Lightning, prisms, and Nostr

By Alejandro September 30, 2023
The combination of censorship resistant and universally available money and social media is creating a completely new world. Learn how prisms and the Lightning Network are being used to drive advertising in the Nostr social network.
Lightning, prisms, and Nostr

“I believe that Nostr is Bitcoin’s first layer three technology. Bitcoin solves money, Lightning solves payments and Nostr solves identity and coordination.”

— Bob, @bob

Welcome to the latest issue of the Bitcoin For Families newsletter. This issue explains the concept of Lightning Prisms and how they are being used for zapvertising at Nostr.

On Wednesday, @bob announced the availability of @@arcw…ggtw, a new Nostr app that automates the creation of Lightning Prisms using Nostr identities as the glue that connects lightning addresses to the prism.

This is another example of the limitless possibilities that arise from programmable money with instantaneous transactions. Let’s dig deeper into what it does and what it means for the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Prisms and paying to multiple people at once

The concept of prisms was suggested by @@y24g…z2ad and popularized by @Gigi in this article back in March.

Here is a highlight from Gigi’s article explaining what Prisms are:

@note1v6l…nqnmmr6r

And a graphical representation extracted from his article.

Prism in action Prisms programmatically split lightning payments.

Want to reward the developers of your website? Want to reward the contributors to your latest article? Create a lightning address with a prism attached to it.

$prism

Prisms are an interesting concept that can be used in so many ways. But besides so quick tests triggered by Gigi’s article, nothing serious was done.

Until @@arcw…ggtw came around.

@@arcw…ggtw is a Nostr bot that creates a prism with the first 10 people that repost a Nostr note. To get the bot’s attention you just need to include the word $boost in your note.

Once 10 people repost your note (or 12 hours go by), @@arcw…ggtw creates a new note representing the prism. Any zap (a micropayment using sats and the Lightning Network) done on that note will be split equally across the 10 recipients. The only requirement is that zaps need to be done with a Nostr client that supports zap splitting. Options today are:

Here are some screenshots of a test a did myself.

alejandro
Sep 28, 2023 19:03

Let’s test the $boost feature.

In the Venture world, if an early investor doesn’t invest in the next round, then your startup is screwed because as an early investor you have visibility into what the company is doing and your lack of investment sends a very clear message of “no confidence”.

Here we have an even bigger issue: Ripple is an early investor and after their due diligence they decide not to acquire Fortress.

This sends a very loud message of systemic issues beyond a single hack. That’s a one off that you cover with money and move on.

https://blockworks.co/news/ripple-abandons-plan-fortress-trust

View full event

@2u7x…jjmt
Sep 28, 2023 19:03

@@arcw…ggtw recieved your request! Your prism will be created after 10 reposts or in 12 hours.

View full event

@nevent1q…qpwtyxat

And here is how the split is shown when zapping the prims with Snort.social:

What can you do with prisms in Nostr?

There is a big debate on Nostr about what to do with prisms. It’s important to note that you can limit the potential recipients of the prism with a list. You could, for example, limit the prism to only your followers.

I believe that the main application for prisms in Nostr is going to be marketing. I can post a note and promise any amount of sats to the first 10 people who repost it. This would expand the reach of my note significantly.

I could also restrict the prism to my followers and encourage people to follow me if they don’t already and repost to be included in the prism.

But there is an opportunity for abuse as well. Someone could create a bot that looks for prism notes and automatically reposts them to farm the zap splits.

We are still early and the team behind prism plans to expand its capabilities in the near future but what’s undeniable is that these are exciting times for social media and Nostr.

Twitter is sharing revenue with the blue checks but there is no way for Twitter users to share revenue or reward financially their followers. You can only do that with Nostr.

The combination of censorship resistant and universally available money and social media is creating a completely new world.

Notable notes

bob
Sep 27, 2023 17:34

I’m excited to announce the launch of $prism.

Nostr is many things, but most importantly, I believe that Nostr is Bitcoin’s first layer three technology. Bitcoin solves money, Lightning solves payments and Nostr solves identity and coordination. Similar to the Bitcoin and Lightning protocols, the Nostr protocol is permissionless and decentralized.

Nostr solves identity using a simple public key that works across any client. Nostr solves coordination by directly connecting Lightning wallets without intermediaries via Nostr wallet connect (“NWC”) and Lightning address (or ideally a future Nostr native equivalent).

There will be many incredible bitcoin experiences built with Nostr. We are making prisms.

Lightning prisms without Nostr are hard to coordinate and execute. It requires figuring out each address, a way to coordinate payout amounts, and someone taking custody of the bitcoin for a period of time to manage payouts. So we’ve seen almost no one making prisms.

Now with Nostr, they are incredibly easy. Want to create a prism on Nostr right now? Type $boost into the text of your next post on any client and we’ll make a prism with the first 10 people that repost it. We’ll post the prism on @@2u7x…jjmt and you can zap it with any client that supports zap splits like Snort.social or Amethyst. Want to limit your prism to a smaller group of people? Create a listr on listr.lol like #friends and type $boost #friends. We’ll only create a prism with users that boost your post and are on your #friends list.

With NWC, payments all complete wallet to wallet, no intermediary necessary and we never touch your bitcoin. The possibilities are now endless for building new consumer experiences on top of Lightning and Bitcoin.

We started $prism to push forward the bitcoin experience on Nostr. We’ll be launching more prism products over the coming days. Follow @@arcw…ggtw or go to https://makeprisms.com to learn more.

A special thanks to @@ce7d…3d7m who has been an early thought partner and the first contributor to $prism and @bitcoinplebdev who is our newest contributor.

View full event

Recommendations

Bob, gudnuf, and bitcoinplebdeb

The creators of @@arcw…ggtw.

You can follow them at @bob, @@ce7d…3d7m and @bitcoinplebdev

croxroadnews

Finances and Bitcoin only newsletter that, just like me, started using Beehiiv and now is using Nostr.

Check it out on the web or your favorite nostr client: @croxroadnews.

What did you think of today’s newsletter?

Your feedback helps me create the best newsletter possible for you.

Please leave a comment and checkout comments from other subscribers and readers. I love hearing from the Bitcoin For Families community ❤️ 🙏🏻

See you again next week! — Alejandro

This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.

#lightning #nostr #zapvertising #prism
No comments yet.