Nostr notes by ConduitMarket

Ooh Avi come join us on NIP-99? 👀

2026-06-08T06:27:50+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lg54
_________________________

Ooh Avi come join us on NIP-99? 👀

Look through our follows ;)

2026-05-10T01:40:39+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2j3s
_________________________

Look through our follows ;)

Hey! We’re going to have separate feeds. Most clients should we ...

2026-05-10T01:09:36+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…96zt
_________________________

Hey! We’re going to have separate feeds. Most clients should we agree. Cheers

Thank you for trying it out!! We’re working hard on improving ...

2026-04-20T05:13:57+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fkhj
_________________________

Thank you for trying it out!! We’re working hard on improving performance right now. Mobile UX will be part of a future sprint too. Appreciate the feedback.

Smart. Honorable.

2026-02-09T17:26:04+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…vr7n
_________________________

Smart. Honorable.

*Point of clarity: this is our version of the SHOPPER side of the ...

2025-11-13T22:42:45+01:00

*Point of clarity: this is our version of the SHOPPER side of the equation. The SELLER side (Conduit Merchant Portal) is still under development.

Post your products on a NIP-99 / Gamma Markets compatible app like Shopstr Markets (nprofile…adp8)

quoting
nevent1q…zdwa
It’s time to get this Alpha release into the Nostrverse:
https://alpha.conduit.market/

They say if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

We’re definitely not embarrassed- but we know there’s A LOT of work to be done here. We’re aware of many bugs and are working on them.

That being said- ALL community feedback is appreciated. We’ve got our zaps at the ready for anyone who digs in with constructive feedback.

Thank you again to our collaborators in the space Shopstr Markets (nprofile…adp8) PlebeianMarket (nprofile…567v) Cypher (nprofile…s6gy) synvya (nprofile…5ja6) … looking forward to continuing to making interoperable and unstoppable marketplaces with you all.

Here you ser: #nevent1q…zdwa

2025-11-13T22:07:06+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…0av8
_________________________

Here you ser:

quoting
nevent1q…zdwa
It’s time to get this Alpha release into the Nostrverse:
https://alpha.conduit.market/

They say if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

We’re definitely not embarrassed- but we know there’s A LOT of work to be done here. We’re aware of many bugs and are working on them.

That being said- ALL community feedback is appreciated. We’ve got our zaps at the ready for anyone who digs in with constructive feedback.

Thank you again to our collaborators in the space Shopstr Markets (nprofile…adp8) PlebeianMarket (nprofile…567v) Cypher (nprofile…s6gy) synvya (nprofile…5ja6) … looking forward to continuing to making interoperable and unstoppable marketplaces with you all.

It’s time to get this Alpha release into the Nostrverse: ...

2025-11-13T22:04:49+01:00

It’s time to get this Alpha release into the Nostrverse:
https://alpha.conduit.market/

They say if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

We’re definitely not embarrassed- but we know there’s A LOT of work to be done here. We’re aware of many bugs and are working on them.

That being said- ALL community feedback is appreciated. We’ve got our zaps at the ready for anyone who digs in with constructive feedback.

Thank you again to our collaborators in the space Shopstr Markets (nprofile…adp8) PlebeianMarket (nprofile…567v) Cypher (nprofile…s6gy) synvya (nprofile…5ja6) … looking forward to continuing to making interoperable and unstoppable marketplaces with you all.

We’re announcing Alpha today. Will tag you 🤙🏼 All three ...

2025-11-13T21:40:54+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…0av8
_________________________

We’re announcing Alpha today. Will tag you 🤙🏼
All three of us (Shopstr/Plebeian/Conduit) working on interoperability for checkout still. But order messages work thru DMs for now.

We're building tools that prove the new paradigm: own your ...

2025-11-07T02:47:42+01:00

We're building tools that prove the new paradigm: own your store and be in the mass marketplace at the same time.

John H. Patterson built National Cash Register into a great ...

2025-10-14T01:36:38+02:00

John H. Patterson built National Cash Register into a great American company without surveilling merchant’s activities. We can do the same for the digital age.

https://www.ncr.org.uk/media/other/1077/JHPBinder4.pdf

Nostr event nevent1qqszh3frfaatvfgeu0eepu49xp60v5lmkm9wa54vgke8563ur8462vszyzweypmutc667ahhk8xcguuqqzmm476r6g9s5fkp3l3fl2pc6fc5vrs40g7

2025-10-01T08:06:33+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…h7ha
_________________________

Nostr event nevent1qqsgda9wat96a6cft6tawhdxxk57dxc9wdsu4ua46a3dugg5cr86n7gzyzweypmutc667ahhk8xcguuqqzmm476r6g9s5fkp3l3fl2pc6fc5v76h8ru

2025-08-31T05:18:42+02:00

We’re gonna need some pretty based investors.

