Nostr Biweekly Review ( 3-16 Mar 2025)
GM, Nostriches!
The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter focused on Nostr statistics, protocol updates, exciting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and key events happening in the Nostr-verse. If you’re interested, join me in covering updates from the Nostr ecosystem!
Quick review:
In the past two weeks, Nostr statistics indicate over 225,000 daily trusted pubkey events. The number of new users has seen a notable decrease, with profiles containing a contact list dropping by 95%. More than 10 million events have been published, with posts and reposts showing a decrease. Total Zap activity stands at approximately 15 million, marking a 10% decrease.
Additionally, 26 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol, with 6 merged. A total of 45 Nostr projects were tracked, with 8 releasing product updates, and over 463 long-form articles were published, 29% focusing on Bitcoin and Nostr. During this period, 2 notable events took place, and 3 significant events are upcoming.
Nostr Statistics
Based on user activity, the total daily trusted pubkeys writing events is about 225,000, representing a slight 8 % decrease compared to the previous period. Daily activity peaked at 18179 events, with a low of approximately 16093.
The number of new users has decreased significantly. Profiles with a contact list are now around 17,511, reflecting a 95% drop. Profiles with a bio have decreased by 62% compared to the previous period. The only category showing growth is pubkeys writing events, which have increased by 27%.
Regarding event publishing, all metrics have shown a decline. The total number of note events published is around 10 million, reflecting a 14% decrease. Posts remain the most dominant in terms of volume, totaling approximately 1.6 million, which is a 6.1% decrease. Both reposts and reactions have decreased by about 10%.
For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 15 million, showing an increase of over 10% compared to the previous period.
Data source: https://stats.nostr.band/
NIPs
Vitor Pamplona (npub1gcx…nj5z) is proposing that A bulletin board is a relay-centric system of forums where users can post and reply to others, typically around a specific community. The relay operator controls and moderates who can post and view content. A board is defined by kind:30890. Its naddr representation must provide the community’s home relays, from which all posts should be gathered. No other relays should be used.
doc (npub1xy5…3urc) is proposing a standardized way to represent fitness and workout data in Nostr, including: Exercise Templates (kind: 33401) for storing reusable exercise definitions, Workout Templates (kind: 33402) for defining workout plans, Workout Records (kind: 1301) for recording completed workouts. The format provides structured data for fitness tracking while following Nostr conventions for data representation.Many fitness applications use proprietary formats, locking user data into specific platforms. This NIP enables decentralized fitness tracking, allowing users to control their workout data and history while facilitating social sharing and integration between fitness applications.
Roland (npub1zk6…l6ef) is proposing a PR introduces two “1-click” connection flows for setting up initial NWC connections. Rather than having to copy-paste a connection string, the user is presented with an authorization page which they can approve or decline. The secret is generated locally and never leaves the client. HTTP flow - for publicly accessible lightning wallets. Implemented in Alby Hub (my.albyhub.com) and CoinOS (coinos.io). Nostr flow - for mobile-based / self-hosted lightning wallets, very similar to NWA but without a new event type added. Implemented in Alby Go and Alby Hub. Benefits over NWC Deep Links are that it works cross-device, mobile to web, and the client-generated secret never leaves the client. Both flows are also implemented in Alby JS SDK and Bitcoin Connect.
add B0 NIP for Blossom interaction
fiatjaf (npub180c…h6w6) describes a tiny subset of possible Blossom capabilities, but arguably the most important from the point of view of a most basic Nostr client. This NIP specifies how Nostr clients can use Blossom for handling media. Blossom is a set of standards (called BUDs) for dealing with servers that store files addressable by their SHA-256 sums. Nostr clients may make use of all the BUDs for allowing users to upload files, manage their own files and so on, but most importantly Nostr clients SHOULD make use of BUD-03 to fetch kind:10063 lists of servers for each user.
nielliesmons (npub149p…722q) defines a standard for creating, managing and publishing to communities by leveraging existing key pairs and relays, introducing the concept of “Communi-keys”. This approach allows any existing npub to become a community (identity + manager) while maintaining compatibility with existing relay infrastructure.
A way for relays to be honest about their algos
securitybrahh is proposing a PR introduces NIP-41, a way for relays to be honest about their algos, edits 01.md to account for changes in limit (related #78, #1434, received_at?, #620, #1645) when algo is provided, appends 11.md for relays to advertize whether they are an aggregator or not and their provided algos. solves #522, supersedes #579.
nip31: template-based “alt” tags for known kinds
fiatjaf (npub180c…h6w6) is proposing that clients hardcoding alt tags are not very trustworthy. alt tags tend to be garbage in a long-enough timeframe.This fixes it with hardcoded rich templates that anyone can implement very easily without having to do it manually for each kind. alt tags can still be used as a fallback.
