A social network.
Not one company.

The idea in a minute

On a familiar social platform, the same company usually runs the app, keeps your account and decides what reaches your feed. Nostr separates those jobs. You choose an app to read and write, and that app connects to independent servers to exchange posts.

The name stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays. A protocol is a shared set of rules, not a particular website. Think of email: you can use different email apps without everyone needing the same one. The analogy is useful, but Nostr uses cryptographic keys rather than a provider-issued mailbox.

Vega is one Nostr app: a free, open-source desktop client for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is not Nostr itself, and you do not need to use Vega to participate.

Three pieces, different jobs

Your identity

A public key identifies you. Its matching private key lets you sign posts and other actions. A display name or picture can change; the key is what identifies the author.

Your client

The app you use to read, follow, post and message. Vega is a client. Different clients can present different feeds, filters and features while using the same protocol.

Your relays

Servers that receive and serve messages. There is no single master server holding every post. Relays have their own availability, retention rules, access policies and moderation.

When you publish a note, your client signs it and sends it to relays. Other people’s clients ask relays for posts, then verify the signatures. A valid signature establishes which key signed a message; it does not prove that the message is true, or that the author is who their display name suggests.

Using the same identity in another compatible app is possible without starting a new account. What that app can find depends on reachable relays and the features it supports. A key alone is not a backup of your posts, and app-specific settings may not transfer.

One key to share. One to protect.

You will often see two prefixes:

• npub — your public key. Share it so people can find the right profile. It does not let someone post as you. Treat it as a public identifier, not an anonymous one.
• nsec — your private or secret key. Anyone with it can act as your identity. Do not put it in a post, a support message, a screenshot, or a website claiming to verify your account.

These prefixes are human-readable formats defined in NIP-19, one of the protocol’s specifications. You do not need to memorize the rest of a key to use Nostr.

A remote signer is another option: a separate app or device keeps your private key and handles signing requests. It can reduce which apps receive the key, but it still needs careful setup, backups and permission review. Vega supports the NIP-46 remote-signing protocol.

More choice is not a privacy guarantee

Public notes are public. Other people and services can read, copy, archive and connect them to your public key. A relay you contact can observe the connection; using keys does not automatically make your network activity anonymous.

Direct messages are a separate feature with their own encryption formats and limitations. Do not assume that everything an app sends is encrypted simply because the app uses Nostr, or that encryption removes all metadata.

Deletion is a request, not an eraser for the whole internet. The protocol defines deletion requests, but cannot force every relay, client, archive or recipient to remove a copy. Avoid publishing anything you would need to reliably take back.

There is no single platform-wide moderator, but moderation still exists. A relay can refuse your posts or stop serving you, and a client can filter content. The ability to choose other services is different from a promise that every service must carry your posts.

The same applies to permanence: no central account owner does not mean every post is stored forever. Relay policies and outages affect what remains available. Keep separate copies of work that matters to you.

Do I need Bitcoin or a wallet?

No. You can browse public posts, make an identity, follow people and publish with Vega without a Bitcoin wallet. Zaps are an optional way to send a creator a small Lightning payment. They are not required to have a conversation.

Some independent relays charge for access, but that is a policy of those relays, not a requirement of the Nostr protocol. You can explore first and learn about payments later, if you want to.