Nostr: The Importance of Censorship-Resistant Communication for Innovation and Human Progress

Credit : bitcoinmagazine.com

Introduction

In an financial panorama more and more characterised by monopolization and the dominance of institutionalized credit score, progressive applied sciences and protocols are rising which have the potential to vary the foundations of our economic system and society.

On the forefront of this are Bitcoin and Nostr—two groundbreaking protocols that collectively can usher in a brand new period of innovation, free from the monetary constraints of the fiat system. This text examines the historical past and mechanisms that allow Bitcoin and Nostr to behave as catalysts for innovation and human progress.

Innovation beneath Onerous Steel Currencies

Within the days of onerous steel currencies, particularly throughout the gold customary, innovation was primarily pushed by people and personal firms who have been impartial of the state equipment and institutional lenders. A few of the biggest breakthroughs in science, philosophy and economics have been made by personal entrepreneurs.

• In 600 BC, a Greek named Thales observed that amber, when rubbed with silk, attracted feathers and other light objects. He found static electrical energy. The Greek phrase for amber is ‘ëelectron’, from which the phrases ‘electrical energy’ and ‘electron’ are derived.
• The Greek thinker Plato (ca. 428-347 B.C.) is extensively thought-about to be the primary particular person to develop the idea of an atom, the concept that matter is made up of an indivisible element on the smallest scale. He also wrote a number of important books on science, philosophy, economics, politics and mathematics.
• Wei Boyang was a Chinese language author and Taoist alchemist of the Japanese Han dynasty. He’s the creator of The Kinship of the Three (also called Cantong Qi), which is taken into account the earliest e-book on alchemy in China, and is famous as one of many first people to doc the chemical composition of gunpowder in 142 AD.
• The automotive was invented in 1886 by German engineer and vehicle producer Carl Benz, who was impressed by Nikolaus Otto, who invented the primary gasoline engine in 1861.
• The Wright brothers are thought-about the inventors and the primary to fly a powered airplane on Dec. 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

  The creativity and ingenuity of the Wright brothers has been nicely documented:

The funds for the brothers’ ventures, including equipment, travel, and their testing site in Kitty Hawk, came from the bicycle shop they operated. They apparently spent just $1,000 over four years (1899-1903) to develop three flying machines, two of which had no engines. The Wright brothers lived throughout a time when the U.S. was on a gold standard, and saving allowed entrepreneurs to build up sufficient capital to finance improvements, giving them the time and assets wanted to pursue their pioneering work in aviation. The traditional Greeks, reminiscent of Thales and Plato, additionally operated beneath onerous steel currencies, contributing to a steady financial atmosphere that fostered philosophical and scientific developments.

Equally, Wei Boyang exemplified the pursuit of information throughout the Japanese Han dynasty in China, which skilled fluctuating financial circumstances, together with durations of stability that contributed to mental progress in numerous fields.

Simply because the Wright brothers benefited from a time when saving in sound cash allowed people to deal with their improvements, right this moment’s personal entrepreneurs, startups, and bicycle store homeowners discover it more and more tough to earn sufficient to take the time to consider improvements and finance their implementation.

Inflation has considerably pushed up labor and materials prices, significantly in industries like aviation and automotive, the place superior know-how and higher materials necessities demand intensive analysis and growth. In consequence, entrepreneurs and freelancers typically depend on third-party loans. The average cost of developing a Mercedes car today, for example, is more than two billion euros.

How the Fiat System Blocks Human Progress

The fiat-based financial system has made it more and more tough for innovation to emerge with out institutional funding. Financial inflation erodes buying energy, limits financing choices, and creates obstacles for brand spanking new concepts to flourish. That is problematic as a result of the establishments that usually fund innovation, together with giant enterprise capital companies, banks, and universities, are largely depending on the state in a technique or one other (both as a result of they’re regulated by regulation or as a result of they obtain authorities funding) and due to this fact have an incentive to help tasks that ‘comply with’ the present political local weather.

The result’s a banal misallocation of capital and social stagnation, as could be noticed in most nations world wide.

Credit, Fiat and the State Monopoly on Innovation

Credit has turn into a part of a system of management that nation states use together with fiat cash to keep up their monopoly place. Traditionally, applied sciences and social actions that undermined the monopoly energy of the state and its affiliated establishments have been usually banned. On the very least, there was often an try to take action.

instance is the best way Bitcoin is handled by most states, how poorly it’s spoken of in most universities, and the way most banks used to contemplate it hypothesis at greatest. As a result of Bitcoin threatens the existence of those establishments. This habits is usually noticed amongst monopolists and initially makes it tough for entrepreneurs to enter new disruptive markets like Bitcoin and shifts competitors in favor of the monopolist (the state).

Cash creation and the granting of credit score are basic to sustaining the state’s monopoly place. In consequence, the reliance on the institutionalized credit score system to finance innovation has led to a dependence on a government (the state). This disrupts the progress and prosperity of humanity that outcomes from a free market wherein capital and data could be freely exchanged and suppresses the collective creativity of humanity.

