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 and 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 and 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.