That’s an Egyptian goose!

2025-08-31T04:47:31+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…3ezw
_________________________

That’s an Egyptian goose!

Totally constructive. Thank you. Noted, and will rework with the ...

2025-08-20T04:26:21+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…f0nx
_________________________

Totally constructive. Thank you. Noted, and will rework with the feedback.

A little longer but: Conduit’s Mission: To create a global, ...

2025-08-20T03:51:15+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…ndvr
_________________________

A little longer but:

Conduit’s Mission: To create a global, reputation-based mesh network of economies where individuals and businesses use sound money daily. We strive relentlessly to deliver a beautiful, seamless, and intuitive user experience that unlocks the full potential of the Nostr and Bitcoin protocols.

🙏🏼 we will be Thank you

2025-08-18T06:30:20+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…pw3y
_________________________

🙏🏼 we will be Thank you

Both looking up and to the right

2025-08-13T00:12:34+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…f6ts
_________________________

Both looking up and to the right

We love what you're doing too!! Thank you right back 🥰 . ...

2025-08-11T00:40:02+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…ph5h
_________________________

We love what you're doing too!! Thank you right back 🥰 . It's now posted on Nostr as well:

quoting
naddr1qv…7t0a

We're filled with gratitude here as we enjoy products from Bitcoin-based merchants like Soapminer, Oshi, Ketolish.us, Peony Lane Vineyards, and Great Ghee who are already present on Nostr.

There's a lot more artists and artisans out there too, and (provided we can afford it) we plan on continuing to sample the goods of ALL these pioneers we hope to serve one day.

There's something different about the level of care put into a good or service when you're trading it for the hardest money that has ever existed. Or maybe it's the fact that these merchants are carefully cultivating their reputations on Nostr amongst discerning peers. Probably some mix of both. Whatever it is, we're lucky to be consuming the goods of merchants who already use some iteration of de-commerce technology to sell their wares.

The puzzle pieces of a beautiful future are there waiting for us to sort them into place. If you need some help imagining it, our friends at Soak Quest posted a slightly hilarious and visionary epic showing what this future might look like.

With all that said, let's dive in to what happened this month:

Nostrbama Recap

It's hard to describe what we felt during our adventure to Mobile, Alabama to meet a bunch of likeminded Nostriches. The best we can come up with is it felt like hanging out with long-lost family. The week started out with a series of talks at the Haberdasher. The prolific and unstoppable "CEO of Nostr" Derek Ross opened things up with some fun history. The man seems to have limitless energy and enthusiasm for all things Nostr. He's a must-follow.

Then Vic of Corny Chat came up to showcase what his app is currently capable of and what he's got in the pipeline. We learned quickly that Cornychat is where all the cool kids on Nostr hang out.

After that, Manime presented what we can only describe as the perfect technical foundation for us to follow. He laid out a detailed and compelling argument as to why Nostr should become the social layer for ANY application on the internet. Thanks again for the layup, Mani.

And then came Conduit. We took the stage last to run through our "Unleashing De-Commerce" presentation and live tech demo. There's no point in me telling you about it here because we re-recorded and posted it on Nostr shortly after the event. Please take a watch and let us know what you think!

Once the talks were wrapped up, the severely underrated Brooks Hubbert and his crew got up and jammed while our gracious hosts Sergio, Mallory and Riddler hustled to keep us all well fed and "watered". Needless to say, conversations flowed and connections flourished.

The following day we all hung out at a local AI/VR studio run by TheDarkSith before grabbing some delicious barbeque. We even made a cool Nostr promo video on the spot with our avatars.

Then we capped it off on the final day with some skydiving hooked up by the one and only world-record-holding daredevil DankSwoops.

You had to be there to understand this one.

We wish all conferences were this cool– can't wait for the next one.

Announcements

A few things we'd like to share:

1) We've Moved to GitLab

We're not perfect, but as we build this company we're trying to keep our internal tools as close as we practically can to the ethos of the community we're in. Github is a centralized, closed-source, & proprietary service owned by Microsoft. While there's a few awesome Nostr-based Git projects we have our eyes on, we found GitLab to be a solid open-source option for us in the meantime. As a bonus, it's a one-stop shop helping us with project management, CI/CD, automation, and much more.

2) Open Alpha Launches in September

While our tech was definitely ready for a live-demo, we needed a couple months to release something public-facing. That being said– we're almost there. Both Conduit.Market and the Conduit Merchant Portal will be launching in open alpha next month.

