It's Just a Note Bro
What I always liked about twitter was that it was never one place. You had all these sub-communities, yes, but the open nature of it allowed for wild interactions and the breaking of bubbles.
It was public square, dive bar, office water cooler, nightclub, and philosophy department all rolled into one. And you never knew who you were dealing with, and when those various “places” would interact.
My approach to twitter was always to never take things too seriously, and that’s my approach for #nostr still. There is wisdom to “it’s just a tweet bro” and I still believe that the secret to life is to send it, whether it be note, tweet, or in general.
Because you never know who you’re dealing with, a great strategy is to assume that the other person is fourteen, or drunk, or really high, or senile, or all of the above. You wouldn’t be mad if a stoned 14yr old would say something stupid to your face, so why be mad online?
I hope that we can rebuild what twitter used to be and what it was supposed to be, and transcend it. I believe that we’re halfway there already. Given enough time and attention, I’m confident that we’ll manage to build what so many on #nostr dream and hope for.
Zaps are already transcendent in that sense. As are cryptographic identities. Putting the user in control (as opposed to platforms) will be key to all of it, and I’m beyond excited to what is coming down the line with DVMs and even more exotic things.
The responsibility is on us to build it right, and to educate users as well as encourage them to take matters in their own hands. Nothing in life is free, not even freedom. We’ll have to fight for it, and we’ll have to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions.
Much needs to be built, much education needs to be done, much rektucation still needs to happen. But I remain optimistic, because the building blocks are there. Bitcoin works. Lightning works. Nostr works. Not perfectly, but it works.
I can’t wait to see where we’ll be in 5 years from now. It’s wild to see where we are already. This is happening, and it’s all happening because of you guys: focusing on the good that freedom tech can bring, pouring your time, money, effort, and attention into it.
I’m very grateful for that and to be part of it all. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the future is bright, we just have a lot of building to do.
The above is a copy/paste of this thread:
Re-posting it here as long-form because threads on nostr still kinda suck, unfortunately.
If you want to help fund and/or build the future I’m alluding to, check out OpenSats (npub10pe…n34f) & Sovereign Engineering (npub1s0v…rmq5)