What is Nostr? The Decentralized Protocol Powering diVine

What is Nostr?

Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a decentralized, censorship-resistant protocol designed to give users control over their online identities and content. Unlike traditional social media platforms that rely on centralized servers and corporate moderation, Nostr allows users to communicate directly through a network of independent relays. This makes it permissionless—meaning anyone can use it without needing approval from a corporation or government.

Key Features of Nostr

Decentralized: No single company controls Nostr; it operates on a distributed network of relays.
Censorship-Resistant: Users cannot be banned from the network; they can always find a relay that will host their content.
Permissionless: No accounts, phone numbers, or email verification required—just a cryptographic key pair.
Portable Identity: Your identity follows you across all Nostr apps, not locked to any single platform.

Why Nostr is Different from Big Tech

Traditional social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter are centralized—meaning a single company controls the servers, your data, and your account. If you violate their terms of service (or if they change their policies), they can delete your account, remove your content, or ban you entirely.

Nostr flips this model completely:

Feature	Big Tech Platforms	Nostr
Identity Ownership	Company owns your account	You own your cryptographic keys
Data Control	Locked in corporate databases	Stored on relays you choose
Censorship	Can ban you entirely	Cannot be banned from network
Platform Switching	Start over on each platform	One identity across all apps
Algorithm Control	Corporate-controlled feed	You decide what you see
Monetization	Platform takes a cut	Direct tips via Bitcoin

How diVine Uses Nostr

diVine is built entirely on the Nostr protocol, bringing the creative spirit of 6-second looping videos to a decentralized platform. This means your videos, profile, followers, and engagement are all stored on Nostr relays instead of corporate servers. You own your content and your identity.

Nostr Basics: Keys and Identity

Unlike traditional social media, Nostr does not require a username-password combination. Instead, it uses cryptographic keys:

Public Key (npub_...): This is your identity, like a username. Anyone can see it and follow you.
Private Key (nsec_...): This is your password. Never share it! It signs your posts and proves your identity. Learn more about protecting your Nostr keys.
Username (NIP05 domain): Optional email-like handles (e.g., user@divine.video) that make your identity easier to share and verify.

Nostr Event Kinds Used by diVine

diVine implements several standard Nostr event kinds (NIPs) to provide a complete video sharing experience:

Kind 34236 (NIP-71): Addressable short videos - The core video content format. These events contain video URLs, metadata (title, duration, dimensions), thumbnails, and descriptions.
Kind 6 (NIP-18): Reposts - Share someone else's video to your followers.
Kind 7 (NIP-25): Reactions - Like and react to videos with emoji reactions.
Kind 1 (NIP-01): Text notes - Comments on videos and general text posts.
Kind 3 (NIP-02): Follow lists - Manage who you follow to build your personalized feed.
Kind 0 (NIP-01): User metadata - Your profile information including name, bio, profile picture, and other details.

By using these standardized event kinds, diVine ensures compatibility with the broader Nostr ecosystem while providing a specialized video-focused experience.

Relays: The Backbone of Nostr

Relays are servers that store and distribute messages between users. Unlike centralized platforms where a single entity owns the database, Nostr relays operate independently. diVine connects to specialized video relays optimized for storing and streaming short-form video content.

How Relays Work

Relays do not control user accounts; they only store and transmit events (posts, videos, likes, etc.).
Anyone can run a relay, making the network decentralized.
Users can connect to multiple relays to ensure their content reaches a wider audience.
Some relays may charge a fee or require authentication to prevent spam.

diVine's Primary Relay

diVine uses relay.divine.video as its primary relay—a high-performance, OpenSearch-backed relay with specialized features for video content. This relay implements NIP-50 (full-text search) for discovering videos by keywords, hashtags, and trending content. However, because diVine is built on Nostr, your videos are also available on any other Nostr relay you choose to publish to.

Nostr Clients vs. Relays

Clients: How You Access Nostr

Clients are applications that allow users to read, write, and interact with content on Nostr. They function similarly to social media apps but with full decentralization. diVine is a Nostr client—specifically designed for 6-second looping video content.

Because Nostr is decentralized, your account is not tied to any single app. You can use your diVine account (your Nostr keys) with any other Nostr client, and your identity, followers, and content will remain the same. This means you have one account, infinite apps to choose from.

Other Nostr Clients

While diVine focuses on short-form video, you can use your same Nostr identity across other clients. Browse our Showcase page to discover more Nostr applications:

Ditto - Community platform builder for decentralized communities
Primal - General social networking with discovery features
Damus - Clean iOS client for text and media
Treasures - Decentralized geocaching on Nostr
Flotilla - Nostr private communities

This demonstrates the power of Nostr's decentralized identity—one account works across an entire ecosystem of apps, each specialized for different purposes.

Why This Matters for diVine

By building on Nostr, diVine offers something unique in the short-form video space: true ownership and freedom. You're not renting space on someone else's platform—you're participating in an open network where you control your creative work.

This also means diVine can focus on building the best creative tools and user experience, while the Nostr protocol handles identity, data storage, and network effects. If diVine ever shuts down, your videos, followers, and identity persist on Nostr—ready to use with any other compatible client.

Fork and Customize diVine

Because diVine is open source and built on the permissionless Nostr protocol, anyone can fork and edit diVine to do whatever you want! Want to connect to different relays to see different content? Want to add new features or change the design? You have complete freedom to customize the app.

diVine is built on MKStack—Soapbox's open source framework for rapidly building Nostr applications. This means you get a production-ready foundation with modern web technologies, Nostr protocol integration, and all the tools you need to create your own version of diVine.

What You Can Do with a diVine Fork

Connect to Different Relays: See content that may be removed or hidden from the primary diVine relay by connecting to alternative Nostr relays
Create Niche Communities: Build specialized video platforms for specific interests (gaming clips, cooking tutorials, etc.)
Customize the Experience: Change video length limits, add new features, or redesign the interface
Experiment Freely: Test new ideas without needing permission from anyone

Learn more about the open source technology behind diVine and how MKStack enables rapid development of production-ready Nostr applications.

Learn More About Nostr

Want to dive deeper into the Nostr protocol? Check out these resources:

Nostrbook.dev - Comprehensive documentation of Nostr event kinds and protocol
NostrHub - Explore Nostr Improvement Proposals (NIPs) and development
Nostrapps.com - Discover other Nostr applications
Nostr 101 - Our comprehensive beginner's guide to the protocol

By choosing Nostr as its foundation, diVine is part of a growing movement toward open, decentralized social networking—where creativity, ownership, and freedom come first.