Derek Ross

derekross@grownostr.org

The purple pill helps the orange pill go down.

Developer Relations at Soapbox.

🪺 NostrNests.com 🎙️ YakBak.app 🖼️ Zappix.app 🗓️ Plektos.app 🎶 ZapTrax.app 📈 Zaplytics.app 🎧 Podstr.org

derekross.me

by Derek Ross Jul 14, 2026 · Edited

Building an Armada: Our Voyage to Encrypted Communities on Nostr

NIP-04, NIP-17, NIP-29, Marmot, and now Concord. A personal account of every wall we hit trying to build encrypted communities on Nostr, and why we kept going.

by Derek Ross Jul 8, 2026 · Edited

How Soapbox Ships So Fast: Our Stack, Our Tools, Our Workflow

People keep asking how a small team ships so many Nostr apps so fast. The honest answer: there's no secret. It's all open source, and it's all in our Toolbox. Here's the whole playbook.

by Derek Ross Jul 1, 2026

Banning Fable 5 Only Accelerated the Open-Weight Future

by Derek Ross Jun 16, 2026 · Edited

How to Disappear From the Surveillance Internet

The UK's under-16 social media ban means age-checks for everyone. Here's how to opt out with Nostr, Bitcoin, NostrVPN &amp

by Derek Ross May 4, 2026 · Edited

Soapbox at Bitcoin 2026: Nostr Became Infrastructure

How Bitcoin Conference Week 2026 played out for Soapbox: five panels, NosVegas 2.0, V4V music payouts, and Nostr finally landing as infrastructure.

by Derek Ross Apr 8, 2026

The Chameleon Method: Three Skills That Future-Proof You in the Age of AI

The three C's: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, are durable in a way that technical skills aren't. They transfer across tools, industries, roles, and eras. They're what made humans valuable before AI, and they're what will make humans valuable after AI becomes ubiquitous.

by Derek Ross Feb 26, 2026

Small Business Owners Don't Fear AI -- They're Hungry for It

What I learned teaching a two-part AI seminar to local entrepreneurs.

by Derek Ross Feb 12, 2026 · Edited

Coding Doesn't Die. It Evolves.

Elon Musk says coding dies by December. He's right about the direction. He's wrong about the conclusion. The future belongs to people who can think.

by Derek Ross Jan 24, 2026 · Edited

Building Onyx: Why I'm Creating an Open Source Alternative to Big Tech's AI Productivity Tools

Big Tech wants to lock your productivity into their AI platforms and mine your data. I'm building the alternative. Onyx: encrypted notes, Nostr sync, open source, AI skills library. Your data stays yours.

by Derek Ross Feb 2, 2026 · Edited

Vibe Coding at One: From Meme to Movement

One year ago, Andrej Karpathy coined 'vibe coding.' It became a dictionary word. At Soapbox, we've spent that year building the tools to make it work—not just for throwaway projects, but for real applications that matter.

by Derek Ross Jan 23, 2026 · Edited

Building Pathos: From Hackathon to Real-World Activism

We built a censorship-resistant platform for activists in 48 hours. Within hours, Venezuelan activists were using it to organize against authoritarianism.

by Derek Ross Dec 16, 2025 · Edited

AI-First Development on Mobile: Shakespeare Changes the Game

Unlike dedicated mobile coding apps that have failed to gain traction, Shakespeare is a Progressive Web App that delivers a full development experience on mobile with Nostr Git sync.

by Derek Ross Dec 10, 2025 · Edited

Announcing the Shakespeare Community: Connect and Learn

Join the Shakespeare Community to connect with builders, attend workshops and events, become an ambassador, and get help with your AI-powered web development projects.

by Derek Ross Jan 10, 2026

Inkwell: A Writing App Born in Walmart

I built a Nostr blog publishing tool while waiting for new tires. When existing apps failed me, Shakespeare helped me solve my own problem for about $3.

by Derek Ross Dec 30, 2025

Nostr Predictions for 2026: The Year Everything Clicks

2026 is the year Nostr clicks—“Other Stuff” goes mainstream, diVine brings in millions, Shakespeare turns conversations into apps, and NIP-17 finally fixes DMs. Zapstore and ngit mature for the open source ecosystem, and as Nostr gains wider attention, the focus shifts toward privacy-forward messaging—setting the stage for 2027 as the year of WhiteNoise and NIP-EE.