostr apps and services, supporting them to be even more non-custodial.
Development
We offer hands on help integrating Nostr with existing products.