StevenB

I make apps for the sovereign minded, like LNBeats, Music Side Project, The Split Box, The Split Kit, Sovereign Feeds, CurioCaster and Transcript Search Tool

Public Key

npub1yvgrrzf4dnmu30qfhw95x87ruu0g2kpv3a64h8hpvqsre8qeuspsgd6pv9

NIP-57 Address

steven@getalby.com

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszxyp33y6kea7ghsymhz6rrlp7w859tqkg7a2mnmskqgpunsv7gqcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qzrthwden5te0dehhxtnvdakq08whgh

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1yvgrrzf4dnmu30qfhw95x87ruu0g2kpv3a64h8hpvqsre8qeuspsgd6pv9

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Last Notes

2025-06-01 19:07:55

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It really is the superior protocol. I don’t understand why it’s not more widely accepted.

2025-05-29 18:45:29

@npub1f49…zpez
Here's a thing you might be interested in. https://lnbeats.b-cdn.net/musicfeed.xml

2025-05-29 16:50:46

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Wallets are like women. The easy ones don’t give you everything you want, and the ones that give you everything you want aren’t easy. You know what I want? Splits.

2025-05-25 16:08:25

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Do you think it might be because the younger generation has a fundamentally different relationship to music that we're not quite understanding?
Most of the people I know involved in the music stuff are older. I'm not sure any are under 30. I'm in my 40s. I remember making mix tapes on cassette. I can hear a song and my mind goes to the next song on the CD automatically because I listened to that CD so many times.
Music wasn't just background noise. It wasn't a song in the background of a TikTok video, or a streaming service playing non-stop music on random. It was an intentional activity, I had to think about the song I wanted to hear, find it the CD in my stack, put it into the player, and hit play. I then got 50 minutes of the listening experience before I had to make a new decision.
It might be possible that we're building tech for a bygone era when people use to care, and they simply don't anymore. They're used to listening to any song they want for $9.99 per month (less than how much I was paying for 1 CD in 2002). Music isn't something special, it's just the background noise to the TikTok video we call life.

2025-05-23 21:10:04

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So I should probably self host my own relay just to be sure. Seems like self hosting my own content is the best way to prevent a potential rug pull.

2025-05-23 20:51:43

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That certainly wouldn’t ever happen with a ‘nostr’ company because of political pressure.

2025-05-23 20:50:02

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So you’re saying, if you host all your content on someone else’s platform, that platform could rug pull you and remove all your content?

2025-05-23 20:05:19

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But, but, but, aren’t you worried about him stealing your intellectual property?!?

2025-05-22 22:30:43

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Oh yeah, and hosting Alby Hub on Start9. Alby and PC2.0 go together!

2025-05-22 19:15:26

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Did you read the source code before commenting? Did you maybe notice a certain someone that linked to the code isn’t much of a contributor because his role is merch and marketing. Guess we can ignore his comments too, since he doesn’t write code.

2025-05-22 17:09:50

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Those few are the ones I’m looking for. Those are my people.

2025-05-22 13:38:49

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Make it so I can fetch an invoice from my own server. Right now, getalby.com is a single point of failure. Your server goes down, it affects everyone, even self hosters.

2025-05-21 15:07:11

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I haven't really thought about it. I have them in Sovereign Feeds. I'm torn with MSP, because I'm trying to make it as simple as possible for musicians, but it does make sense to give them a tool to make their entire catalog findable in one place.

2025-05-21 04:50:37

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Hell, with Podcasting 2.0, I'm pretty sure I've gotten over 5 million sats alone over the last four years. 1 sat at a time. https://image.nostr.build/f1478fed8148d9cfc89976ec5a26efd1f1d67857d41a3e0021288948b05d4e5b.jpg

2025-05-21 04:47:10

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Largest? I'm pretty sure that Satellite Showdown sent 2.2 million sats in four hours.