Vitor Pamplona (npub1gcx…nj5z) is proposing a PR addresses 3 main problems of NIP-44v2. First, It has a message size limit of 65Kb, which is unnecessarily small. Second, It forces the encrypting key to be the same as the event’s signing key. Which forces multi-sig actors to share their main private key in order to encrypt the payload that would be later signed by the group. Decoupling singing and encryption keys, for both source and destination, is one of the goals of this version. And It offers no way to describe what’s inside the encrypted blob before requesting the user’s approval to decrypt and send the decrypted info back to the requesting application. This PR adds an alt description to allow decrypting signers to display a message and warn the user of what type of information the requesting application is receiving.
Notable Projects
- Notes in progress will always be persisted and saved automatically. Never lose those banger notes when you aren’t quite ready to ship them.
- Make your profile look just right without any fuss. It also optimizes them on upload now to not nuke other people’s phone data bills.
- You won’t see the same note more than once in your home feed.
- Fixed note loading when clicking notifications and damus.io links.
- Fixed NWC not working when you first connect a wallet.
- Fixed overly sensitive and mildly infuriating touch gestures in the thread view when scrolling
Primal for Android build 2.1.9 has been released.
- Multi-account support
- Deep linking support
- “Share via Primal” support
- Bug fixes and improvements
Yakihonne YakiHonne (npub1yzv…rf8q)
YakiHonne Wallet just got a fresh new look!
0xchat v1.4.7-beta release
- Upgraded the Flutter framework to v3.29.0.
- Private chat implementation changed to NIP-104 Nostr MLS.
- NIP-17 and NIP-29 messages now support q tags.
- You can swipe left to reply to your own messages.
- Chat messages now support code block display.
- Copy images from the clipboard.
- Fixed an issue where underlined text in chat appeared as italic.
GOSSIP 0.14.0 Gossip Client (npub189j…3tg8)
Several major bugs have been fixed in the last week.
- New Features and Improvements
- Zappers and amounts are now shown (click on the zap total)
- Reactions and who reacted are now shown (click on the reaction numbers)
- Multiple search UI/UX improvements
- Undo Send works for DMs too
- Undo Send now restores the draft
- UI: Side panel contains less so it can be thinner. Bottom bar added.
- UI: frame count and spinner (optional)
- Relay UI: sorting by score puts important relays at the top.
- Relay UI: add more filters so all the bits are covered
- Image and video loading is much faster (significant lag reduction)
- Thread loading fix makes threads load far more reliably
- Settings have reset-to-default buttons, so you don’t get too lost.
- Setting ‘limit inbox seeking to inbox relays’ may help avoid spam at the expense of possibly
- Fix some bugs
- And more updates
Nostur v1.18.1 Nostur (npub1n0s…k6h0)
New in this version:
- Floating mini video player
- Videos: Save to library, Copy video URL, Add bookmark
- Improved video stream / chat view
- Top zaps on live chat
- Posting to Picture-first
- Profile view: Show interactions with you (conversations, reactions, zaps, reposts)
- Profile view: Show actual reactions instead of only Likes
- Improved search + Bookmark search
- Detect nsfw / content-warning in posts
- Show more to show reactions outside Web of Trust
- Show more to show zaps outside Web of Trust
- Support .avif image format
- Support .mp3 format
- Support .m4v video format
- Improved zap verification for changed wallets
- Improved outbox support
- Show label on restricted posts
- Low data mode: load media in app on tap instead of external browser
- Many other bug fixes and performance improvements
Latest two releases of Alby Go, 1.10 and 1.11, brought you lots of goodies:
- BTC Map integration for quick access to global bitcoin merchants map
- Confirm new NWC connections to your Alby Hub directly in Alby Go! No more copy-pasting or QR code scanning
- Support for MoneyBadger Pay Pick n Pay QR payments in over 2000 stores in South Africa
ZEUS v0.10.0 ZEUS (npub1xnf…lpr5)
ZEUS v0.10.0 is now available. This release features the ability to renew channel leases, spin up multiple embedded wallets, Nostr Wallet Connect client support, and more.