The primary goal with both of these apps is to provide an intuitive & familiar UX that walks shoppers and sellers through a manual purchase flow. This version of the experience is, and will hopefully always be, completely free to use.

We're really excited but please note: this is an alpha release. There will be bugs. Features will be limited. We still have a ton of work to do.

Part of the reason it's taken so long to release is that we've mapped out a lot of exciting features that we needed to leave room for in our architecture. Now that we've got it sketched out, we can release the initial version and add features as we go. Here's a couple design samples we're working towards for Conduit.Market:

Conduit.Market Design Snippet - Product Subcategory View

Conduit.Market Design Snippet - Individual Merchant Cart

Things like product ratings, advanced filters, and social features won't be in the alpha release yet– but we've got a spot for them to be built in. That being said: the app will be functional and to allow you to find products and buy them.

Here's a couple shots of the Merchant Portal we're working towards:

Merchant Portal Design Snippet - Order Management

Merchant Portal Design Snippet - Analytics Dashboard

Similar to the Market experience, the dashboard will not have all the features you see there yet– but we will have enough to get merchants selling to real people through a DM-based checkout flow.

We're really looking forward to the pioneers of Nostr testing out what we've made. Good or bad– we can't wait to start getting real user feedback so we can continue to improve the experience.

3) Future Roadmap Milestones

We're planning on re-launching a fully "Nostr-ized" version of Conduit.Coffee that will simultaneously post products on Conduit.Market in November of 2025. Our design team is already working on hi-fidelity mockups for this.

We'll be using the upgraded version of Conduit.Coffee to test and showcase the premium merchant services we'll be offering (more on that below).

Once launched, we'll be integrating multiple payment and shipping options on Conduit.Coffee to test them out for future merchants.

Once we have a coded template, it will actually be relatively easy to generate Nostrized individual stores from there. We hope to offer custom store generation as a service in Q1 of 2026.

Yes– this means merchants can have their own branded stores that also post products to the broader de-commerce universe. We'll write an individual blog post about this– it's HUGE and exciting.

Following that, we'll be launching the Conduit Merchant Portal premium services. So, about that...

How do we plan to make money?

We get this question a lot and figured it would be a good time to post a response we can refer people to.

First off, nobody should ever NEED any paid service to sell through Nostr! Free versions of the experience will always exist, and we believe de-commerce through Nostr can flourish with just good UX. We hope to achieve this with our "base model" releases next month.

The protocol design will never truly allow anyone to lock people into a paid service anyway– they will always be optional. And in case you forgot, the protocol doesn't lend itself well to manipulative profiling practices.

So how do we make money under those conditions? The simple answer is a common Nostr trope: value for value.

V4V Proposal

We're going to be offering optional paid services for merchants on top of the free version of the Merchant Portal. These added gadgets will automate checkout, shipping label generation, and many other services so merchants can provide their shoppers a smooth experience that competes with traditional ecommerce. It's going to be a sales-booster service that merchants can plug into and out of whenever without compromising their sovereignty.

This experience should increase conversion rates and lower overhead for the merchant, and we'll charge a % based on gross volume handled. This will be far less of a cut than what centralized players can offer because we have less overhead and liability thanks to Nostr's beautiful design. We plan on being worth our clients money and then some if they choose the premium services. If you're winning, we win.

Sovereign Design Considerations

The design challenge is as such: how do we make these services work while preserving all user's privacy and sovereignty? We need to make sure that we can't see or control anything sensitive– this is for our own sake too:** we don't want the overhead and liability!**

We believe we've cracked that nut through the use of existing tools such as nsecBunkers and secure enclaves, but there's a lot of work to do before that gets delivered to others. Rest assured we'll be testing it on ourselves before we release it to anyone else. And yes, as with everything we release, the software will be open-source.

Premium Services Release Estimate

Our goal for the release of sovereignty-preserving premium merchant services is Q2 of 2026. First things first, we need to show what's possible without the need for paid services.

...then we can add the boosters to a resilient decentralized base and launch de-commerce into the stratosphere.

Thanks as always for reading. See you next month.

Cheers,

Eric FJ- Caffeinated Executive Officer, Conduit Hodlings Acea Spades- Caffeinated Tech Officer, Conduit Hodlings

💜⚡🪬 Our latest monthly update & roadmap of what's ...

