When explaining Nostr to a friend, we start with the public key and gradually rebuild Nostr step-by-step.

**Public Key**

Having a public/private key pair gives you a completely controllable ID, which represents you in the online world.

If you want to publish a public note, you can use your private key to digitally sign the note, proving to readers that it was indeed written by you.

**Relays**

Next, you'll consider how to spread your public notes to others. This requires setting up relay servers, either operated by yourself or others. Then, you send your public notes to multiple relays. This is akin to having a personal website on various relays. Your readers can see your personal webpage on the relay by knowing your public key.

**Follow**

However, asking others to actively open your personal website to see notes might be too demanding. Therefore, it's essential to consider adding a follow mechanism. The client continuously queries the relay to see if any new notes have been posted by the public keys you follow. This creates a continuously updating timeline. nostr:note12fgl8h8jmtjy7rnstm7zyzsl0mfej7663emksc4pygdsv75xqj2swtpuh9