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 reached 200,638. New user growth increased, and pubkeys writing events increased over 54%. Note events totaled 5.3 million, zap volume slightly decreased to 18 million sats.
Additionally, 9 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol, with 4 merged. A total of 88 Nostr projects were tracked, with 20 releasing product updates. During this period, 2 notable events took place, and 1 significant event is upcoming.
Nostr Statistics#
Based on user activity, the total daily active pubkeys reached 200,638, reflecting a decrease of 15% compared to the previous period. The highest daily activity was recorded on 20th Aug , with 17,429 active users.
The number of new users overall is on the rise. In particular, the number of pubkeys writing events reached 329,253, marking a significant increase of over 54% compared to the previous period.Meanwhile, the number of profiles with bios and contact lists both increased by around 4%.
In terms of content publishing, approximately 5.3 million note events were published during this period, representing a decrease of about 20% compared to the previous cycle. Among them, Repost and Post all showed a decrease of about 28%,17%.
For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 18 million, showing a considerable increase of over 20% compared to the previous period.
Data source: https://stats.nostr.band/
NIPs#
NIP-17: Expiration preferences #2028
Vitor Pamplona is proposing a NIP which adds a setting to the relay list event, each user can make their own chat disappear at a fixed schedule. If enough people implement this feature, it would delete sent and received messages together, avoiding the weird UX of my messages disappearing while other users' messages stay.
Add NIP-XXX: Encrypted Binary Attachments for Notes and DMs #2040 Jab-r is proposing an Encrypted Binary Attachments which standardizes how Nostr events reference binary attachments (images, audio, video, documents), supporting both unencrypted and encrypted forms. It introduces two new tag types (attach, eattach) for public events and a normalized JSON schema for private DMs. Attachments are integrity-verified via SHA-256, with optional AES-256-GCM encryption for privacy-preserving sharing.
Add NIP-XX: Time Capsules specification #2045 KarimHassanis proposing a NIP defines time-locked capsules: encrypted Nostr events that become readable only at/after a target timestamp or when a threshold of designated witnesses publish unlock shares. It includes specifications for event kinds, unlock modes, protocol flow, client behavior, security considerations, and examples.
Notable Projects#
- Upgrade AGP to 8.12.2
- Sets Quartz to Java 1_8
- Creates a bootstrap relay list specifically for inbox relays
- Register lists as Account fields to avoid GC or user settings.
- Fixes inability to delete relays from certain relay lists.
New Flotilla release, version 1.2.3 is out — highlights include an in-app onboarding flow and bunker login to reduce user confusion, bugfixes and other UX improvements.
- Add
created_atto event info dialog - Add signer status to profile page
- Re-work bunker login flow
- Add in-app onboarding flow
- Only protect events if relay authenticates
- Filter out non-global chats from global chat
- Improve publish status indicator
- Fix encrypted upload content type
- Add relays to event details dialog
- Add universal link handler for apps
- Added new onboarding suggestions based on user-selected interests
- Added adjustable max budget setting for Coinos one-click wallets
- Improved the image sizing behavior on the image carousel for a smoother experience
- Handle npub correctly in draft notes
- Move users-section to be last in muted view
- Fixed #nsfw tag filtering to be case insensitive
- Fixed stretchy banner header in Edit profile
Primal 2.5 for iOS is now live — with our brand-new streaming video player. Watch it in action below!
The 0xchat-lite version has been rebranded as XChat(for Nostr) — now available on the App Store, with Google Play coming soon.
Compared to 0xchat, XChat features a simpler design and streamlined functionality, with a stronger focus on privacy. It’s ideal for closed, private groups such as family and close friends. Features:
- End-to-End Encryption with MLS protocol
- Amber/Nostr bunker login support
- Encrypted media sharing
- Secure local data storage
- Two-way chat/message deletion
- Native iOS & Android UI
- Privacy-friendly push notifications
- Independent Circles storage
New in this version:
- Voice Messages (Yaks): record a short voice message
- Improve sync / already seen between iCloud devices
- Button to expand long posts in feed
- Search now also searches in previous names
- Added extra bookmark color
- Many bug fixes and performance improvements
- You can now use your local AI to analyse form responses, bring up insights and extract important data.
- You can now create custom urls for your forms like 
- WE HAVE SECTIONS NOW!
- Plus a bunch of other updates
- Refactor everything to use the new quartz update
- Fix reconnection issues
- Kill switch feature
For the bold: ZEUS v0.11.4-alpha1 builds are now available for testing.
- LND: Watchtower support
- Pay to hybrid Lightning addresses (BIP-353/BOLT-12 + LNURL-pay)
- Swaps: restore swaps from seed
- Peers: sorting and filtering
- Animated QRs: set animation speed
- BIP-321 invoice parsing
- Close connections when it’s sending invalid frames
- Better handling of disconnections
- refactors how WebSocket connections and subscriptions are managed
- Support for mute
- Always accepts ephemeral events
- Fix auth command results 
- Make protected events readable by anyone 
- Fix EOSE message 
- Allow localhost access to bypass nip 70 checks
- Dispatch events to subscriptions from the same connection it came from 
Stacks 1.1.0 has arrived and DevRel 
Derek Ross  is here to give a quick tutorial on what's new, like slash commands. Be your own OpenRouter and pick the LLM you want, right from your terminal. It's easy to switch your LLMs back and forth, too!
