Nostr Resilient Marketplaces for a More Free World

Throughout human history, discussion surrounding freedom, authority, government centralization, and individuality has continued unabated. Today, these eternal topics have carried over into the contemporary fields of ecommerce and social media. In a landscape increasingly marked by authority abuse and centralization, new avenues to freedom are emerging.

This post explains the Nostr messaging protocol and the opportunities it gives to ecommerce. The goal is to show you how decentralized technology empowers individuals and is a beacon of hope for a freer future.

What is Nostr? Briefly

Let’s begin with a very brief explanation of Nostr. Nostr is a decentralized social network protocol. It works by relaying messages through multiple servers. You get a pair of keys, private and public, like in Bitcoin.

When you send out a message, it relays through multiple servers. If one server is to ban you, your message still sends through the others. This is in contradistinction to centralized platforms such as Facebook, where your content is at the mercy of the owners. Nostr is a decentralized protocol only and therefore not owned or operated by any entity.

Nostr comprises a user, a node relay, and the client software built on the Nostr protocol to send out messages. Therefore, Nostr is resilient networking, resilient chat, and for this post as we’ll soon see, a resilient marketplace.

How Nostr works:

1. You install Nostr protocol client software: Damus for iOS, or Primal for Android.

2. Then you get a key pair - this is your account.

3. Create a username using the client software.

4. Share your public key, keep your private key safe.

5. You send a message.

6. The message is relayed through multiple servers and sent out.

For more about Nostr and how it works, watch the following video from the Kevin Rooke podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXd0vLTw6NA.

What’s a Nostr NIP?

Nostr implementation possibilities, NIP for short, are implementations or improvements that can be added to the protocol. We’re here interest in NIP15, Nostr Marketplace, but let’s look at some eye-catching ones to paint a picture of what NIPs are and what they can do.

• NIP5 Mapping Nostr Keys to DNS-based Internet Identifiers - makes sure that the labels or identifiers you use on the internet are correct and can be trusted.

• NIP 36 Sensitive Content - a content warning tag giving the receiving user a heads-up.

• NIP 40 Expiration Timestamp - the option to add an expiry date to a message.

• NIP 50 Search Capability - searching content by tags or id.

• NIP 57 Lightning Zaps - send and receive lightning payments which can you can use for gaming payments and rewards. This implementation can also be used as spam deterrent by charging a small amount of sats for messages sent.

• NIP 15 - Marketplaces - subscribe to a merchant and enjoy the features of an e-commerce marketplace. Let’s continue with this one below.

For the other Nostr implementations, check out the GitHub page:

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

How marketplaces work using Nostr

NIP 15 - Marketplaces allows for e-commerce with Nostr. It adds text fields, including price, merchant id, product id, image, and a product description. All the elements needed to run an ecommerce product detail page.

Any Nostr NIP 15 compatible software client can read this data and relay and display these product posts if they choose to do so. The client subscribes to a merchant stall. They then receive the product list and the brand’s products become searchable.

The marketplace works like any other e-commerce site, using a basket and checkout. Clients can use traditional payment options, or they can pay using Bitcoin over the Lightning Network.

Additional features may include a customer support area to communicate directly with merchants through Nostr NIP04 - Direct Messaging. Other features to consider are search capabilities or identifier NIPs, to name a few.

For more on Nostr Marketplaces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKi-v2otKck

Why Nostr for a marketplace instead of traditional sites?

Using Nostr for a marketplace offers many advantages over traditional platforms. One notable feature is the ability to set up anonymous market stalls that owners can integrate into their websites. Optional anonymity is a core liberating principles of decentralization. Like with Bitcoin, they give users an alternative against 3rd party interventions, takedowns, or sanctions.

By evading third-party restrictions, censorship, and meddling Nostr enables the creation of resilient marketplaces, ensuring unimpeded trade. Additionally, leveraging the power of Bitcoin through the Lightning Network allows cheap, rapid transactions. This means that Nostr facilitates worldwide unhampered commerce, where anyone with internet access can participate in a global marketplace.

Another area where Nostr opens possibilities is in social selling. Social selling is when you or a brand connect with customers and leads in order to build relationships by using social networks. This serves as a valuable tool for accomplishing your sales objectives. Nostr allows for the creation of a secure environment where your e-commerce can thrive. And further implementations open the door to an improved experience for businesses and clients.

Freedom is Nostr

Power needs checks, balances, and alternatives outside itself. If left unchecked, if it eliminates all other options, then the world becomes a frozen nightmare. The ones in power will inherently look to get rid of anything challenging them, hence why decentralized tech is often labeled as a threat. Yet while it may threaten a hold on power, for everyone else, for the individual, freedom tech like Nostr is a liberating opportunity.

Throughout history, we have witnessed how tyrants silence opposition, how their truth becomes the only truth. But truth, like a romanticized superhero, must brace all challenges attacking it to prove itself. Without villains, there would be no show. Here, let the villain be falsity, or misinformation, and truth will stand up to it, unless the villain has mistaken themselves for the hero and falsity for truth.

Nostr, like Bitcoin for money, has created a playing field where nobody will have the power to censor. And implementations such as the Nostr Marketplaces won’t allow anyone to deprive another of earning an income. Let’s not forget that the people living under a despotic regime should not suffer the sanctions imposed on their tyrant.

Freedom is individualistic and not “groupthink”. Every person makes choices for themselves and bears their consequences. Decentralized freedom tech returns power to individuals, pulling it away from the anti-individualistic groupings used by despots. Freedom for the group starts with freedom for the individual and it works its way up. Therefore, Nostr with Bitcoin is freedom for business and people in every corner of the world.

Thanks for reading and for more on Nostr, you can read my other article on BOLT.FUN: [Nostr the Sovereignty Protocol](Nostr the Sovereignty Protocol).

For a good beginner tutorial, check out the BTC Sessions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn-Zp491t4Y