Someone asked on Reddit the following questions: “Explain how Nostr works like I’m a 5 year old”.
I really liked this answer by trosso19 (npub1xr5…93g6):
> For social media you need an identity that people can use to follow you, and you need a way to prove that your posts are made by you, not someone else using your identity. In traditional social media the service provider does these things when you create your username and password. The downside is that the provider can now block, ban, or censor you because you rely on logging in with them to post or see content.
> In Nostr you create a public/private key pair (npub and nsec). Your npub is your identity and you use your nsec to digitally sign your notes so everyone else can prove they came from you without relying on a centralized service provider. You send your notes to one or more relays, which are servers to store and distribute your content.
> There is no central person who can deny you access to your profile (you own it and you provide the proof its you). Relays are easy to set up so even if a relay operator decides to block you, you can just send your notes to different relays. Your followers can see your notes no matter what.
Wonderfully concise and to the point!
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/1i6t4g7/comment/m8f1x7q/
mbarulli / Marco Barulli
npub18n…25evl
2025-01-24 13:43:05
Author Public Key
npub18nagz6a53yh6d05e8trj487dhvyfhh4qchvsz87jqng4g4zl5tvs825evlPublished at
2025-01-24 13:43:05Event JSON
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"pubkey": "3cfa816bb4892fa6be993ac72a9fcdbb089bdea0c5d9011fd204d154545fa2d9",
"created_at": 1737726185,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
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"content": "Someone asked on Reddit the following questions: “Explain how Nostr works like I’m a 5 year old”.\nI really liked this answer by nostr:npub1xr5vhu2z0sfhlfsxwjnrjscurx5adaxq0lfft80cx9vwva8uew4qk293g6:\n\n\u003e For social media you need an identity that people can use to follow you, and you need a way to prove that your posts are made by you, not someone else using your identity. In traditional social media the service provider does these things when you create your username and password. The downside is that the provider can now block, ban, or censor you because you rely on logging in with them to post or see content.\n\n\u003e In Nostr you create a public/private key pair (npub and nsec). Your npub is your identity and you use your nsec to digitally sign your notes so everyone else can prove they came from you without relying on a centralized service provider. You send your notes to one or more relays, which are servers to store and distribute your content. \n\n\u003e There is no central person who can deny you access to your profile (you own it and you provide the proof its you). Relays are easy to set up so even if a relay operator decides to block you, you can just send your notes to different relays. Your followers can see your notes no matter what.\n\nWonderfully concise and to the point!\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/nostr/comments/1i6t4g7/comment/m8f1x7q/",
"sig": "17d85f8a4aef55dbb06a62f6037976f7f1455f7a088272fa82a28098671d44b4659960eb0add356f8dea2510c29617074b3ff1631fa80f35e0ed535d0a0838f1"
}