What’s Nostr and Easy methods to Use It in Linux

Nostr is a brand new and revolutionary web protocol that goals to simplify how individuals use social media. As a substitute of a single web site, Nostr makes use of relays and public key cryptography to decentralize the published of messages over the web.

This text will present you how one can set up a Nostr consumer in Linux. Additional, it would additionally present you learn how to create your personal distinctive keypair as a way to take part within the Nostr community.

How Does Nostr Work and Why Use It?

The way in which Nostr works is that each consumer has a pair of distinctive keys that determine them contained in the community. Each message {that a} consumer sends and receives from a Nostr relay are signed and encrypted utilizing his keys.

In consequence, solely the consumer that owns the signing key can open and decode his messages. This makes any content material that goes by way of Nostr non-public by default.

Other than that, one other benefit of Nostr over different social media web sites is that it’s “content-agnostic.” Because of this the protocol doesn’t require a strict format for incoming and outgoing messages. For instance, a Nostr put up can both be as quick as a tweet or so long as a characteristic weblog.

Tip: Nostr is a venture that began contained in the Bitcoin neighborhood. Be taught what makes Bitcon particular by internet hosting a full node and a working a Lightning Node right this moment.

Be aware: The next directions are finished on an Ubuntu machine.

Putting in the Gossip Nostr Consumer

Step one in utilizing Nostr is to put in a consumer in your laptop. Whereas there are an excellent variety of applications that may faucet into the community, essentially the most dependable one proper now could be Gossip. This can be a desktop-oriented consumer that doesn’t want an internet browser to run in your laptop.

1. Obtain its package deal from the developer’s Github repository:

wget https://github.com/mikedilger/gossip/releases/obtain/v0.6.0/gossip_0.6.0_amd64.deb

2. Double click on the .deb file to start out putting in the Gossip package deal into your system.

Creating Your First Nostr Account

1. Launch the Gossip software from the Purposes menu.
2. This can open a plain white window that exhibits a short overview of what you are able to do inside Gossip. To create your first account, click on “You.”

3. Click on the primary textual content field underneath the “Generate a Keypair” class and sort your account password.

4. Click on “Generate Now” to create your new Nostr account.

Importing an Current Nostr Account

Other than creating a brand new Nostr account, Gossip additionally lets you import an present Nostr key as your major consumer account. This may be helpful you probably have already used Nostr and you do not need redo your follower lists.

All that you must do is to seek out your present Nostr account’s non-public key, and paste it in Gossip’s “Enter Personal Key” textual content field underneath the “Import Personal Key” class. Click on “Import.”

Connecting to Relays and Sending a Be aware

To get Nostr working, that you must join it to a relay node. These are small servers within the cloud that carry your encrypted data throughout Nostr. Additionally they help you discover different customers within the community in addition to ship your posts to your followers.

1. Click on the “Relays” button.

2. Click on the “Configure” sub-button.

3. So as to add a relay, write the entire URL of the server that you simply need to hook up with, then click on “Add.” In my case, I exploit the next relays: wss://nos.lol, wss://relay.nostr.band and wss://purplepag.es.

4. Click on the “Learn,” “Write,” and “Promote” checkboxes beside your new relay. This permits your Gossip consumer to make use of these for speaking with different shoppers.

5. Now you can publish your first observe. Click on the “Feed” button.

6. To ship your first observe, write on the clean textual content field and click on “Ship.”

Following Different Nostr Accounts

Other than sending notes to your self, you possibly can additionally comply with and work together with different customers within the community. That is just like the “Comply with” characteristic on most social media web sites.

1. Click on the “Individuals” button.

2. Click on “Comply with Somebody New.”

3. Present the profile key of the account that you simply need to comply with. This can be a lengthy string of letters and numbers that begin with “nprofile.” You could find a listing of present customers together with their nprofile keys by visiting a consumer listing web site.

4. To get the nprofile key for a consumer, press the small down arrowhead image beside the consumer that you simply need to comply with.

5. Click on “Copy nprofile.”

6. After you have an nprofile key, return to Gossip and paste that on the textbox immediately beneath the “Comply with an nprofile” class.

7. Click on the “Comply with” button to load that consumer’s notes and knowledge.

Studying an Exterior Nostr Account’s Feed

One of many sensible options of Nostr is that you would be able to learn any public knowledge that’s being despatched to a specific account so long as you recognize its nprofile key. This makes it helpful for customers that need to create a “read-only” feed of their favourite customers.

1. To import the general public feed of a special account, that you must get its “npub” key. You too can get this by going to Nostr.Band.

2. Click on the down arrowhead image of that consumer that you simply need to import to Gossip.

3. Click on “Copy npub.”

4. Open Gossip and click on “You,” then “Keys.”

5. Scroll down the window and paste your npub key on the textbox beneath the “Import Public Key” class.

6. Click on “Import Public Key” to load the exterior account’s feed in Gossip.

Good to know: Find out how Public Key Cryptography works by producing your personal GPG keys in Linux.

Continuously Requested Questions

Picture credit score: Redd F through Unsplash. All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Pink.