We’ve been releasing a ton of new features lately:
- Nostr.land Premium Relay Account Feature and partnership
- 10GB+ Large file upload support for Accounts, pause and continue uploads
- Analytics dashboard (analytics.nostr.build)
- New Gallery View Free and Paid (gallery.nostr.build)
- Blossom integration (blossom.band)
- Primal Support and Media Mirroring
- $1.50 Puritan Account (nostr.build/plans)
- Pegged Acct prices to the $ ($100k) making prices cheaper and more consistent
- Kind 1222 Voice sharing support
- Spam filter toggle: A modest attempt to filter out repetitive and true noise spam.
- Login button: Login to your existing nostr account, regenerate your ephemeral identity, log out if so desired.
- Right click/long-press to teleport to geohash on the map
Just shipped igloo-server v0.1.8!
- Replaced SSE w/ WebSocket (auth + auto-reconnect)
- Node health checks + auto-restart w/ backoff
- Status API now includes live metrics
- Docs, OpenAPI & release automation overhauled
Sats Tracker v0.4.0 is now available on! This version fixes a couple of small bugs and bring the possibility to see your spending statistics per month.
- Added new expense categories: 'AI Agent' and 'Games'.
- Added a new income category: 'Cashback'.
- Added possibility to navigate through months in the Home screen.
- Added LICENCE
- Fixed a bug that prevented an income tx to be added in case the amount was more than the available balance.
- Improved visualization of the Home screen.
- Include own user-agent in local relay connections
- armeabi-v7a and arm64-v8a architectures now available to download
- New: added NSEC login
- New: added /zap command
- Hotfix: better failed relay connection handling
- Hotfix: saving settings no longer nukes persistent identity profile
Purrmint v0.0.9 is now live on 
- Added functionality to delete mint service and clean up resources
- Fixed some crash issues
Search & Discovery
- Comprehensive chat search --> with message highlighting for finding conversations quickly
- Chat list search --> to navigate growing contact lists effortlessly
- Enhanced QR code functionality --> including login via QR code and improved safety with npub validation
User Profiles & Contact Management.
- Enhanced user profiles --> with copy npub functionality and better group member views
- Improved group management --> allowing admins to remove users and add members to existing groups
- Streamlined connection flows --> with redesigned profile sheets
Network & Relay Management
- Real-time relay status monitoring
- Add/edit relay options with validation
- Pull-to-refresh functionality
- Improved relay selection based on the outbox model
UI/UX Improvements
- From consistent paste/copy buttons across inputs to fixed message content wrapping, scrollable bottom sheets, and enhanced reaction displays.
- They also updated splash screens for both iOS and Android with proper dark mode support.
Stability & Bug Fixes
- Major metadata cleanup --> standardizing on
displayNamethroughout the app - Authentication fixes --> for login flows and profile creation
- Relay management improvements --> fixing issues where existing relay lists were getting overwritten
- Enhanced error handling --> with proper mounted checks to prevent widget disposal errors
The mobile version of vlogstr.com is now available for Android. First Release Features
- Sign in with Amber → access your Home/Following feed.
- Swipe up and down to browse vlogs from friends.
- Double tap (or tap the heart) to like, plus comment, zap, or share a favorite video to Nostr as a kind1 note.
- Share feature supports multiple options, including direct mp4 sharing (with wider NIP-71 support coming in the future).
Explore & Discover
- Discover tab: a global feed of new vlogs.
- Note: this is a completely public global feed with no moderation, so be cautious—some content may be sensitive. More moderation features will be added later.
Video Uploads
- Record directly in the app or upload from your device.
- Videos are published to the Blossom server, then you’ll be guided to set your title and description.
Creator Dashboard
- A creator’s dashboard on the home bar lets you see your published videos and basic analytics.
- A settings page is also available, though many options are still unimplemented and will be added in future updates.
Nostriches Global Meet Ups#
Recently, several Nostr events have been hosted in different countries.
Bitcoin Asia 2025 successfully took place on August 28–29, 2025, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). As one of the largest and most influential Bitcoin gatherings in Asia, the conference featured main stage keynotes, enterprise Bitcoin workshops, hundreds of exhibiting companies, a digital art gallery, and official limited-edition merchandise. Speakers included npub1r8l06…x5dk, 
Aaron van Wirdum, 
Calva, 
jb55, among others.
The 3rd Nostr & Bitcoin Asia Meetup was also held on August 29 in Hong Kong, focusing on the theme of building free expression and financial freedom. The event featured two panel discussions: “Nostr in Asia: Builders & Backers” and “Bitcoin Asia: Community & Academic Innovation.” Panelists included jb55, 
WendyDing, npub19x0h8…2ree, npub13lpns…rx7d, 
Jimmy Kostro, 
Bitcoin House Bali 🏝️, among others.
Here is the upcoming Nostr event that you might want to check out.
The Bitcoin Indonesia Conference 2025 & Bitcoin Week Bali will take place on September 5, 2025, at Bitcoin House Bali in Canggu, accompanied by a full week of Bitcoin-themed activities from September 1–8. Centered on education, community, and local adoption, the event will feature keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops, as well as cultural and sports experiences. Speakers include 
Dusan Matuska Jimmy Kostro 
Jeff Booth 
Efrat Fenigson npub1h88z7…hqta 
Win Ko Ko Aung 
Piriya ⚡🟧 npub1dg93k…du3h npub1l65a5…sfth 
Shaun 
SondreB 
Wingman and others, all committed to advancing Bitcoin education and adoption in Indonesia and across Asia.
Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.
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