2025-05-21 04:40:19

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Fuck it, I made a thing. It's unpolished, it's published on satellite.earth. You can host your own music in less than 15 minutes. Try it out.
https://cdn.satellite.earth/509dfaf56166ca159a05b801383f6014f57f88f1bb600b8df45f02d89cd0903a.mp4
Here it is in the Podcast Index
https://podcastindex.org/podcast/7343106

2025-05-21 02:28:50

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Fuck Fountain playlists. Put it in an RSS feed like @npub177f…aaq7 did. All this in app exclusive stuff, and we already have the tools to make it so you own your own playlist, playable in any app. https://lnbeats.com/album/71556f97-94dc-5bf1-97e4-2dccf669d6c3

2025-05-21 02:25:52

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I dunno. This app looks pretty damn sweet. https://lnbeats.com/

2025-05-21 02:19:16

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Those types of autistic unicorns are rare. But if there's any in the San Antonio area, that want to chat with a 43 year old, anti-statist, that builds freedom apps, hit me up.

2025-05-21 02:12:21

I've decided my dating app profile is going to consist solely of @npub1uwj…axfl memes. I'm going to find my soul mate one way or another.

2025-05-21 01:07:41

I just found out that some clients have DMs. If I've been ignoring your DMs, it's not because I'm an asshole, it's because I'm a retard.

2025-05-21 00:01:59

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Fuck no we don't know.

2025-05-20 21:52:27

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Except even the stuff that could be replaced is just using it a Twitter alternative. Fountain could be a pure nostr app, host mp3s on relays, change the data structure and host the metadata on relays instead of RSS feeds, but it chooses to engage with the Twitter alternative and be a 'nostr' app.
Wavlake could do the same thing for music.
Even the apps that claim to be 'doing things different' are just using legacy protocols and tacking on the nostr Twitter feature.

2025-05-20 21:39:04

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Dude, if you're on Wavlake, you're in the Valueverse™. If you like Wavlake, use Wavlake. They make it easy, and they make all the music on Wavlake available in any podcast player. However, their player only plays Wavlake music, it doesn't allow you to play non-Wavlake music on it, so if someone decided they want to host their music on RSS Blue or self host it, it's available in all the podcast apps, but it's not available on Wavlake. Wavlake is a check valve, their music can go out, but nobody else's music can come in. You decide if that's the sort of ecosystem you want to support.

2025-05-20 21:33:50

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And it's open source. Contribute, fork it, make it your own. I don't care. I just want you to get your music out there.
https://github.com/thebells1111/msp-studio

2025-05-20 21:05:25

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It's definitely a desktop app. https://image.nostr.build/baa3273dbc334c2423d219762d0f5969632bbf3b820fedce0794ed2e847a6220.png

2025-05-20 20:27:24

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You already have it. Host your own damn mp3s and RSS file on your own site. Here's a tool, that's 100% v4v, meaning you get to choose the split, all the way down to 0%. It builds the RSS for you. All you have to do is paste the links to your artwork and mp3 files. Host that shit on a blossom server, put the feed on github, good to go, doesn't cost a dime. Distributing your music shouldn't cost you 10%.
https://musicsideproject.com/

2025-05-20 20:21:36

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We've been saying it for years. We're called Jihadist, buzz-kills, The Sovereigns, Hobby-ist, etc.

2025-05-18 23:05:35

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You don’t need to add anything to your pubes. They’re perfect as they are.

2025-05-18 23:03:24

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Dammit, you’re onto my ruse.

2025-05-18 23:02:23

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Oh man, I hope you used AI to generate this image.

2025-05-18 18:10:32

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Yeah, we can call it a Superior Asset Store… or SAT for short.

2025-05-18 00:13:31

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The irony is Blossom servers are going to make pirating the good stuff that much easier and anonymous. Then we’ll see how much people really like a censorship resistant protocol.

