Three years ago, I built an Umbrel node.
Last summer, I built a node from scratch.
Today, I finished my nostr:npub126ntw5mnermmj0znhjhgdk8lh2af72sm8qfzq48umdlnhaj9kuns3le9ll node.

I don't like recommending technology to people without fully having used it myself. I often tell people to use Start9 even though I only never "used" it in any production sort of manner. I only installed the OS, poked around the settings and marketplace a bit, then stopped using it.

That changes today. I will be migrating my Umbrel node over to my Start9 node as soon as Bitcoin finishes syncing.


Send nsecs to Google servers? Hell nah. They scan every single byte in those emails before it reaches your inbox IIRC


Pubkeys publishing adult content have previously been unfairly punished by being filtered away because they've been reported by someone else.


This guy reported me because I refused to promote his scam to all of you. He has done the same to approx 21 other users. Amethyst uses these reports as a signal to shadowban users without any further verification. 🤦♂

Download #Onyx

https://picsur.thesamecat.io/i/c077be0c-4496-4632-9da1-b012b263150a.jpg

https://picsur.thesamecat.io/i/b4dfd208-0e26-4c0b-837a-b5979e573b2c.jpg


Started a listr for the Amethyst Shadowban Realm lol

https://void.cat/d/TrjMd8YEHhHjDGgn2DXRwt.webp

https://listr.lol/a/naddr1qqvyzmt9w358jum5ypfksctydamkyctwypfx2ctvd5pzp89qh469qapddgsrr8qw84xx08y7q34fm3cw3m64c2g9ufq9ydqtqvzqqqr4xq6k457s

let me know if you find people who are autoblocked so I can add :)

#plebchain #vibecheckstr #amethyst #shadowban


You just don't like nut jokes, admit it already.


What is NIP-05 really?

If you look at [the spec](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/05.md), it's a way to map Nostr public keys to DNS-based internet identifiers, such as `name@example.com`.

If you look at Nostr Plebs:
> It's a human readable identifier for your public key. It makes finding your profile on Nostr easier. It makes identifying your account easier.

If you look at basically any client, you see a checkmark, which you assume means verification.

If you ask someone, they probably will call it verification.

## How did we get here?

Initially, there was only one client, which was (kind of) the reference implementation: Branle.

When it added support for NIP-05 identifiers, it used to replace the display name with the NIP-05 identifier, and it had to distinguish a NIP-05 from someone setting their *display name* to a NIP-05. So they added a checkmark...

Then there was [astral.ninja](https://astral.ninja) and [Damus](https://damus.io): The former was a fork of Branle, and therefore inherited the checkmark. Damus didn't implement NIP-05 until a while later, and they added a checkmark because Astral and other clients were doing it.

And then came new clients, all copying what the previous ones did... (Snort originally did not have a checkmark, but that changed later.)

## The first NIP-05 provider

Long story short, people were wondering what NIP-05 is and wanted it, and that's how [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) came to be.

They initially called their service verification. Somewhere between January and February, they removed all mentions to verification except one (because people were searching for it), and publicly said that NIP-05 is not verification. But that didn't work.

Then, there were the new NIP-05 providers, some understood perfectly what a NIP-05 identifier is and applied the correct nomenclature. Others misnamed it as verification, adding confusion to users. This made the problem worse on top of the popular clients showing checkmarks.

(from this point in the article we'll refer to it as a **Nostr address**)

## And so, the scams begin

Spammers and scammers started to abuse Nostr addresses to scam people:
- Some providers has been used by fake crypto airdrop bots.
- A few Nostr address providers have terminated multitude of impersonating and scam identifiers over the past weeks.

This goes to show that Nostr addresses don't verify anything, they are just providers of human readable handles.

## Nostr addresses *can* be proof of association

Nostr addresses can be a proof of association. The easiest analogy to understand is email:

jack@cash\.app -> You could assume this is the Jack that works at Cash App.

jack@nostr-address-provider\.example\.com -> This could be any Jack.

## What now?

We urge that clients **stop showing a checkmark for all Nostr addresses**, as they are not useful for verification.

We also urge that clients hide checkmarks for **all domain names**, without exception in the same way we do not show checkmarks for emails.

Lastly, NIP-05 is a **nostr address** and that is why we urge all clients to use the proper nomenclature.

### Signed:

- Semisol, [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) ([semisol@nostrplebs.com](https://snort.semisol.dev/p/semisol@nostrplebs.com))
- Quentin, [nostrcheck.me](https://nostrcheck.me) ([quentin@nostrcheck.me](https://nosta.me/89e14be49ed0073da83b678279cd29ba5ad86cf000b6a3d1a4c3dc4aa4fdd02c))
- Derek Ross, [Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/?utm_campaign=nip05-isnt-verif) ([derekross@nostrplebs.com](https://nostrplebs.com/s/derekross))
- Bitcoin Nostrich, [Bitcoin Nostr](https://bitcoinnostr.com) ([BitcoinNostrich@BitcoinNostr.com](https://snort.semisol.dev/p/bitcoinnostrich@bitcoinnostr.com))
- Remina, [zaps.lol](https://zaps.lol) ([remina@zaps.lol](https://nosta.me/416ca193aa5448b8cca1f09642807765cc0ee299609f972df0614cfb8ea2f2b1))
- Harry Hodler, [nostr-check.com](https://nostr-check.com) ([harryhodler@nostr-check.com](nostr:npub18qxd7kmp6rg7hstrpcpw2fpjtyvaf7tazns07vrgqpdrce67x3zsrh0caz))


Good news, the w3c let us have a community area

https://www.w3.org/community/nostr/

This is going to be completely useless for most here, but there's certain good things it allows:

- you get a mailing list
- you get a wiki
- you can publish community group reports
- makes it *slightly* easier to register stuff such as uri schemes, eventually we'd like to get safe listed in the browser
- can document, spec or register some webby stuff, such as link headers, vocabs, did methods etc.
- patent and royalty free protections

to be honest nostr has a perfectly good system, so this wont be useful for most people, and it rarely allows pseudonyms, but hopefully it'll give us some extra strategic reach if we need it, and better we have it than someone else — feel free to join!