2025-08-11T00:36:31+02:00

💜⚡🪬 Our latest monthly update & roadmap of what's next 💜⚡🪬

Mentioned / linked Nostriches within:
SoapMiner (nprofile…f08g)
Oshi (nprofile…732p)
beejay (nprofile…pncj)
BenJustman (nprofile…6un7)
JE (nprofile…sun6)
SoakQuest (nprofile…wx80)
Derek Ross (nprofile…8m4j)
vicariousdrama (nprofile…g2vs)
ManiMe (nprofile…0j5w)
Sergio (nprofile…2pjh)
malmeow (nprofile…uguu)
Riddler (nprofile…xq0c)
BrooksHubbert (nprofile…je4q)
TheDarkSith (nprofile…wvm6)
dankswoops (nprofile…jx3v)

quoting
naddr1qv…7t0a

We're filled with gratitude here as we enjoy products from Bitcoin-based merchants like Soapminer, Oshi, Ketolish.us, Peony Lane Vineyards, and Great Ghee who are already present on Nostr.

There's a lot more artists and artisans out there too, and (provided we can afford it) we plan on continuing to sample the goods of ALL these pioneers we hope to serve one day.

There's something different about the level of care put into a good or service when you're trading it for the hardest money that has ever existed. Or maybe it's the fact that these merchants are carefully cultivating their reputations on Nostr amongst discerning peers. Probably some mix of both. Whatever it is, we're lucky to be consuming the goods of merchants who already use some iteration of de-commerce technology to sell their wares.

The puzzle pieces of a beautiful future are there waiting for us to sort them into place. If you need some help imagining it, our friends at Soak Quest posted a slightly hilarious and visionary epic showing what this future might look like.

With all that said, let's dive in to what happened this month:

Nostrbama Recap

It's hard to describe what we felt during our adventure to Mobile, Alabama to meet a bunch of likeminded Nostriches. The best we can come up with is it felt like hanging out with long-lost family. The week started out with a series of talks at the Haberdasher. The prolific and unstoppable "CEO of Nostr" Derek Ross opened things up with some fun history. The man seems to have limitless energy and enthusiasm for all things Nostr. He's a must-follow.

Then Vic of Corny Chat came up to showcase what his app is currently capable of and what he's got in the pipeline. We learned quickly that Cornychat is where all the cool kids on Nostr hang out.

After that, Manime presented what we can only describe as the perfect technical foundation for us to follow. He laid out a detailed and compelling argument as to why Nostr should become the social layer for ANY application on the internet. Thanks again for the layup, Mani.

And then came Conduit. We took the stage last to run through our "Unleashing De-Commerce" presentation and live tech demo. There's no point in me telling you about it here because we re-recorded and posted it on Nostr shortly after the event. Please take a watch and let us know what you think!

Once the talks were wrapped up, the severely underrated Brooks Hubbert and his crew got up and jammed while our gracious hosts Sergio, Mallory and Riddler hustled to keep us all well fed and "watered". Needless to say, conversations flowed and connections flourished.

The following day we all hung out at a local AI/VR studio run by TheDarkSith before grabbing some delicious barbeque. We even made a cool Nostr promo video on the spot with our avatars.

Then we capped it off on the final day with some skydiving hooked up by the one and only world-record-holding daredevil DankSwoops.

You had to be there to understand this one.

We wish all conferences were this cool– can't wait for the next one.

Announcements

A few things we'd like to share:

1) We've Moved to GitLab

We're not perfect, but as we build this company we're trying to keep our internal tools as close as we practically can to the ethos of the community we're in. Github is a centralized, closed-source, & proprietary service owned by Microsoft. While there's a few awesome Nostr-based Git projects we have our eyes on, we found GitLab to be a solid open-source option for us in the meantime. As a bonus, it's a one-stop shop helping us with project management, CI/CD, automation, and much more.

2) Open Alpha Launches in September

While our tech was definitely ready for a live-demo, we needed a couple months to release something public-facing. That being said– we're almost there. Both Conduit.Market and the Conduit Merchant Portal will be launching in open alpha next month.

The primary goal with both of these apps is to provide an intuitive & familiar UX that walks shoppers and sellers through a manual purchase flow. This version of the experience is, and will hopefully always be, completely free to use.

We're really excited but please note: this is an alpha release. There will be bugs. Features will be limited. We still have a ton of work to do.

Part of the reason it's taken so long to release is that we've mapped out a lot of exciting features that we needed to leave room for in our architecture. Now that we've got it sketched out, we can release the initial version and add features as we go. Here's a couple design samples we're working towards for Conduit.Market:

Conduit.Market Design Snippet - Product Subcategory View

Conduit.Market Design Snippet - Individual Merchant Cart

Things like product ratings, advanced filters, and social features won't be in the alpha release yet– but we've got a spot for them to be built in. That being said: the app will be functional and to allow you to find products and buy them.

Here's a couple shots of the Merchant Portal we're working towards:

Merchant Portal Design Snippet - Order Management

Merchant Portal Design Snippet - Analytics Dashboard

Similar to the Market experience, the dashboard will not have all the features you see there yet– but we will have enough to get merchants selling to real people through a DM-based checkout flow.

