A Nostr stand submission for FOSDEM 2025

Project Name

Nostr

Project Description

Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an open, censorship-resistant, and decentralized communication protocol designed for simplicity and resilience. Unlike traditional platforms, Nostr doesn’t rely on centralized servers. It already supports various use cases with free, open-source clients—offering alternatives to platforms like Twitter/X, Meetup.com, Excel 365, healthcare system and more. We will help you get started with Nostr.

Nostr has seen remarkable adoption and growth within the open-source community, evidenced by over 12,500 GitHub stars, 500+ forks, and contributions from more than 350 developers. The protocol has catalyzed the creation of an impressive ecosystem of over 390 projects, including mobile and web clients, relays, tools, and services that further enhance Nostr’s functionality. With over 70 tools and 48 libraries, developers can integrate Nostr into a wide array of applications—ranging from chat platforms to file storage and even decentralized marketplaces. These resources help to build decentralized, censorship-resistant systems without the need for centralized servers. Whether you’re working on peer-to-peer markets, privacy-focused messaging apps, or decentralized social media, Nostr’s ecosystem offers the tools.

Project website

https://github.com/nostr-protocol

Source code

https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips

Project Theme

World Wide Web

Do you want a stand for the entire event or just for one day?

Entire event

Why do you want to be at FOSDEM?

We want to be at FOSDEM because it’s the perfect place to connect with like-minded developers and open-source enthusiasts who share our passion for decentralization, innovation, and building open permissionless technologies. FOSDEM fosters collaboration and the growth of community-driven projects and Nostr is a natural fit as a real grassroots project with its open protocol and commitment to build communication technology with resilience and simplicity in mind.
By being at FOSDEM, we aim to raise awareness, share knowledge and inspire others to explore the potential of decentralized communication systems. We also want to engage with the FOSS community and gain feedback to help Nostr grow. If people are really interested in how they can use Nostr we will show the possibilities, demo existing clients and provide in-depth explanations of how the protocol can replace the social layer (with user accounts in living a database) in existing software.

What is the relation between the project and the primary contact?

Jurjen works with the community to promote its development, onboard new developers, and contribute to its open-source ecosystem. My role includes helping to raise awareness of Nostr’s potential, organizing events, and supporting adoption by providing educational resources and technical guidance.

What is the relation between the project and the secondary contact?

Sebastian (37) is an independent creative / fullstack web developer who is the maintainer of a PHP helper library supported by OpenSats. Besides this project he is also making contributions with developing Nostr modules for Drupal.
“Since I’ve been online on the internet (1998), I’m highly interested in online communities, social networking and new ways of digital interactions. The internet has changed radically in the last decade and that change is not serving our interests. It’s fair to say the web is broken in many ways. With Nostr we can fix this.”

npub1l77twp5l02jadkcjn6eeulv2j7y5vmf9tf3hhtq7h7rp0vzhgpzqz0swft (Jurjen)
npub1qe3e5wrvnsgpggtkytxteaqfprz0rgxr8c3l34kk3a9t7e2l3acslezefe (Sebastian)
npub1hz5alqscpp8yjrvgsdp2n4ygkl8slvstrgvmjca7e45w6644ew7sewtysa (Tanja)
npub1nkmta4dmsa7pj25762qxa6yqxvrhzn7ug0gz5frp9g7p3jdscnhsu049fn (Kevin)

Anything else you like to add?

We’d also like to highlight that Nostr was created by Fiatjaf, an anonymous founder, which aligns with its principles of openness and decentralization. As an open protocol, Nostr is designed to evolve and find its own way, just like the foundational protocols of the internet. Importantly, Nostr is not a blockchain project—there are no tokens, no costs, and no barriers. It’s also not a platform nor a NFT. It’s purely decentralized, built for resilience and simplicity. While payment solutions like Bitcoin can be integrated, they are optional, not intrinsic to the protocol. This makes Nostr accessible and flexible, truly embodying the spirit of the open internet.

Nostr is more than just a technological protocol; it’s about the energy, problem-solving, and sense of hope that draws people in. Even newcomers can play a significant role in the ecosystem, gaining insight from the outside while discovering the protocol’s potential. Tanja, for example, isn’t from a tech background, yet after just three months, she’s taken on a major organizational role. She’s been spreading the message of freedom of speech and is leading the Nostr Booth LATAM tour, where volunteers, entrepreneurs, and Nostr-based businesses come together, supported by the entire community, to raise awareness about Nostr. Her passion for decentralization and open collaboration also drives her efforts to bring Nostr to FOSDEM, where she will help connect the project with like-minded developers and open-source advocates.

Please reach out to us if there are any questions. We’re really looking forward to presenting Nostr as a protocol at one of the best places where free and open-source software is flourishing.

This content will be used for a FOSDEM stand submission via https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2025-call-for-stands/