2025-05-16 13:15:06

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I don't like it, but I support it. I think your feed should be the source of truth. You can put it on a thumbdrive and reupload it elsewhere, and your stuff is back. I want you to be de-platformable, and your feed makes that possible. You may eventually need to run your own server in a bathroom in Colorado, but as long as you have a connection to the internet, someone can find your feed.
I also want to make one call to fetch all your info, the url of your feed.
The podcaster wallet makes the Podcast Index the source of truth. I have to fetch your feed from your url, plus your wallet info from the podcast index. I don't like that, and you shouldn't either. That means the Index *could* censor you and remove your source of income. I'd prefer you just put your wallet info in your feed.
But I'm an idealist, a self-sovereign sycophant. Anyone who claims Bitcoin is about sovereignty, not your keys, not your coins, freedom money, run your own node, etc, but is using the podcaster wallet is a grifter.

2025-05-16 04:34:27

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If you do put it into an RSS feed, let me know and I'll add your show to the Music Show tab on LNBeats

2025-05-16 04:33:12

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Nothing I can do, but if substack gives you an RSS feed, you can add a value block to the podcast index using this site. https://podcasterwallet.com/ It doesn't add it to your feed, but the podcast index will put it into their directory, and all the v4v apps will pull it from there.

2025-05-15 16:54:01

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@npub18hz…fmgv convinces me. I don't know enough about it to argue one way or another, but if Brian says it is, that's good enough for me.

2025-05-15 16:49:29

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The other cool thing about 3Speak is @npub18hz…fmgv (the creator of v4v.app) made a 3speak to RSS bridge, so the videos are available in any podcast player that supports video.
Here's a bunch of them that get returned from the Podcast Index directory.
https://podcastindex.org/search?q=3speak&type=all

2025-05-15 16:45:18

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I'm torn. I like referring to Time, Talent, Treasure as TiTTies. But maybe 3T would be more easily understood and less offensive to the prudes that don't like TIMF.

2025-05-15 16:43:22

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https://3speak.tv/
Censorship resistant video hosting powerd by Hive.
Can also use https://v4v.app/ if you'd prefer to convert your Hive to BTC.

2025-05-15 15:09:28

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Yes sir. If I was to click that button, I would download the mp3 for these songs in my TSK list. https://image.nostr.build/88262a9832acea0b686a8bfb4c1b39b216714c8daff33926f7b6b76ffddaec93.jpg

2025-05-15 14:24:29

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FYI The Split Kit lets you download the whole playlist you built as a zip file of mp3s.
Scroll to the bottom of your settings and click this button. https://image.nostr.build/9edb4ddc5e8d132751e94314420402cb3a4e1f21b24c80ad3b3432ccd1bcf8bd.jpg

2025-05-15 13:08:17

In the spirit of that UbuWeb manifesto, I started the last issue of bitpunk fm with this gem:
podverse.fm/clip/xzSXCBwZz

2025-05-15 12:26:33

TIMF!!!
LFG! Gonna be a good day!

2025-05-15 00:46:24

TIMF
Enjoy your day

2025-05-15 00:15:03

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If we define v4v as I give you something (my attention) and you give me something of in return (some sats), then everything is value for value.
Your boss pays you a weekly paycheck, you give him time working on his project, v4v.
Maybe you want to pay someone for their attention, that's cool, maybe it will work, but it's not what was originally meant when value for value was introduced by the No Agenda producers.
I can put on whiskers and a tail and tell you I'm a cat. That doesn't make it so.
Meow!

2025-05-14 19:02:23

@npub19ha…q0fa @npub1ujt…msud
Have you lovely ladies worked out some ideas/designs for your HGH Splitkit landing page?
We can now do Easter Egg confetti, so different boost amounts can have different images that shoot across the screen.

2025-05-14 18:30:12

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That's why when I got to the fast food joint, I pay in burgers. 1 burger = 1 burger. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

2025-05-14 16:54:38

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I couldn't tell there was a difference between the two pictures at first.

2025-05-14 16:05:32

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Cassettes are not real value, doesn't matter how much you 'value' them.

2025-05-14 15:52:45

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Yeah, someone sent me a check for $50. It's fiat bullshit. I wrote VOID on the check, and sent it back. If it's not BTC, it's not v4v. Living the v4v life. #v4v

2025-05-14 15:24:50

I was considering setting up a PayPal so people could support my projects, but I want to be true to v4v, so no PayPal for me. Living the v4v life. #v4v

2025-05-14 15:21:40

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It's got electrolytes.

