Nostrshire — The UK's First Ever Nostr Conference at Bitfest 2025
Nostrshire — A part of Bitfest 2025 & More…
On the 21st of November 2025, we held the UK’s first-ever, full-scale Nostr conference at the Pendulum Hotel, Manchester, as a part of the inaugural Bitfest conference festival. The event, created, funded, and headed up as a grassroots venture, was the work of a small team of Bitcoin and Nostr enthusiasts and volunteers, along with a few partners with a vision to bring together Bitcoiners, Bitcoin communities, and Nostrians in the UK as a show of strength and unity within the UK, sending a powerful signal globally that UK Bitcoiners are fighting strong.
Day 0
In true developer fashion, Nostrshire was listed as Day 0 of the Bitfest event and, surprisingly, was buzzing with action with around 120-150 attendees throughout the day.
Talks featured everything from Nostr ecology to building and privacy to the Nostr creator economy and crowdfunding. All presented by some of Nostr’s most active developers and enthusiasts in the space.
The morning session was kicked off with an amazing keynote from https://nostr.com founder https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsvrlrhw86l5sv06wkyjgs6rrcekskvk7nx8k50qn9m7mqgeqxjpvg8u2e5q on the Ecology of Nostr, discussing its humble beginnings and subsequent growth into a now widely used protocol by many Bitcoin and other developers in building the future of the internet.
Throughout the morning talks, attendees were treated to amazing talks from Nostr and Bitcoin OGs and new builders alike, with every presentation expanding the view of what Nostr is to people and how it can be used.
Bitcoin OG and Nostr super developer https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsr7acdvhf6we9fch94qwhpy0nza36e3tgrtkpku25ppuu80f69kfq9q9kky gave an amazing introduction to https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs8sxs4yuz47axp7uprpugrs3sfkdz5379tdg9xe2n5qfvz070a4egc9mrhy and vibecoding for Nostr applications, showing people how easy it can be to start developing their own apps using the protocol.
Another amazing talk by https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsry5n324pldepmuzryv5ffkqcdgltke7xw44re3eygv3trcvm4pqcm39ccf of https://nostrdev.com explored how, though many of us are using Nostr, we may still fall into the traps of using traditional, less-private communication software in our everyday lives and how we should be building easier-to-use apps, which can be shared with new users, to have better privacy in our everyday communications, being aware of a surveillance state.
The talk dove into the backdoors and invasions of privacy that have happened and continue to happen with these traditional softwares, as they have become massively insecure data pots over time, highlighting that things are set to get worse, both in the UK and globally.
A few panels during the morning also took discussion to another level, with heavyweight builders such as https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqstsw3gkljwt5stm9svt7htvcjlj4ffze4chkcyt4pxxj30xkgeg5qc7dxpg, nprofile1qqsvfa085adgecmg84ffelcxx6zrn3ffu5jrc6cjtwng0zge3ptv43c82kf5d, nprofile1qqswfa547pdmqkerzf2uen3agudc67wxffjmenqpge3dylc006fppys27zxn8, https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsdkcj7wcm4g09867lx2qjcxndnrzsv0d6mpc3af7u78y3f7kaxlfcrxnme5, Constant and the legendary https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsy2ga7trfetvd3j65m3jptqw9k39wtq2mg85xz2w542p5dhg06e5qnykmge took the stage, discussing WoT, development ethos and Podcasting 3.0.
We closed off the morning session with a great storytime talk and presentation from the great https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqswc7d4dz775c72vzgltwztp33ecy9qjx0pwhaqnfx7x920s2gx7fgjhhnrl on his journey with Bitcoin, Art, creators on Nostr and building https://plebeian.market/ for Nostrians.
After some good networking and lunch from the venue’s lightning-powered restaurant, the afternoon talks continued with more enlightening talks, starting off with Martti Malmi taking us on a guided tour through Nostr privacy, followed by a panel from https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs2vrneurk665gq6a2rke572y7mc8ppwr5wnd60mw8fwxharc8xsyc9ruc0e, Short Fiat and Derek Ross on what Nostr doesn’t fix and shortly after https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs9afryspzmk8ljyfj4mhfkumwwmhzrtyxzvzgvfp477w80g5x6t0g54u33x, took us through the Web Of Trust Foundation.
