Zap Mentions / some thoughts on broadcasting zaps...
Today on nostr zaps don't provide a great discovery signal because they are fundamentally reactions which you only see if the event being zapped is in already your feed.
If you don't see the content, you won't see the zap reaction, and therefore you won't get the payment signal that indicates the content is valuable.
Zaps also can't trend on nostr because they can't be liked / reposted / zapped / quoted / replied to.
As a user there is no way for me to broadcast a zap in the same way I would broadcast a kind 1 note. I can share my thoughts on something - but there's no way for me to increase the signal of those words by including a zap alongside them. Examples where you might want to do this include:
- donating to a good cause
- sharing a long form article
- supporting a content creator
- thanking a supporter for a zap
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Potential Solution - Zap Mentions
I think there is a solution to this that doesn't require a new nip or change to the spec. Zap events could just be embedded in kind 1 notes using the standard NIP-27 nevent1 format.
Clients could give users the option to 'broadcast' their zap within a kind 1 note in certain cases and other clients could render some additional UI to display the zap.
Below is an example zap I just sent to @jb55 - you will probably be reading this just as nevent1... but it would be trivial for clients to parse this and render the zap in whatever way they choose:
nostr:nevent1qvzqqqpxquqzptjz5ej5jncfssa0n2hjvr8e4jz5tlpequraz2442jekee5243qnr65tnu
Ultimately we don't want users of nostr clients to be forced into a choice between sharing content or zapping it - we want them to be able to do both in one frictionless action and this will generate the most signal and make nostr the most attractive place for content creators.
I would love to hear thoughts on this from client developers / designers - @fiatjaf @jb55 @miljan @hodlbod @PABLOF7z @JeffG @Karnage @nielliesmons @Gigi
And if someone wants to try rendering this note in the way I've described please tag me!