11+ Nostr terms, defined.

Ecosystem

A popular Nostr client for iOS and Mac, originally written by Bill Snow in 2022. The app many people first try.

Concepts

The property of a system that survives the failure or capture of any single participant. Nostr's reason to exist.

Core Nostr

The atomic unit of Nostr. A JSON object, signed by a key, with a kind number describing what it is.

Lightning

A Bitcoin layer that moves small payments instantly and nearly for free. What powers zaps on Nostr.

NIPs

A human-readable identifier on Nostr, shaped like an email address. Lets people verify that a name belongs to a specific public key.

NIPs

A browser-extension standard that lets web clients ask an extension to sign events, so the private key never touches the page.

Core Nostr

Your public Nostr identity, encoded as a human-readable string starting with npub1. Safe to share anywhere.

Identity & crypto

Your private Nostr key, encoded with an nsec1 prefix. Never share it. Losing it is losing the account.

Core Nostr

A small, independent server that stores and forwards Nostr events. The network is made of thousands of them.

Identity & crypto

The cryptographic scheme used to sign Nostr events. Short, fast, and the same one Bitcoin Taproot adopted in 2021.

Lightning

A Bitcoin Lightning tip posted as a Nostr event. Lets anyone send any amount of sats to a profile or a specific post, publicly visible on-feed.