The emerging Decentralization social protocol Nostr and its application Damus have sparked follow.

On February 1, 2023, a social product called Damus, based on the Decentralization social media protocol Nostr, was launched on the Apple App Store, sparking widespread attention and discussion within the crypto community. Many community members have been sharing their Nostr public keys across various platforms. Some even believe that Nostr has the potential to become a disruptive social media platform.

Nostr is a minimalist Decentralization protocol designed to create a global anti-censorship social network. Its full name "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays" means "notes and other content transmitted by relays". Users can connect to relays and broadcast messages using a private key signature, and anyone can send messages to specific users via their public keys.

By using asymmetric encryption technology, users can also encrypt messages with the target user's public key for private communication. This mechanism is similar to Bitcoin transactions, both using asymmetric encryption to ensure that only the legitimate recipient can "decrypt" the information. The core concept of Nostr clearly draws from the Bitcoin model, with both designs being very similar.

Damus is a social application based on the Nostr protocol, currently supporting iOS and Android platforms. Users only need to enter a username to create an account, without providing personal information. The system will generate a public key ( starting with npub ) as the user ID, and a private key ( starting with nsec ) for account control. It is important for users to be careful not to disclose their private key when sharing.

Damus has a simple interface with a layout similar to Twitter, including sections for the home page, direct messages, search/square, and message notifications. Users can post, comment, like, retweet, and share. Direct messages use end-to-end encryption and are distributed through decentralized relays. Currently, the search function only supports username and public key searches. Damus also supports Bitcoin Lightning Network tipping.

As an emerging product, Damus still has some issues, such as unstable functions and slow loading times. However, considering it has just been launched, it is expected to be further optimized and improved in the future.

Compared to the similar decentralized social protocol Lens, Nostr chooses to build its infrastructure based on Bitcoin, while Lens is based on Ethereum. Lens tokenizes user data on-chain, whereas Nostr has not yet implemented this feature. In terms of access thresholds, Nostr is completely open, while Lens has set certain barriers.

Although Nostr is still in its infancy, it shows promising development prospects as an open, censorship-resistant, permissionless communication protocol. With Damus being listed on mainstream app stores, the Nostr protocol is expected to attract more users. If user experience can be further optimized and the barriers to entry lowered in the future, the Nostr ecosystem may see larger-scale adoption.