bostonwine on Nostr: Two years ago today, I was overseas for Christmas with my wife’s family, jet-lagged ...

Two years ago today, I was overseas for Christmas with my wife’s family, jet-lagged and awake at 3:30am, when our friend Derek Ross (npub18am…p424) shared a link to Nostr with plebs on the Twitter #stackchain.

That day, I began to see the world in purple 💜

I downloaded a very early version of Damus. Not only had jb55 (npub1xts…kk5s) not yet invented zaps (we simply pasted Lightning invoices, racing each other to pay it the fastest), but images wouldn’t even render in a client. (Again, you’d post a link and then leave the client to view the image in a browser). A few screenshots below capture the early days of Damus 🤙

It’s been an awe-inspiring heart-warming two years. I have learned so much, made new friends, submitted my first PR, and zapped the hell out of anything that moves. It’s been amazing to see the speed and quality of development by our many developers, and I continue being blown away by everyone’s contributions here. It’s also been demonstrated that most people, when given the opportunity to socialize in an online space that hasn’t been conditioned by typical toxic incentive structures, are genuinely decent, thoughtful, well-meaning people, even when they disagree. I always believed this, but Twitter can make you doubt it sometimes…

Nostr has come so far, so fast, from a handful of bare-bones clients to dozens or hundreds of apps, clients, projects, integrations, events, meetups, and more. It’s downright impressive.

Spending time on this protocol, hanging out with you all, being part of this movement, has enriched and expanded my life in a way I never expected, but feel so grateful to have found.

Screenshots below to show some old damus (npub18m7…q955) styling, including my profile-picture-less self trying to figure out a Lightning address, hitting the perfect follower count (nice), a comparison of privacy priorities between Damus and Twitter, and evidence of my consistently positive sentiment toward Nostr.

Thank you, Nostriches. Happy Christmas Eve 🎄 and Pura Vida 🤙

#grownostr #plebchain #introductions