According to Nostr.band, I'm now over 10K followers across Nostr. That's wild. Thank you all for following me, Zapping me, and your continued support as we build https://nostrplebs.com and https://nostrnests.com. It truly means a lot.

It's been three and a half months, but it still feels all new and exciting. As I said during my talk at #Nostrica last week, I do this all for the plebs. For the Bitcoin plebs, for the Nostr plebs, to provide services and support to make Nostr better. I fully see Nostr's potential for the world. I know we're still early and there's a lot of work to be done to onboard the masses. That's why I do what I do and I fully love every single minute of it. 💜


💯 verified at #NostrPlebs
loving https://nostrnests.com/

thx #[0] & #[1] 🤙🏻💜


Fantastic talk by #[0], love his enthusiasm!


I support #[0] on “Plebs, not Pleebs”😂


My new preferred nostr client is https://snort.semisol.dev

Previously my favorite was https://snort.social, but after learning how they censored Semisol's zaps, it was a no-brainer to abandon Snort immediately.  That kind of censorship reminds me of the bird site, which I no longer want anything to do with.

As a bonus, https://snort.semisol.dev is much faster than snort ever was.


### The Nostr Nests UI Overhaul is here!

The user interface for https://NostrNests.com has been completely redone to be much more aesthetically pleasing and to increase functionality. You'll immediately notice the new bottom icon bar which now houses all of the Nests features: raising your hand to join to the stage, to speak, to edit your profile, to use emojis, to enable/disable your mic, and to leave the Nest. Soon, we'll be adding a Share icon! The moderation buttons, Nest configuration page, and profile setup page have all been updated too. Nests also now properly display the number of listeners in the audience to help you see how many people are tuned into your Nest. Top nests are displayed on the Nostr Nests homepage. Go check it out!

https://nostrnests.com/general

A special thanks to #[0] , #[1] , and #[2]


Nostr Plebs users: Have you added our private relay?

If you're a Nostr Plebs NIP-05 ID holder (all domains) you can add wss://relay.nostrplebs.com to your relay list. 🤙


We are chatting on Nostr Nests, come and hangout with us.

https://nostrnests.com/general


### Nostr Plebs Spaces is rebranding to Nostr Nests

We originally started Nostr Plebs Spaces to ease the transition for users coming from Twitter. Today, we are rebranding to Nostr Nests since we would not like to reuse the Spaces branding. (and the name is more fitting!)

We have also introduced the ability to link your Nostr public key and some improvements that could reduce choppy audio in bad connections.

We will be hosting a nest on https://nostrnests.com/general for the launch.

We will also in the future introduce linking your Nostr Plebs ID and Nostr login.

**What will happen to my rooms?**
Rooms will not be transferred. Please recreate your rooms. If your room name has been taken up by someone else, contact us.

**What about my profile?**
Your profile will not be transferred over. You will need to set it up again.


Good evening, Nostr! Nostr Plebs Spaces is going down for maintenance. 👀


Nostr Nests are happening over on our beta client https://spaces.nostrplebs.com/general

Come join us.


**NIP-69 is being proposed to use the Stacks blockchain and BNS .btc name system for Nostr Names**

The proposal states to use the Stacks "Bitcoin Name System", which has nothing to do with Bitcoin, but uses that name for name recognition only, as a new *"Nostr Names"* implementation. This is being proposed as an improvement to NIP-05 IDs. As a NIP-05 ID service provider, I will agree that the NIP-05 is not perfect, but NIP-69 is **not the solution**.

The Nostr Names NIP-69 proposal states that NIP-05 is flawed because:

* DNS names are controlled by the state and 3rd parties
* they're expensive, need to own a server, ssl, etc
* you need to be skilled to do it

The first key point is true, DNS names are controlled by third parties. That's something we can't fix yet.

The second point about being expensive is completely false. Domain names are fairly cheap and you don't need to pay for SSL certificates, nor do you need to own a server.

*For example: derekross.me costs me $12 a year. The server is a Rapsberry Pi 4. The SSL certificate is free from Let's Encrypt.*

The third point is partially false. The skill required isn't incredible, but it probably is too much for the average person to handle. This leads us to third party services such as NostrPlebs.com providing ID services for customers. This can lead to some centralization and trust, but we will reach a point where certain providers are better than others. Some providers will allow anyone to register, some will charge for this service, some will provide additional perks and support to their members. As time progresses, clear leaders in this new industry will merge and providers will be known and judged by their reputations, services, and support.

"Nostr Names" states the following are benefits to using NIP-69:

* use the centralized service btc.us to register a name
* learn how to use Stacks Clarity language and programmatically register your name
* use the Stacks blockchain, run a Stacks node

So, it sounds like you need to use a centralized service and you need to be skilled to register a NIP-69 Nostr Name, doesn't it? I thought these were issues that NIP-69 was trying to solve for NIP-05?

It costs about $10 for 5 years, so a BNS name is cheaper. That's a plus.

**But you still need to use Stacks.**

I like the effort here as NIP-05 is not perfect, but I'm sorry, I'm going to say no to this one.

[Source](https://www.newinternetlabs.com/blog/nostr-names/)