We're really looking forward to the pioneers of Nostr testing out what we've made. Good or bad– we can't wait to start getting real user feedback so we can continue to improve the experience.

3) Future Roadmap Milestones

We're planning on re-launching a fully "Nostr-ized" version of Conduit.Coffee that will simultaneously post products on Conduit.Market in November of 2025. Our design team is already working on hi-fidelity mockups for this.

We'll be using the upgraded version of Conduit.Coffee to test and showcase the premium merchant services we'll be offering (more on that below).

Once launched, we'll be integrating multiple payment and shipping options on Conduit.Coffee to test them out for future merchants.

Once we have a coded template, it will actually be relatively easy to generate Nostrized individual stores from there. We hope to offer custom store generation as a service in Q1 of 2026.

Yes– this means merchants can have their own branded stores that also post products to the broader de-commerce universe. We'll write an individual blog post about this– it's HUGE and exciting.

Following that, we'll be launching the Conduit Merchant Portal premium services. So, about that...

How do we plan to make money?

We get this question a lot and figured it would be a good time to post a response we can refer people to.

First off, nobody should ever NEED any paid service to sell through Nostr! Free versions of the experience will always exist, and we believe de-commerce through Nostr can flourish with just good UX. We hope to achieve this with our "base model" releases next month.

The protocol design will never truly allow anyone to lock people into a paid service anyway– they will always be optional. And in case you forgot, the protocol doesn't lend itself well to manipulative profiling practices.

So how do we make money under those conditions? The simple answer is a common Nostr trope: value for value.

V4V Proposal

We're going to be offering optional paid services for merchants on top of the free version of the Merchant Portal. These added gadgets will automate checkout, shipping label generation, and many other services so merchants can provide their shoppers a smooth experience that competes with traditional ecommerce. It's going to be a sales-booster service that merchants can plug into and out of whenever without compromising their sovereignty.

This experience should increase conversion rates and lower overhead for the merchant, and we'll charge a % based on gross volume handled. This will be far less of a cut than what centralized players can offer because we have less overhead and liability thanks to Nostr's beautiful design. We plan on being worth our clients money and then some if they choose the premium services. If you're winning, we win.

Sovereign Design Considerations

The design challenge is as such: how do we make these services work while preserving all user's privacy and sovereignty? We need to make sure that we can't see or control anything sensitive– this is for our own sake too:** we don't want the overhead and liability!**

We believe we've cracked that nut through the use of existing tools such as nsecBunkers and secure enclaves, but there's a lot of work to do before that gets delivered to others. Rest assured we'll be testing it on ourselves before we release it to anyone else. And yes, as with everything we release, the software will be open-source.

Premium Services Release Estimate

Our goal for the release of sovereignty-preserving premium merchant services is Q2 of 2026. First things first, we need to show what's possible without the need for paid services.

...then we can add the boosters to a resilient decentralized base and launch de-commerce into the stratosphere.

Thanks as always for reading. See you next month.

Cheers,

Eric FJ- Caffeinated Executive Officer, Conduit Hodlings Acea Spades- Caffeinated Tech Officer, Conduit Hodlings

Top fantasy right here 💜 🥵 #nevent1q…v0wd

2025-08-07T01:16:43+02:00

Top fantasy right here 💜 🥵

quoting
nevent1q…v0wd
The year is 2025. The month is September.
Civilization rests on you.

But you’re ready.

Your grass fed steaks from Acme Acres (nprofile…far5) were seasoned last night with a Vera sea salt, thanks to a “worthTheSats” hat tip from Laser (nprofile…5nhe). These were made for a 8 minute bath in some GreatGhee (nprofile…jdzt).

Your committed counterpart gets that look of intrigue. Not yet curious. Not yet salacious. Just intrigue.

For now.

They notice your SoapMiner (nprofile…3lp8) unscented scent and a perfectly tapered westmajor (nprofile…heu5) chambray with a one of kind medallion from MADEX (nprofile…80qt). You mention that Christmas shopping is already done thanks to ConduitMarket (nprofile…7z7k). Curiosity has entered the room. You slip your Graphene Phones in a goslnt (nprofile…44gs) faraday bag and blurt out, “not today Moloch (Palantir)”while you open some award winning Pinot from BenJustman (nprofile…pa2h). HODL me by Fleetwood Mac plays on vinyl from BTCCraftsman

Salaciosuness switches into first gear when the mood all starts to make sense. Creatine packs are spotted as is an increased libido from non polyester merino shorts all thanks to drinksote (nprofile…mdgc)

Your neighbor's wife's husband and husband's boyfriend come over to see what the ruckus has been about for the last 8 minutes with the lights on. Their knock is under the guise of a question about XRP staking. You hand them an Oshi (nprofile…z3ce) bar for the walk to the study. Their feet cant help but to noice your beautiful Pegah (nprofile…t2gl) rug you hand them a beautiful leather bound book from Leathermint (nprofile…thxe) on the honor in seppuku. They sense no way out of embarrassment but you kindly show them how to zapsnag everything they need on primal (nprofile…nrxl).

