How to get started

Pick one or more clients…

There are a fair number of Nostr clients. They're all changing quickly since Nostr is new. Here's our run-down for the ones you'll probably want to consider…

iOS/iPadOS client apps

Damus

Only one iOS app has been released so far - it's called Damus. (Nostr Damus - get it?) It's developed by Will (aka "jb55"). Many people view it as the standard other apps should emulate - and for a while that was definitely true. (Damus at the App Store)

Nostur

The next Nostr app to be released for iOS will most likely be Nostur. It's being developed by Fabian. I've been using the beta version. It was pretty rough when I started using it, but it's beginning to be competitive with Damus. (Nostur on TestFlight)

Nos Social

Nos.social is another iOS app that's under development for Nostr. Development is being led by "Rabble" (they/them) who is one of the co-founders of Twitter. It's further behind in development than the other two, but I have high hopes for it. I believe there will also be an Android version, though they haven't even started on that AFAIK… (Nos on TestFlight)

Android client apps

Amethyst

I don't have an Android, so I can't vouch for any of the Nostr apps on that platform, but the leading one seems to definitely be Amethyst which is developed by Vitor Pamplona. I've interacted with Vitor on Nostr and find him to be a decent guy who's working hard on his app and doing a number of innovative things. (Some are so innovative they cause controversy.)

Web-based clients for any web browser

The user experience with web-based Nostr clients isn't quite as good as the native iOS/Android clients, but some of them are quite good - especially when you're working on a large screen…

Primal.net is another web client that has some great features, but I wouldn't suggest new users use it quite yet. For starters it seems to be lacking login and logout buttons! But when it's finally ready it looks like it will be another great option.

There's also "Coracle Social" but I do NOT recommend it. The developer describes himself as a "Christian Bitcoiner" and unfortunately his style of Christianity seems to be right-wing conservative. At one point I posted something about how Nostr needs to be prepared for hate speech. His response was that using the term "hate speech" was a form of hate speech. I gave him an example of me getting a death threat for announcing the first LGBT owned & operated Nostr relay and he absolutely refused to call it hate speech. My take away was that he's fine with hate provided it's not aimed at people like him. With other solid options, there's no need to use Coracle.

Still Undecided?

I don't think you can go wrong with any of those choices, but if you're still undecided I recommend that you start by creating your account on Damus or Amethyst if you're on a mobile device and Iris.to if you're on a computer.

Remember - you don't have to stick with the client you start with. You can bounce around to whatever suits you in the moment. But don't go overboard - make sure the site is reputable before trying it.

And remember - STORE YOUR PRIVATE KEY SOMEWHERE IT WON'T GET LOST!!

Relay recommendations

Once you've signed up, gotten your private key and public key and taken a look around, the next thing to do is tweak a few settings. First up, relays… Somewhere in Settings (depends on the client) you'll see the ability to add and delete relays. Here are the ones we recommend:

• wss://relay.s3x.social (our relay) - Even if you haven't registered with us yet, you can still read from our relay - so go ahead and add it. Do don't forget to register and use us for NIP-05 validation since it gives you free write access!
• wss://purplepag.es (run by Pablo7z) - This relay helps you find people and bring up their profile details quickly. It only contains profiles - no other types of events. He has a crawler that goes out to other relays and pulls profiles, but writing to it directly is best.
• wss://adult.18plus.social (run by Paul Jones) - This is a paid relay that's run by a porn industry veteran. It's located in the UK, so unlike our relay, prostitution-related content is allowed.
• wss://relay.mutinywallet.com (run by Mutiny Wallet) - Use this relay with caution! This is the most well-known "blaster" relay. The idea is that this relay doesn't actually have any content. Instead it takes your posts and "blasts" them to the 100+ top relays. Some of them are paid and won't take your post unless you're a subscriber, but it's very effective at getting your content as wide of a distribution as possible. That's great until you want to delete your post. If you use this relay you up your chances of not being able to completely delete the things you post.
• wss://relay.nostr.band (run by Artur Brugeman) - You'll want to use this if you want to see the broadest possible number of Nostr posts - including Mastodon posts that have been replicated into Nostr. It aims to be the archive.org of Nostr. There is spam prevention, so most of the spam will be filtered out. The parent site (Nostr.band) is worth taking a look at. There are all sorts of stats and tools to discover things on Nostr.

Getting "NIP-05 validated"

You're going to want Nostr's equivalent of the Twitter blue check mark. Otherwise you'll only be able to be found by your npub (that horribly long cryptic string). You do that by getting "NIP-05 validated". All that really means is that some website has given you a unique name you can give out to other people.

If you have your own website and want your NIP-05 to be YourName@YourWebsite.com or just YourWebsite.com, then click here for instructions on configuring NIP-05 on your own domain.

If you're just a regular user you'll need to get verified on some website. Some websites charge for that, others, like our site, don't charge. If you're active in an online community ask the webmaster if they do NIP-05 validation - they may be able to do it for you. Otherwise you'll need to pick a site for validation. If you're enjoying s3x_SOCIAL we welcome you to simply register for our site and you'll be able to quickly and easily get validated as YourName@s3x.social. If you're a gay guy we offer NIP-05 validation on a bunch of gay-themed websites such as bbbh.com, bbbh.men, MalePrime.com, SpunkBuds.com, Cumdump.Network, TwistedPigs.com, etc.

You can change your NIP5 address at any time. When you do that you won't lose your followers (since behind the scenes they follow your public key). It will only affect people who search for you by your old NIP-05 address.

Setting up for payments

In order to send and receive money (including paying for relays), you'll need a Bitcoin Lightning wallet. The best wallet for beginners is WalletOfSatoshi. You'll find it in your app store. Once you get registered with them, press "receive", then click the @ button at the bottom, and then press the "Copy" button to copy your "lightning address". Then paste that address into your profile settings where it asks for your Bitcoin lightning address or LNURL. It should be a long cryptic string that starts with 'lnurl'.

Once you've done that you're set up to receive money. Converting regular "fiat" money into Bitcoin so you can send money is easier said than done. The conversion fees with Wallet of Satoshi are really high. If you use Cash app that is probably a less expensive way of getting money into your wallet. To do that you first have to convert to Bitcoin within Cash App and then tell Cash App to send money to your Wallet of Satoshi address (which you can get by clicking "receive" then the "B" button at the bottom, then "copy).

Next: How to deal with Nostr Problems