2025-05-14 01:32:50

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@npub19ha…q0fa @npub15z2…6q95 @npub1nnk…p49m have been doing exactly what you want. I bet they might have some ideas.

2025-05-13 23:40:42

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I heard they only keep 10%. Not a bad deal for the convenience.

2025-05-13 23:36:26

I downloaded the McDonalds app. Got a cheeseburger for $1 off their Value Menu. Value given, value received. That’s v4v baby!!!! #v4v

2025-05-13 19:36:01

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What if you were the platform? Like you controlled the means to your own distribution and didn't need to rely on someone else to host and distribute your music?

2025-05-13 18:30:38

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The podcasting community has known this for years, and is slowly but steadily building the alternatives.
Below you'll find links to a handful of the music shows. Real people, picking real music, no algos, hand curated by those who truly love music and musicians.
And the best part, the curators get paid in sats for their skills in curating a perfect playlist and helping the artist get discovered, and the artist get paid in sats everytime a listener loves a song enough to send support. It's a model in which everyone wins.
https://fountain.fm/show/aqJxt5Pt6jLIvQX7OI7P (by @npub19ha…q0fa and @npub1ujt…msud )
https://fountain.fm/show/pcdHkHIWgtcE4ksKubo1 (by @npub194m…n3cu )
https://fountain.fm/show/deamUDQXxLTs9SUuuEKM (by @npub18mk…l34s )
https://fountain.fm/show/yqjEjw3AmDwhgc7dBsjX (by @npub15z2…6q95 )
https://fountain.fm/show/31mcb7ETzK3Jb1Oy6IBa (by @npub1nnk…p49m )

2025-05-10 22:45:53

Maybe you want to see some of that 'other stuff' on nostr
Going live at 6pm Central
https://nostrudel.ninja/streams/naddr1qvzqqqrkvupzqwszwz0t09h9w29nym7gqpss54p95dzq867q4x32e4svvstfp6cwqy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qq2xymngd3jxqmr2wf3sj3nue

2025-05-07 01:12:05

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Winning

2025-04-27 20:48:50

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Absolutely. It goes in your podcast's RSS feed, just like this guy is doing.
https://www.feed.behindthesch3m3s.com/feed.xml
https://image.nostr.build/f66e482218fa1c8e970435fbbf273e1605143ca609d55fe8aa8c887b4e83376a.jpg

2025-04-27 17:50:44

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Sure is. This one is aimed at music, but there's a way to self host audiobooks in a very similar fashion so any podcast app can play your audiobook and the v4v ones allow your listeners to send you sats. Just in case you might know a guy and his girlfriend that are interest in self-hosting an audiobook v4v to see if it might work for them.

2025-04-25 03:25:04

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I think you might fit in at the Primal House, where clothing is optional.

2025-04-24 23:01:34

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The best. By far one of my favorite curators.

2025-04-24 20:10:16

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I find stuff and I'm like how in the world did this band find out about my tools, and figure out how to use them.

2025-04-24 18:41:01

My man @npub18gp…cg5e is building out this beautiful show, and 99% of you aren't even aware of it. You want to attract more people to your digital event, you need to be following the boo-bury protocol. You'll happily give away your sats, because half the fun is all the interaction he builds into every event. https://image.nostr.build/b12a9c96760134965d8d581342afa59f7fce18ee4520c35d6644b1f8ce21f7cb.jpg

2025-04-24 18:26:57

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Hmmm... maybe change the button to CeMu so we know who the centralized artist are. Honestly, at this point, if I changed the button, it would mostly be Real Artist and click the button to turn on the AI generated stuff, which is was non-DeMu is quickly becoming.

2025-04-24 18:25:22

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That's exactly what it is. If my address is in your value block, you're featured. The random is so everyone gets a fair shake at being at the top. The guys in the featured are the most bad ass artist.

2025-04-24 11:33:58

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I would trust Primal users more if all their profile pics were required to be shirtless.