Their hearts are yours.

You share some HODL Butter shakes and turn on fountain_app (nprofile…7u5r) to hear Bitcoin is time by Gigi (nprofile…zftv) read by Guy Swan.

You and your neighbor both created septuplets that night. You saved the world and re-righted the population decline all thanks to the Bitcoin Circular Economy.

All that's left for you now is to enjoy SoakQuest (nprofile…wx80)'s new logo.

Hi! It’s optional. We post every newsletter on Nostr too 💜

2025-08-04T07:01:58+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fk67
_________________________

Hi! It’s optional. We post every newsletter on Nostr too 💜

Oh this is exciting #nevent1q…uf4h

2025-08-04T03:21:36+02:00

Oh this is exciting

quoting
nevent1q…uf4h
Working really hard here at Bitcoin Beans HQ to bring Bitcoiners some of the most nutrient dense food on planet earth! We are blessed to live and work with some of the best cacaoteros (cacao farmers) here in Colombia and it fills our hearts with great excitement to be super close to launching into the US hopefully by the end of the month! Thanking The Bullish ₿itcoiner (nprofile…300f) for doing an outstanding job on the website to date (so so close!!) and to all the Bitcoin community on here for giving so much support and just all round amazing vibes! In the mean time we will keep doing the work, keep investing our time and energy in the earth and what we truly believe in, self sovereignty, financial freedom and a warm belly fully of delicious cacao!

💜We’ve moved to Gitlab💜 cc @nprofile…fgyc ...

2025-08-04T03:15:06+02:00

💜We’ve moved to Gitlab💜

cc AceaSpades (nprofile…fgyc)

https://gitlab.com/groups/conduit-btc/

We got you @nprofile…akt4 Check out https://conduit.market and ...

2025-08-04T02:25:50+02:00

We got you isabella (nprofile…akt4)
Check out https://conduit.market and our demo from NOSTRBAMA 2025 (nprofile…sdzn)

quoting
nevent1q…20e2

Okay guys last one, anyone want to hook it up for dinner? 👀

lnbc262680n1p5gl77app57pcrepeqgme2z3vmhszr5ucc73w7jw9sja0tkxftetuxvrsk2hpsdq2g35kumn9wgcqzzsxqrrs0fppqat62h6yjgegk6m6x7u0295ydqscf2ed5sp5s0kyeegjc3tncdpl0rad5k58q59wes58sh2uhq24djz7evaf3q2q9qxpqysgqpggdvjeg98vtt7v8uyzyccne0pkk6gv2c3mahwv2nduz99lfgr2qfawx595qwww57pr72dqza847skqtc2356ew2e2rfqwx7285420sp37wryv

nostr:nevent1qqs2wy4qkuutdwuetgt7qeaqknqq44v4f7xewrxuwwhhstsvcd68ncgpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhg6mfcd4

@nprofile…8qzu is on Nostr !

2025-08-04T01:38:08+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…4axq
_________________________

BTC Map (nprofile…8qzu) is on Nostr !

We would have said @nprofile…389s too tbh.

2025-08-04T01:36:32+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…c7zp
_________________________

We would have said BakedPotato (nprofile…389s) too tbh.

We wouldn’t want that- discoverability is really important: ...

2025-07-28T16:36:04+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…w4kp
_________________________

We wouldn’t want that- discoverability is really important:

Hi! We’re going to release the Conduit Merchant Portal and ...

2025-07-25T21:46:03+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…azqs
_________________________

Hi! We’re going to release the Conduit Merchant Portal and Conduit Market clients soon. You’ll be able to connect your npub, post products, manage orders, generate invoices, etc. all on the portal.

We’ll be making a tutorial video with the release showing how to make a sale from start to finish.

In the meantime we encourage you to check out Shopstr Markets (nprofile…3v8q) since the rockstar calva⚡️ (nprofile…k875) already has his stack up and running on the same specification! He’s got some folks making sales already there. If you’re looking to get ahead of the de-commerce game it might be worth getting some reps in there.

Did I miss something? #nostronly

2025-07-21T23:36:29+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…m0xg
_________________________

Did I miss something? #nostronly

UNLEASHING DE-COMMERCE Tool builders -- not zookeepers Remaster ...

