Nostr Biweekly Review ( 1-14 August 2026)

The Nostr Review

19. August 2026August 19, 2026 · 11 Min. Lesezeit11 min read

GM, Nostriches! The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter focused on protocol updates, exciting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and key events happening in the Nostr-verse. If you’re interested, join me in covering updates from the Nostr ecosystem!

Quick review: In the past two weeks, daily active pubkeys increased to 330,101. New user growth rose, as profiles with bios also increased by about 847.53%. Events totaled 11.8 million and zap volume increased to 12.1 million sats.

Additionally, 7 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol. A total of 114 Nostr projects were tracked, with 12 releasing product updates. During this period, 2 notable event took place, and 2 significant events are upcoming.

Nostr Statistics#

Based on user activity, the total daily active pubkeys reached 330,101, reflecting an increase of 31.15% compared to the previous period's 251,701. The highest daily activity was recorded on August 14th, 2026, with 35,777 active users, representing a 7.25% increase compared to the previous record of 33,357.

The number of new users overall experienced significant upward acceleration. In particular, the number of profiles with bios rose to 1,376,540, marking a massive increase of about 847.53% compared to the previous record of 145,276. Furthermore, the number of new profiles with contact lists also increased to 194,880, a 248.30% jump from 55,952. Meanwhile, pubkeys writing events fell to 171,402 within this period, representing a 1.29% drop from the previous 173,638.

In terms of content publishing, network volume increased slightly as approximately 11,805,226 total events were published during this period, representing an increase of about 1.23% compared to the 11,662,285 from the previous cycle. Among them, Reposts reached a total of 481,413 within this period, marking a 91.26% expansion compared to the previous 251,701.

For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 12.1 million, showing an increase of over 16.35% compared to the previous period.

Data source: https://npub.world/stats , https://stats.andotherstuff.org/

NIPs#

NIP-94: file encryption
alexgleason
⁠Alex Gleason

This PR adds file encryption capabilities to NIP-94, enabling encrypted file uploads to public Blossom servers while keeping their contents private from server operators.

Core Concept: The proposal copies NIP-17 encryption properties into NIP-94 so encryption can be used in imeta (image metadata) tags. This allows files to be encrypted before upload, with the server storing only ciphertext without knowing what the files contain.

Privacy & Security Benefit: The encryption requires two pieces of information to view a file:

  1. The encrypted blob itself (stored on the server)
  2. The decryption key/nonce (embedded in the event)

This means files aren't viewable by direct URL alone, making it harder for third parties (like DMCA takedown issuers) to access files without additional information. It provides plausible deniability for server operators who can claim they don't know what content they're hosting.

forum threads as djot
fiatjaf
⁠fiatjaf

This PR proposes that forum thread content (kind 11) should use Djot markup format instead of Markdown, with the goal of preventing Markdown "degeneracy" in the Nostr ecosystem.

Rationale: fiatjaf argues that if the format remains unspecified, people will inevitably implement Markdown and "we'll be dead" (stuck with Markdown's proliferation). Djot is presented as a superior alternative that's simpler and more robust than Markdown.

Existing Support: The PR author notes this format is already supported in dtonon's squalk implementation.

NIP-F6: Sticker Packs vincenzopalazzo ⁠Vincenzo Palazzo

A comprehensive NIP specification for sticker packs, defining two event kinds for publishing, sharing, and installing named collections of image stickers.

Event Kinds:

Core Design:

NIP-XX: Post-Quantum Identity Keys ConorClancy89
This PR proposes a mechanism for Nostr identities to commit to post-quantum public keys derived deterministically from an existing NIP-06 mnemonic.