2025-04-24 11:32:49

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So they make a project, releases it for free, open source it, announce that they aren’t getting enough value in return to justify the value they’re providing, decide to abandon the FOSS project that is costing them so they can focus on projects that others value more… seems like Alby understands the v4v model well.

2025-04-09 00:27:29

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I'm using Alby Hub, which has webhooks, and I setup and "Uncle Jim" node so it's isolated, but I've tested it out and it's working. Here's the code if anyone is interested in running it themselves. It's just a node server that handles the invoices and has the webhook endpoint to point alby to when you get a payment. The documentation sucks because I hate documenting, and I more build to scratch my own itch than to bring something to market. But if anyone is curious, here's thee github. https://github.com/thebells1111/thesplitbox

2025-04-09 00:22:48

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It's based on lightning addresses, but should be any reason it couldn't be modified to look up the lightning addresses using the npubs.
It does require a wallet the can receive webhooks to work. The basic idea is you have a list of splits stored on the server or in a file somewhere. Someone pays your wallet, you get a verification that the payment was completed via the webhook, so now you have the funds in your wallet, Then you look up the splits and send a payment to each of those wallets, which is a percentage of the original payment.
I've got it tied into a websocket, so it's dynamic. The lookup stuff is in the comments of the invoice, when it's paid, the server can look at that comment, then connect to the websocket to get the current splits, then send those out. The QR stays static because it's the parent wallet, but the webhook wallet can look up the dynamic splits.
It is a single point of failure. If the first wallet goes down, the whole chain breaks.

2025-04-03 19:59:44

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https://image.nostr.build/34e245876678e2566850e1ce9e37557da8f2ad9204d61b90fb39b7841d530f26.jpg

2025-03-23 16:26:39

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I guess I don’t exactly see Fountain as a nostr app. I see I it as a PC2.0 app that uses nostr for comments, but everything else, including boosts is PC2.0.

2025-03-23 14:36:58

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I second this recommendation. @npub1gr6…mmjc and @npub1pj3…7des are on nostr. It’s a safe bet they more align with your values, and the customer service from each is top notch. If you have a specific need, they’re more likely to work with you on a solution.

2025-03-23 14:18:13

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What do you mean by nostr native?

2025-03-23 14:15:44

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Also, I’ve looked into merging the two, and the lack of easy splits is a deal breaker. Some podcasts have twenty splits in them, and nostr would be a way to elegantly handle sending sats to all 20 wallets when a person zaps.

2025-03-23 14:12:09

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That begs the question, what is nostr, and what problems does it solve, and what problems does it create?
Those two questions should always be kept in mind for any new idea.
There’s absolutely no reason RSS files (you know, the other stuff) couldn’t be shared across relays. This solves one problem of podcasting, which is a lack of redundant distribution.
The other problem is a centralized directory. If nostr has a solution to decentralize searching for every podcast about “greek mythology” amongst 4 million podcasts, that’s another problem of podcasting that could be solved.

2025-03-22 17:01:16

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One advantage of local live podcasting over radio is I can say something like “Fuck the FCC” without the FCC fucking me. I’ve seen Pump Up the Jam; I don’t want to be chased while the FCC is triangulating my pirate radio station.

2025-03-12 16:47:50

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You can't.
PC2.0 has value splits, nostr has weak implementation of that, and mostly unsupported in most nostr apps.
Wavlake gets around this by giving you a single address that all the boosts(PC2.0) and zaps(nostr) go to. Wavlake handles the splits for you. Basically, you register your splits in the wavlake app, a listener sends sats to the Wavlake wallet, when whatever criteria Wavlake has to redistribute the sats is met, then they send out the sats to the splits you registered with them. It's the only way to do splits on nostr right now.
PC2.0 handles splits differently. All of the splits are in your feed, when a listener boosts, there's no middle man, the sats go straight from the listener to the split. It depends on what your goals are.
If you don't care about Wavlake acting as a middle man and taking a 10% cut, then just post everything on Wavlake. All the stuff in Wavlake shows up in the PC2.0 apps and allows nostr zaps.
If you don't care about splits and each band has a single wallet, then either use an PC2.0 host or Wavlake and use that single wallet, boosts and zaps both work fine for a single wallet.
If you don't want a middle man with a 10% cut, and you want splits, then you can't get zapped, and any promo you do on nostr will have to send a person to a PC2.0 that handles the splits.
Those are basically your three options.