2025-07-20T22:11:06+02:00

UNLEASHING DE-COMMERCE
Tool builders -- not zookeepers

Remaster of the presentation we did for the good people at NOSTRBAMA 2025 (nprofile…vd7u) last week.

Questions and comments encouraged!

cc:
GammaMarkets (nprofile…keg5)
Shopstr Markets (nprofile…pgtn)
PlebeianMarket (nprofile…md53)
Sync (nprofile…qce7)

#nostrbama

Jeff’s midlife crisis is reaching a crescendo. He’ll soon be ...

2025-07-07T01:40:30+02:00

Jeff’s midlife crisis is reaching a crescendo. He’ll soon be having de-commerce nightmares.

quoting
nevent1q…wg7v
The Jeff Bezos wedding was super chill 🤙

The future of Nostrized commerce (de-commerce) is interoperable ...

2025-07-06T22:39:24+02:00

The future of Nostrized commerce (de-commerce) is interoperable and unstoppable 🫡

Check out our landing page to get an idea of what we’re building
https://conduit.market

You won’t find this anywhere online, but it was a rumor in the ...

2025-06-29T07:22:46+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…0lmk
_________________________

You won’t find this anywhere online, but it was a rumor in the pole vault community that Sergey Bubka drank red wine before big competitions. Like a glass or two nothing crazy.

The one and only @nprofile…m2x7 is cooking towards our ...

2025-04-16T06:51:03+02:00

The one and only AceaSpades (nprofile…m2x7) is cooking towards our #nostrbama demo

quoting
nevent1q…r8m3
Workin' away at the Conduit Merchant Platform, powered by ConduitMarket (nprofile…ywse) and the GammaMarkets Market Spec (https://github.com/GammaMarkets/market-spec/blob/main/spec.md)

Showing such rough work-in-progress is a lot like getting a suntan on your bumbum after a long winter... it may sting a little, you might even get burned, but boy is it good for you.

Showcasing ProductListing creation and editing, primarily to showcase ShippingOption creation, editing, and pairing with ProductListings, as per the spec.

Now that's in place, I can finally integrate our Fulfillment partner for auto-checkout's "shipping" step. Platform-agnostic, protocol-driven, all rights restored.

#conduit #conduitbtc #conduitmarket #gammamarkets #nip99 #ecommerce #workinprogress

Si

2025-03-27T01:58:53+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…3c6d
_________________________

Si

No thank you but we appreciate you making it

2025-03-27T01:42:14+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…p36c
_________________________

No thank you but we appreciate you making it

Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got somethin' to say ...

2025-03-26T19:51:01+01:00

Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got somethin' to say
But nothin' comes out when they move their lips
Just a bunch of gibberish

quoting
nevent1q…y8ut
This place yesterday:

@npub1xzr…0qap

2025-03-26T02:45:50+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…384e
_________________________

AceaSpades (npub1xzr…0qap)

“We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom ...

2025-03-24T14:50:45+01:00

“We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom
We'll buy a lot of clothes but we don't really need 'em
Things we buy to cover up what's inside
'Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth”
-Ye, All Falls Down

Nostr event nevent1qqsymxawfqmtuzv36qletkcu57cgh38n6uhnldzgsr38zqa0svw8muszyzweypmutc667ahhk8xcguuqqzmm476r6g9s5fkp3l3fl2pc6fc5vkqpl0f

2025-03-24T04:08:19+01:00

You can’t finance a burrito with sats.

Same mission. New brand 😘 #nevent1q…ld9s

2025-03-24T03:28:34+01:00

Same mission. New brand 😘

quoting
nevent1q…ld9s
ConduitMarket (npub1nkf…2svu)'s mission is to be the worst part of Jeff Bezos’s midlife crisis.

Identity interoperability is the #1 killer feature of Nostr. ...

2025-02-13T20:57:35+01:00

Identity interoperability is the #1 killer feature of Nostr. Coordinate with others who are on a similar mission and converge on the essential interoperable pieces. Make it all open source.

Sharing network effects has never been possible before, and is how Nostr wins. Social media, and everything you can attach to it, is not a zero sum game anymore.

quoting
nevent1q…4px7
Important yet very simple PR to facilitate development of e-commerce on Nostr:
https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1784

Cc: AceaSpades (nprofile…u8gw) Gzuuus (nprofile…ze9l) Sync (nprofile…ff53) calva⚡️ (nprofile…372u) elsat (nprofile…du26) Shopstr Markets (nprofile…p0y8) PlebeianMarket (nprofile…643m) ConduitMarket (nprofile…6jak) Cypher (nprofile…69w0)

We are trying a new model of Nostr extension proposals (NEP) in lieu of trying to stuff everything in the core NIPs repo. There will be a separate PR to formally acknowledge this approach so others can do it too. This is just one example which we encourage others to follow. We need innovation in Nostr but agree with NIP repo maintainers that simplicity and flexibility is required at the core.

