The State of Nostr with Bob Scully, David King, Oscar Merry, and Moritz Kaminski

We recently hosted a Hivemind Ventures LP/Portfolio day, where we showcased a variety of presentations. The Nostr panel was particularly good so I’ve decided to release it publicly.

The panel features an all-star cast, including: Bob Scully (founder of boardwalk.cash), David King (co-host of Nostr News), Oscar Merry (co-founder, Fountain), and Moritz Kaminski (co-founder, Alby).

We discuss:

* Why Nostr feels like the early Internet

* How Nostr (Nostr Wallet Connect) serves as the universal messaging layer for Bitcoin/Lightning Network payments

* How Nostr’s open identity and social graph allows apps like Fountain to build new experiences like discovering the podcasts your friends listen to

* Why Nostr is so much more than social media. The real promise of Nostr is a social Internet where data is open and users control their own identity, allowing for a Cambrian explosion of new social apps. Imagine automatically finding your friends’ reviews on goodreads, listens on Spotify, and highlights on Kindle

* How Nostr compares to other projects (e.g. Bluesky and Farcaster) attempting to build open publishing for the web. Why Nostr is the only neutral solution for bringing user-owned identity and open data to any web app today

* What business models might be viable for startups building in and around Nostr

* Will Nostr bring more people to Bitcoin or will Bitcoin bring more people to Nostr?

Learn more about Fountain, Alby, Boardwalk Cash, and Nostr News

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hivemindvc.substack.com