2025-03-08 21:41:39

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Nah, no disrespect came across. More just noting that nostr may be a great alternative, and trying to encourage those that want to build a nostr based podping to do so. The more the merrier.

2025-03-08 19:53:21

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And I say that as the creator of Sovereign Feeds. SF gives you the easy interface, but you have to do everything else your self.

2025-03-08 19:50:53

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What a host provides is an easy interface for you to pick and choose the features you want, an automated feed builder (which you could do by hand in a text editor), a server, some promotion, and tech support. I think for most people, a host is a great way to go.

2025-03-08 19:48:12

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Down side is not as much help. If you break your feed or your server goes down, you have to troubleshoot.
No development work is necessary. Your feed is literally a text file you can edit in Notepad. You just have to be able to read the docs and format the text correctly in your feed so an app is able to read it and display your images, media, description, etc.
We call it 2.0, but that’s just marketing. Under the hood, it’s the same podcasting it’s been for 20 years, we’re just adding new features to the docs and building apps that can read those new features and display them properly.

2025-03-08 19:41:05

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Hive was used because the guy who built is a huge Hive enthusiast, built it out, and proved its usefulness. And it has been proven to be quite useful. If someone built a better solution on nostr that proved to be as reliable, I don’t see any reason for it not to work on both nostr and Hive. The podping api could simply notify both networks of the updated podcasts. One thing about the PC2.0 community is they’re very pragmatic but busy, so the builders decide the direction of things much more than the idea makers.

2025-03-08 19:35:06

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Rug pulling and control and curiosity. If you host with a host, you’re only able to put in your feed what they allow you too. With self hosting, you can put any tag in your feed you want as long as you’re curious enough to figure it out. If your host goes tits up or decides to censor your feed or add dynamic ads to offset host costs, you’re at their mercy. And some people just like the idea of being in control of the means of distribution of their content. But that extra freedom and control comes with the extra responsibility of maintaining your own feeds.

2025-03-08 14:28:21

The irony of using AI to answer this question is not lost on me. We truly are entering into a dystopian novel, but at least we’ll also have our Soma and Feelies to help with the cope.
In 1984 who writes the songs and novels? https://image.nostr.build/ba94c939833c79defaf9a48f473c4b38b3be0dfafd11dbf2fa56dd7ae64fdd05.jpg

2025-03-08 14:17:55

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The crossing over is what I’m interested in. They say as a person matures, they start to integrate their inferior function, and I’ve noticed in myself an acceptance of emotions as another tool for me to process and experience the world. Neruda is one of the few poets I actually enjoy. And Burkowski is one I’ve also been keen to explore. And I think you might be right about the narrative, especially if it brings up philosophical questions, which is why I like Ozymandias and most of the poems of Robert Frost I’ve encountered. I’ll check out the Bly stuff. Been enjoying The Sibling Society.

2025-03-08 05:50:49

@npub1f49…zpez
I’m highly logical. If you know anything about MBTI, I’m very much an INTP, which has my dominant function being Introverted Thinking and my inferior function being Extraverted Feeling. This means I’m not as in touch with emotions as I am thoughts, and particularly other’s emotions. However, I’ve always been curious about the appeal of poetry without quite understanding the appeal of poetry. I find simply don’t get most poetry. I say all of this because I’m curious if you’ve come across any poets you think might resonate with someone like me.

2025-03-08 04:44:34

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I’ve tried on three different machines to replicate this, and I’m logging in on every one. These types of errors are particularly difficult to figure out.

2025-03-07 12:26:32

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I'll have to fix the error reporting, but until then, press F12 to look at the console and see what the reason for it not going through is.