Problem Statement: Responds to issue #1971, which identified two unsolved problems:

  1. How to generate post-quantum private keys
  2. How to bind them to an existing identity

Key Innovation: The proposal avoids a circular dependency problem in prior approaches. Previous proposals derived post-quantum keys from the nsec (secp256k1 private key), which is vulnerable — an adversary who recovers the nsec can run the same KDF to obtain the post-quantum key. Instead, this approach derives both secp256k1 and post-quantum keys as siblings from the BIP-39 seed, never deriving one from the other. Both derivations are one-way, so:

Scope: Deliberately narrow, defining only:

What It Does NOT Do:

Test Vectors: Derived from NIP-06's published mnemonic and verified against NIP-06's published secp256k1 key for consistency. Reference Implementation: Available at nostr-wot/nostr-wot-extension#13

Source: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pulls

Notable Projects#

Divine Mobile - 1.0.19 (Pre-release) ⁠rabble

mbradley, Alex Frei, Meylis

Stash Bookmark - New Tool ⁠laoc42

Earthly - v0.1.0 Schlaus Kwab

Amber - v6.4.0 ⁠greenart7c3

Jumble - v26.8.1

⁠Dr. The Daniel 🖖

WaveFunc Radio - v0.1.10 Schlaus Kwab

Nostur - v1.30.2 ⁠Fabian

Nostrord - v2.8.0 ⁠Anjhc

NoorNote - v1.3.2 ⁠alp

Mostro Core - v0.14.2 ⁠negrunch

⁠Pinball Wizard

ZSP - v0.4.17 ⁠franzap

Buzz Desktop - v0.5.8 Wes, Tyler, Paweł Karniej, Taylor Ho

Long-Form Content Eco#

In the past two weeks, approximately 39,322 kind 30023 events have been tracked (long-form articles), with over 40% being Bitcoin related articles and 60% related to Nostr and other topics across the Nostr Ecosystem.

The digital landscape is moving incredibly fast, and the conversations happening across the network perfectly capture the push for a decentralized future. We are seeing a brilliant mix of deep technical security debates, macroeconomics, and even some real world treasure hunting. Here is a quick overview of what has everyone talking.

Reclaiming the Web and Digital Sovereignty A massive theme right now is the realization that the traditional free internet is struggling, but Nostr stands as living proof that open protocols can save it. Users are actively discussing how to replace Google Workspace with open source alternatives, pushing for self-hosted and privacy first tools to take back control of their data. There is also a very spicy debate around privacy happening. A trending topic points out that early Nostr encrypted DMs are essentially plaintext waiting to be read if the metadata and client vulnerabilities are not handled properly. It is pushing developers to rapidly adopt better encryption standards like NIP-17 to keep conversations truly private.

Bitcoin and True Financial Freedom When it comes to money, the community is not pulling any punches. Bitcoin continues to be heavily discussed as the definitive currency of the future. People are sharing the latest financial freedom reports and contrasting the devaluation of traditional fiat with the concept of "Worthless Money, Timeless Art." Security is front and center. Conversations around why self custody matters are paired with stark warnings about the "enshitcoinification" of the industry and how bad actors try to steal Bitcoin. The message is clear: hold your own keys and trust the math.

Human Rights and Offline Adventures The ecosystem is also tackling the heavy impact of AI on human rights, questioning how new technologies will affect global privacy and freedom. It is not all serious technical and philosophical debate though. The timelines are currently sprinkled with fun highlights from International Geocaching Day, proving that the community loves a good decentralized treasure hunt in the physical world just as much as in the digital one.

Trying to build an entirely new censorship resistant financial and social internet is exhausting work. Honestly, finding a hidden plastic box in the woods sounds like the perfect break from figuring out if your private messages are actually private. Thank you, ⁠HRF

and others, for your work. Enriching Nostr’s long-form content ecosystem is crucial.

Nostriches Global Meet Ups#

Recently, two (2) Notable Nostr and Bitcoin events have been hosted.

⁠2140.wtf image

⁠fractalchris image

Here are the upcoming Nostr and Bitcoin events that you might want to check out.

⁠fractalchris image

Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.

#1971,

Written by

The Nostr Review

The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter covering protocol updates, interesting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and important events in the Nostr-verse.

Comments

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Contents

5 sections

  1. Nostr Statistics
  2. NIPs
  3. Notable Projects
  4. Long-Form Content Eco
  5. Nostriches Global Meet Ups