Bitcoin and the weakening state monopoly on innovation

With the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, the state monopoly on cash was damaged. As a consequence of its restricted provide and wonderful financial properties (absolute shortage, sturdiness, fungibility, divisibility, mobility, resilience, self-custody), bitcoin is the toughest cash ever created. This permits entrepreneurs to protect the worth of their efforts, giving them time and, in the long run, capital to deal with issues and discover and fund applicable options. Which, in flip, creates alternatives for innovation to emerge from the free market in a bottom-up method.

Innovation and communication

Innovation, particularly within the age of the Web, requires greater than capital and folks with time. There’s a want for environment friendly and safe real-time communication and collaboration choices for folks world wide. Communication and collaboration are essential for effectively fixing more and more advanced issues in a related world.

Cunningham’s Legislation states that one of the best ways to get the correct reply on the Web is to not ask a query; as a substitute, to submit the incorrect reply as a result of others will right you. This underscores the significance of collective intelligence. The regulation is called after Ward Cunningham, who invented the Wiki software program that permits customers to create and collaboratively edit net pages or entries through an internet browser. Probably the most well-known instance is wikipdia.com.

Nostr: Communication as a device for innovation

In late 2019, Lightning developer named Fiatjaf printed his concepts on a censorship-resistant social community he referred to as Nostr – “Notes and Different Stuff Transmitted by Relays”. With the precise launch of Nostr shortly after, a protocol that provides a layer of censorship-resistant information-sharing to the Bitcoin and Lightning protocol suite, a brand new territory of freedom opened up in the identical tech-stack as Bitcoin and Lightning.

Though there have been a variety of different decentralized communication networks moreover Bitcoin earlier than Nostr (Bittorrent, Limewire, Napster, and many others.), for my part none of them had the potential to have a common long-term influence on collaboration to resolve advanced issues going through humanity. Nostr has the potential to allow bottom-up innovation and fast problem-solving that nobody can maintain a lid on. With Nostr, market individuals can talk, collaborate, and reward one another in actual time globally, extra independently of nation-state management.

Despite the fact that particular person functions that use Nostr could be switched off, the protocol itself can’t be successfully managed or turned off by a central get together.

The primary extensively used software of Nostr is a censorship-resistant social community that may be accessed via numerous shoppers. Probably the most generally used ones embrace Damus, Primal, Amethyst and Iris. The usability of every consumer is essentially optimized for desktop or cellular. The community construction is just like the best way one can entry the IMAP e mail protocol via numerous shoppers reminiscent of Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and many others. (simplified instance). Purposes hook up with many Nostr relays which are run by community individuals with technical know-how. These relays distribute data, so if one relay fails, there are others that proceed to run. The relays function largely independently of one another, giving the community resilience as a result of there isn’t any central level of failure.

Though Nostr is just not based mostly on the Bitcoin blockchain, it makes use of peer-to-peer bitcoin funds through the Lightning Community. With Zaps, customers will pay one another or tip posts they significantly like. Folks can now efficiently save in bitcoin, talk through Nostr, and transact with one another via Lightning—probably impartial of any central authority.

Despite the fact that. For a very long time, I struggled to outline the aim of Nostr past its operate as a “decentralized X.” Nonetheless, I ultimately realized that the chances are practically countless. Nostr is a protocol for a freer Web and society, poised to turn into the gateway to a really free Web. On this new panorama, we’ve the chance to innovate sooner and reward ingenuity, making means for a extra empowered and interconnected world.

There are numerous Nostr functions presently being constructed. Nostrocket, for instance, is a consumer designed to coordinate decentralized, Bitcoin-based economies by rewarding (in satoshis/bitcoin) contributors who work collectively to search out options to world challenges. The applying makes use of censorship-resistant communication through Nostr and direct bitcoin funds through the Lightning Community to assist create economically sustainable organizations that clear up issues on the important path to a world Bitcoin customary. Nostrocket founder Gsovereignty is a really lively member of the Nostr group and value following.

Conclusion

The Bitcoin protocol was created as a substitute for the fiat system. A decentralized, permissionless peer-to-peer digital money system, outdoors the attain of the state. Satoshi Nakamoto created arguably probably the most necessary improvements by a personal particular person or group of people who humanity has ever produced, as a result of he/they laid the inspiration for anybody to have the ability to commerce and act independently of the state. As a strong basis for a freer economic system, the Bitcoin community allows different community layers to “dock” to the bottom, creating new methods to make use of bitcoin and alternatives for customers. The Lightning Community, as a second-layer fee protocol for quick transactions and micropayments, partially addresses the issue of the way to scale Bitcoin in order that it may be utilized by all of humanity.

The introduction of Nostr creates a brand new territory of freedom inside the similar protocol suite as Bitcoin and Lightning, enhancing Bitcoin’s usability for numerous functions. By facilitating seamless communication and collaboration, Nostr additional aids in scaling Bitcoin, empowering us to innovate sooner and reward ingenuity. With Nostr, innovation can probably emerge from the free market once more, and ingenuity could be rewarded as soon as extra. Thus, Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr present a protocol suite for a freer Web and society, with Nostr poised to turn into the gateway to a really free Web.

The use instances for Nostr appear countless. I invite you to explore the possibilities of the protocol.

I wish to thank Uncle R0ckstar for the inspiring conversations and inspiring phrases.

Observe me on Nostr 

It is a visitor submit by Leon Wankum. Opinions expressed are solely their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.