- Renewable channels
- NWC client support
- Ability to create multiple Embedded LND ‘node in the phone’ wallets
- Ability to delete Embedded LND wallets
- Embedded LND: v0.18.5-beta
- New share button (share ZEUS QR images)
- Tools: Export Activity CSVs, Developer tools, chantools
- Activity: filter by max amount, memo, and note
Long-Form Content Eco
In the past two weeks, more than 463 long-form articles have been published, including over 91 articles on Bitcoin and more than 41 related to Nostr, accounting for 29% of the total content.
These articles about Nostr mainly explore the rise of Nostr as a decentralized platform that is reshaping the future of the internet. They emphasize Nostr’s role in providing users with greater freedom, ownership, and fair monetization, particularly in the realm of content creation. The platform is positioned as a counter to centralized social media networks, offering uncensored interactions, enhanced privacy, and direct transactions. Many articles delve into Nostr’s potential to integrate with Bitcoin, creating a Layer 3 solution that promises to end the dominance of old internet structures. Discussions also cover the technical aspects of Nostr, such as the implementation of relays and group functionalities, as well as security concerns like account hacks. Furthermore, there is an exploration of the philosophical and anthropological dimensions of Nostr, with the rise of “Dark Nostr” being portrayed as a deeper expression of decentralized freedom.
The Bitcoin articles discuss the ongoing evolution of Bitcoin and its increasing integration into global financial systems. Many articles focus on the growing adoption of Bitcoin, particularly in areas like Argentina and the U.S., where Bitcoin is being used for rental payments and the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin is also portrayed as a response to the centralized financial system, with discussions about how it can empower individuals through financial sovereignty, provide a hedge against inflation, and create fairer monetization models for creators. Additionally, the articles explore the challenges and opportunities within the Bitcoin ecosystem, including the rise of Bitcoin ETFs, the development of Bitcoin mining, and the potential impact of AI on Bitcoin adoption. There is also emphasis on Bitcoin’s cultural and economic implications, as well as the need for decentralized education and innovation to drive further adoption.
Thank you, keithmeola (npub1ygz…a2m5) Nostr Reviews (npub1rsv…4dke) Leitura Aleatória 2.0 (npub17wr…a78k) FiberDevs (npub1fxq…tahv) ODELL (npub1qny…95gx) bitcoinwell (npub19mf…kfu2) Marc26z (npub1mar…f3g0) NostrOutreach (npub1uv0…6gwl) keithmeola (npub1ygz…a2m5) Egge (npub1mhc…c226) cadayton (npub1xzu…taqn) metdavid (npub1gqg…9awr) Lina Engword (npub16ds…653f) and others, for your work. Enriching Nostr’s long-form content ecosystem is crucial.
Nostriches Global Meet Ups
Recently, several Nostr events have been hosted in different countries.
- The first Bitcoin Meetup organized by Mi Primer Bitcoin was successfully held on March 14, 2025, at Texijal Pizza in Apaneca. The event included Bitcoin education, networking, a Q&A session, and merchandise distribution, offering an exciting experience for all participants.
- The Btrust Space discussion was successfully held on March 13, 2024. The event focused on how to support Bitcoin developers, fund open-source contributions, and grow the Bitcoin ecosystem. The speakers included Bitcoin core contributors, Btrust CEO, engineering leads, and other project leaders.
Here is the upcoming Nostr event that you might want to check out.
- The Nostr Workshop, organized by YakiHonne and Bitcoin Safari, will take place online via Google Meet on March 17, 2025, at 7:00 PM (GMT+1). The event will introduce the Nostr ecosystem and Bitcoin payments, with participants learning about decentralized technology through YakiHonne and earning rewards. Register and verify your account to claim exclusive rewards, and invite friends to unlock additional rewards.
- The 2025 Bitcoin, Crypto Economy, and Law FAQ Webinar will be held online on March 20, 2025 (Thursday) from 12:00 to 13:00 Argentina time. The webinar will be hosted by Martin Paolantonio (Academic Director of the course) and Daniel Rybnik (Lawyer specializing in Banking, Corporate, and Financial Law). The session aims to introduce the academic program and explore Bitcoin, the crypto economy, and related legal issues.
- Bitcoin Educators Unconference 2025 will take place on April 10, 2025, at Bitcoin Park in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. This event is non-sponsored and follows an Unconference format, allowing all participants to apply as speakers and share their Bitcoin education experiences in a free and interactive environment. The event has open-sourced all its blueprints and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to encourage global communities to organize similar Unconference events.
Additionally, We warmly invite event organizers who have held recent activities to reach out to us so we can work together to promote the prosperity and development of the Nostr ecosystem.
Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.