Why Scribbble should migrate to Nostr
It has been a while since my last update and I'd like to explore why that is.
In the last 5 months or so, I have been heavily involved in the open source community around the nostr protocol.
In short, it is a protocol for content publishing, not limited to any note length. It is widely accessible across multiple apps because it utilizes relays to store and fetch information.
What this means in practical terms is that you could use this protocol to create social media clients, or blogging clients. They are called clients because they can access the same information no matter which application you're using.
Why this is a big deal
The concept of publishing in an app of your choice and showing up across an entire network is a powerful one because it solves the distribution problem.
Vast distribution enabled by Nostr
Much like Medium brings readers to your content, nostr does the same, but in a decentralized fashion.
Nobody owns nostr. No one controls it. That means anyone can build on top of it and any new app that accumulates new users will contribute to the greater nostr ecosystem. Those users then become users of all apps as there is only one login.
With Nostr, a user can publish an article and automatically reach not only their followers, but also any app that fetches that type of content (in this example a long form post).
Borderless, frictionless, open network payments
The current joke in Nostr is that it's an orange pill delivery system. We also call it the "purple pill".
The orange pill being bitcoin - that one thing people misunderstand or don't get at all.
Nostr is great at integrating with the lightning network, which enables frictionless 1-tap payments.
The lightning network is a layer 2 protocol on top of Bitcoin which bypasses the long transaction times and delivers funds instantly to your digital wallet.
Most people have never used the lightning network but it is alive and well (and frankly just incredible) on the nostr network. The folks on nostr deemed them "zaps" - ie. lightning payments. You can zap anyone or anything to instantly pay them. It's magical.
Since developers have already created zap integrations with nostr, anyone building new apps in the space can enable this functionality so their users can get paid instantly for content they publish.
Not only that, but subscriptions are coming (or so I heard).
My point here is that it's an open payment system that anyone can participate in without any fees (or very low, negligible fees). That is powerful!
Where Scribbble comes in
Right now, scribbble users write on the scribbble desktop app (which could also become a web app if we went down the nostr route), but the content lands in one place - the scribbble domain.
While it's nice to have an easy publishing method, it doesn't aid in content discovery. But, what's the point of publishing if discovery is not a priority? You want people to read your stuff - that's kind of the point. SEO takes time and it's slow. Besides, with the advent of chat bots like ChatGPT, more and more people are now getting their answers directly from the bots and bypass Google entirely.
It has never been more important to own your audience and to have a direct line of communication with them.
You may not realize it, but the days of Google search will come to an end. It won't be an immediate end, but something akin to Bing - a relic of the ancient past that nobody uses - a slow, agonizing death.
Nostr helps create those direct relationships
Since nostr is not limited to social, but allows you to build a following AND truly own their attention by carrying them with you anywhere you go, you have the chance to reach your audience directly.
With new tools like subscriptions and hopefully in the future nostr-to-email integrations, you will become un-censorable and un-cancellable. No more complying with puritan arbitrary rules by some kingmaker platform. Say what you want, write what you please.
TLDR;
- Own your identity and your following
- Instant distribution across a vast network. Every app can surface your content.
- Much larger audience than publishing on any single app or platform (nostr is cross-app, cross-device and cross-platform).
- Censorship-resistant