Show HN: Nstart, a Nostr's Onbarding Tool (opens in new tab)

(start.njump.me)

23 pointsdtonon1y ago4 comments

Nstart aims to guide new users to Nostr offering a easy and no-nonsense onboarding wizard, with useful hints about the protocol and some really exclusive features:

- Easy local backup of your nsec or ncryptsec - Email yourself your ncryptsec, as an additional backup location - Create a multi-signer bunker URL for Nostr Connect (more info below) - Auto follow the contacts list of some old and trusted Nostr users - Customize of contact suggestions, useful for onboarding friends & family

Try Nstart live at https://start.njump.me or watch this video to understand how it works: https://chronicle.dtonon.com/77b9a397cbbcd63f3bfc78ff2b2c060...

For devs: it can also be used by any Nostr application, web or mobile, to offer an easy onboarding flow! You can integrate it effortlessly via a simple redirect, modal or popup: in the end, the user is automagically logged into the app, without needing to touch their keys/bunker. https://jumble.social, https://flotilla.social, https://nosotros.app, nostr-login (and so every website that uses it, like https://npub.pro, https://nostr.band, https://www.whynostr.org, etc..) are already using Nstart, check them.

Example of the integration: https://chronicle.dtonon.com/5a55f1db7efdc2b19a09284c360909e...

Docs: https://github.com/dtonon/nstart/blob/master/APPS-INTEGRATIO...

A note about the multi-signer bunker. This is really cool stuff made by @fiatjaf, that uses FROST to split your nsec in 3 (or more) and distribute each shard to an independent trusted remote signer. This will give you a bunker code that you can use to log in to many web, mobile and desktop apps without exposing your nsec. If you ever lose your bunker code, if the signers vanish from Earth, and it stops working, or if it gets stolen by a malware virus, you can use your nsec to create a new one and invalidate the old one.

More info and source code: https://github.com/dtonon/nstart

Enjoy it and send back any feedback, thanks!

4 comments

egypturnash1y ago

Damn and people complain about Mastodon being hard to get started on, "okay now download this text file and look at it to make sure it matches some of this text" followed by "Now you have the possibility to split your nsec in 3 using a technique called FROST and distribute each shard to an independent trusted remote signer" is just absolutely incoherent to anyone who is not a programmer.

I did that and a progress bar popped up over the "activate the bunker" button and now when I hit it the bar goes backwards and then refills and then there's just the "activate the bunker" button to press and that happens again, I do not think Nostr is anywhere near ready for prime time.

And now I unchecked the checkbox in that screen and skipped activating this "bunker" and it's showing me some random techbro-looking dudes and asking if I want to clone their follower lists? Who are these dudes and who are they following? Can I look at their feeds before making this decision? Evidently not?

And now it's telling me I need to go to yet another place to actually sign in, okay lemme try this Coracle thing, it's the first app in the list, how do I sign in here, what's a "remote signer", or I could download a "signer app", or I could just close the tab, I think I'm just gonna close the tab. Goodbye Nostr, you are absolutely incomprehensible.

dtononOP1y ago

Thank you for the feedback, I know there are still several rough spots to be fixed.

Nostr is a protocol that has a lot of potential, but there are tradeoffs, it now has a large ecosystem and requires learning some new paradigms, and being completely decentralized the terminology is also becoming more standardized and consolidated over time.

This onboarding system is meant to try to explain them, certainly not for people who want to quickly enter an email and a password and start using a specific app. For that one can precisely download an app and use the built-in onboarding, often apps create a profile without asking for anything and invite afterwards to save the credentials.

These are different paths for different needs, the good thing is that with Nostr you have a choice, and when you have created your digital identity, you can use it anywhere.

mutant1y ago

The time I spent on nostr was toxic and pointless. Discovery sucks. Love the idea, but all you get is anonymous hate speech

nout1y ago

Here are some interesting profiles on Nostr to follow: https://primal.net/e/note1q2rxxfm7a9hx69h606jgxmumzq0dclpck4...

On nostr you are the algorithm - you are responsible for picking the people you follow.

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