2025-02-24 01:49:48

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As soon as it’s working, let me know and I’ll nsec signing and drag and drop file uploads to Sovereign Feeds that tie in with your Blossom server.

2025-02-24 01:43:21

@npub1der…xzpc Rumor is you’re hosting your new podcast on a Blossom server. RSS file as well?

2025-02-19 19:31:46

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Here's a proof of concept that allows storing a signed hash in the feed.
https://svelte.dev/playground/134809f1af4d4651a35516502432cf3b?version=5.20.2
If you're on the backup server's approved npub list, they can store it for you for redundancy, otherwise they can reject the feed.
The app can then fetch the feed and verify the hash against the feed.
If the redundant server acted maliciously and modified the feed prior to storing it, like in the Stolen Feed example in which the value address changes, then the app would flag it as an unauthorized change and fetch the feed from the next server in the redundancy list.

2025-02-19 18:09:07

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Now, I don't think there's a way around preventing piracy, that is someone from taking your feed, changing the value block and npub to their own, and signing it and posting it on their server.
There's never been a way to prevent that, and I'm not sure signatures can, any more than they can stop either of us from signing a note that says "I rock" and claiming to be the original author. But signatures can definitely help with the problem of redundancy and ensuring the feed hasn't been tampered with.

2025-02-19 17:33:40

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My idea is the .xml file is read it as a simple string. The host or feed builder would minify the string using a standardized function (this helps to remove extra spaces, new lines, etc that would create a different hash), then hashes it, signs the hash, then add that signature to the xml file.
Adding the signature to the file of course breaks the hash.
So to verify, an app would first remove the signature from the xml file, then minify the string using the same function the host did, then hash then hash it. The string should match the string that was originally hashed because the signature was removed first, and the hashes should match.
And yes, there would have a specific tag to add and remove to ensure nothing extra was added, but as long as everyone was using the same inserting and removal functions, that 'should' guarantee consistency across multiple apps and hosts.
The other would be a function that every app and host uses that parses the xml to a json file, remove the signature tag from the json file, then hash the JSON.stringified object, sign that hash, add it back to the JSON signature tag, then convert back to xml. As long as there's a consistent way to remove the signature before hashing, I think it would work.

2025-02-18 21:10:54

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What about something like this?
When I publish, I can hash the feed, sign the hash, add the signature to the feed, then publish the feed.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thebells1111/bible-song-band/refs/heads/main/nostr.xml
A podcast app removes the signature from the feed, verifies the signature matches the npub in the feed, hashes the feed (with the signature removed) and verifies the hash matches the hash in the signature.
https://svelte.dev/playground/134809f1af4d4651a35516502432cf3b?version=5.20.2

2025-02-18 19:55:43

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I guess this still doesn't solve the problem of how to verify my feed hasn't been tampered with when being stored on someone else's server. You could very easily replace all my value addresses with your own prior to publishing, so I'd have to trust anyone I was using as a redundancy. Seems signing the whole feed is necessary as you were pointing out.

2025-02-18 19:28:50

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With podcasting, pirating a feed has always been possible. Although that should be addressed, the problem I'm thinking about isn't pirating so much as it's redundancy. If you, me, and Spencer all had servers, I want to host yours and his feed as well as my own as a backup, and you guys do the same for me. I'm trying to think of a way that I can prove to your server that it's me that's actually requesting the feed update, and not someone else. Perhaps the way to do it isn't the signature in the feed, but I encode the whole feed, sign it, then send it to your server. I'm in your list of approved npubs, so you verify it's me, decode the feed and replace the old one.

2025-02-18 19:17:58

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I don't know if I'd go that far, but I've built a thing or two, and I'm no dummy, yet I find nostr is not quite as simple to build on as it's made out to be. Sending stuff on relays is easy enough, but an ever growing list of NIPs, the potential for tens of thousands kinds, single letter tags, encoding, decoding, different ids, it definitely gets complicated quickly, and it's hard to keep track of what the consensus for doing anything is. Perhaps there isn't a consensus yet, and that's part of the pain I'm feeling.