The excitement did not stop there, nor slow down, with our youngest speaker and possibly youngest Nostr developer, https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsf8taxp8293qhtay0zal9yp3wu6tcxzj5cnzkglc6wwr2l0da0mzcuu8fhq, revealing his gaming application and protocol, https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs9wj8mumkqgslplpdkvdgla8xzw9cpfnun3txfdrnmyrysnxqzg5c7vdw0r, in a remarkably fun demo.
OG developer and Nostr co-founder https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsxsvs3h524c7mkfe9enw3x8g23mqfqn0n62e4zhvvhrhqmh5ahzhsjhwnjl talked Nostr IOT, while the amazing https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs0kcde8kryuncwhfmxhwz4dukuqf3w36v9qyhznw3g2zxa2gr8mxqs4yveq took to the stage to run us through Nostr-based equity and crowdfunding platform https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs8p3ywfd92w7zvjgy7wrpylz8t30hy3z5dc5al4070l9y8qr8rejcksnh5c before the afternoon break.
After a quick coffee and loo run, the main stage was buzzing again, with panels and talks questioning if Nostr enables Silk Road 2.0, Nostr as Identity First Internet from https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsfdajjyjdsj3hp2awh329uw3gpy0ywvncu2mmt97fmcglmyj0dsks8ka3fy, Sovereign Business Building from https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsvswpas8wjgsr8gkmggzd7grt8y8pszq55vsr8lnzs5fwalyfe2jgqdff53, Tales from Atlantis by https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsg8kve59yxyhpa9wupntesvnq0dgfd0k5g769jc6fzrua8gct36xgcmk6nu and closing out with https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsd5x03e56tajjyhe6d5jesdkw3mkrtvdpua72vugkyn3h4nqtwt0gmndeg0, taking us on a Donkey Ride, before saying GM! to https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqsrhuxx8l9ex335q7he0f09aej04zpazpl0ne2cgukyawd24mayt8g2lcy6q and crew.
Day 0 wrapped up to be an amazing experience, from what the team thought may have just been a few fellow Nostrians gathering to discuss the open internet, into a full day of Nostr excellence, with great and humbling feedback from both speakers and attendees. Nostrshire wasn’t just a dev meetup or an empty room of freedom advocates talking to the walls. It had truly become something special for the history books.
The Afterparty - nPubDub
In true grassroots and permissionless style, the nPubDub came in as a surprise addition to the Day 0 event.
Held just 2 minutes away in Manchester’s Joshua Brooks Bar & Club, the afterparty, organised by OG Bitcoiner and magician, https://yakihonne.com/profile/nprofile1qqs04gpkxc69xwttusj8cm3q72ktqx6rct534z67qxaj69xracufc6sfk66e6, brought the bass and sounds of Sound System culture directly to Manchester. Hosted by the internationalhttps://www.instagram.com/roots_youths_dj_kullar_/?hl=en of Roots Youth Records) and supported with the MC skills of https://www.instagram.com/ras.kayleb/?hl=en, the night turned into a fun gathering of Reggae, Dub, Drum & Bass and a round or two of virtual darts, with Rare Pepe’s, Nostr and Bitcoin visuals taking over the many screens on the upper floor, until 1 am.
After the party, it’s the hotel lobby
After such an action-packed day and evening of events, the hotel lobby (the hotel in which the conference was held) was still buzzing with discussion from many until the early hours of the morning!
Alas, the team made their way up to their rooms to prepare for the events of the following day, as Day 0 had come to an end.
Thank you!
We want to extend a massive thank you to everyone who came out to support, volunteer, speak and make Nostrshire special. It was truly a fitting way to kick off the UK’s newest and largest Bitcoin conference to date, and we could never have done it without the plebs. So to you, dear Nostrian, we salute! 💜
