Oddbean

Onboarding for new users is still the challenge. Users are used to logins and pw with another one of their accounts working as a backup. Also, understanding the benefits and how to convert over from platform to protocol theory, the average user online doesn’t understand. If somehow it was made to feel the same and convert their current user experience that might make them feel safe. But npub and nsec can be scary for those not already involved in the crypto space.

I 100% agree here and it's something that I've been saying for a year now. Onboarding generally sucks with Nostr applications. It's a complete afterthought for most applications that we have. It's slowly getting better though. I am still hopeful that the community as a whole can tackle this hurdle before the year's end.

As a new #Nostr user, I didn't realize until I'd gone through the signup process and "spinning up a node" and all of that, something like two weeks later — that using crypto is absolutely **not** required to use Nostr. I had no idea! As a #new user, I would have been far more comfortable onboarding, knowing I could leave the whole crypto thing to the side and use Nostr to stay in touch when there's no other way of staying in touch with family or what have you. I could have had time to do more research to see which setup I may have preferred otherwise. I like to research when I have time and evidently, there are several choices to choose from.