Nostr Protocol

Nostr has no central server, company, or foundation running it: it is a lightweight set of rules that any relay or client can implement, similar in spirit to email or HTTP. A user's identity on the network is a cryptographic key pair rather than a username tied to a platform, so an account cannot be deleted, banned, or reassigned by anyone except the person holding the matching private key.

Every piece of content, a post, a profile update, a reaction, a direct message, is packaged as a small JSON "event" and digitally signed before being published. Relays are simple, interchangeable servers that store events and forward them to clients that request them; because each event carries a verifiable signature, a relay cannot alter or fabricate someone else's post without breaking it. Users typically publish to several relays at once, so if one goes offline, gets shut down, or starts refusing certain content, the same notes remain reachable elsewhere, a property widely referred to as censorship resistance.

Optional features are added through community-drafted specifications called NIPs (Nostr Implementation Possibilities). These cover things like human-readable usernames, encrypted direct messages, relay discovery, and "zaps", small Bitcoin payments sent instantly over the Lightning Network as tips on a note. Zaps helped drive early adoption of clients such as Damus, Primal, and Amethyst.

Because publishing requires no permission or gatekeeper, spam and impersonation are persistent challenges; most clients manage this by showing users only accounts they actively follow, or by favoring relays that apply their own moderation rules.