Thank you for taking a look, and for any feedback or discussion 💜

Rock on!! Thanks Sean

2025-01-12T22:58:45+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…5pge
_________________________

Rock on!! Thanks Sean

#naddr1qq…ap6m

2025-01-06T06:45:41+01:00

quoting naddr1qq…ap6m

Happy new year friends, and thank you for tuning in again to our techno-adventures.

Welcome to the first perfectly square year (2025=45²) since 1936 (=44²). Funny enough, 1936 is when Alan Turing published[On Computable Numbers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing's_proof)This is the paper that created the theoretical framework for modern computing... before any physical computer even existed! Thanks to UK copyright laws and the timing of Turing’s death, as of January 1st, 2025 this paper has entered the public domain. The foundation of computer science is now open-source. It was published on a perfect square year, and made public domain the following perfect square year. Poetic.

Here’s to hoping this year brings breakthroughs in healthy human connections with these machines.

As promised, we’ll keep things shorter this time. Onward.

Development Updates

Nostr Commerce Coordinators Whitepaper

Last month we published a paper outlining a severe limitation we found with the NIP-15 marketplace specification. We also proposed a solution, along with corresponding pull requests on Github.If you want to geek out with us you can read the full paper here.

Here’s a rough abstract:

Without a system capable of automating the process between a Customer's intent to purchase and a Merchant's acceptance, e-commerce on Nostr will not grow beyond small sales plagued with high-friction manual checkout steps. This proposal contains the groundwork for a new type of Nostr bot. A Nostr bot whose core function is handling NIP-15 checkout events automatically on behalf of a Merchant.

In plain English:

While building the functions of a real-life Nostr e-commerce store, we found a big problem causing checkout failures. This can be solved with an automated program, but we need an update to the Nostr marketplace specification to allow it to happen.

We also published home grown organic memes this month.

To be clear, lack of approval on our proposal doesn’t stop us from developing Conduit independently. We do feel a solution is needed for broader adoption, though.

This is the type of action we need to take to connect to the Nostr open-source development community and push important changes. So, expect more of these as we develop.

Joining Forces

Showing our work and reaching out to likeminded folks for comment didn’t take long to pay dividends. We’re now honored to be in a collaborative group with a few other teams developing Nostr-marketplace apps such as: - Cypher Space - Shopstr - Plebeian Market

This is the beautiful spirit of open-source collaboration at work. We’re all taking different approaches to a similar problem with the common goal of spreading freedom tech across the world. Instead of competing, we’re growing a new ecosystem together.

Open-source incentivizes this type of industry collaboration vs. the traditional competitive model. When your tech is instantly commoditized, other value vectors like brand reputation, team and operations matter a lot more. These things get better when you work together as an industry to grow your collective market share. This is common in mature commoditized industries. For example, US construction has lots of industry groups providing shared best practices to all companies. Open-source, along with the Nostr and Bitcoin protocols, incentivizes these pro-social business behaviors.

Medusa JS x Strfry Relay Accelerator

Medusais an open-source project we’ve had our eyes on since the beginning. They’ve already built out a ton of modular e-commerce solutions for folks like us looking to break the mold. Medusa provides all the features needed for modern e-commerce so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We’d hoped their work would provide a scaffolding for us to develop faster. Until recently, we couldn’t figure out how to tie it into a Nostr-based system without causing endless headaches.

Strfryis an efficient Nostr relay system developed by a talented Canadian programmer named Doug Hoyte. It’s currently used by most of the high traffic relays on Nostr. If you want to geek out on it, we recommend thisYouTube video of Doug’s presentation on Strfry. This was the clear relay of choice for ourConduit Commerce Coordinator(the bot system we proposed in theWhitepapermentioned above).

Last month, our tech chiefAcea Spades,pulled one out of his sleeve and got these two working together behind the scenes:

Pictured above: Conduit’s Medusa-based system successfully updating Nostr product events on a Strfry relay

He was able to update a product in Medusa, have it auto-sign a Nostr event, post it to the relay, and have the relay auto-delete the old product while keeping the new one. By doing this, he may have established the first product posting system between MedusaJS and a Nostr relay. That’s pretty cool, folks- and a huge step towards our vision of an easy to use Nostr system for merchants.

Conduit UX Sneak Peak

Last but not least, we made huge progress on our UX design through our collaboration withSantoral.

Screenshot 1 from the editing room: featuring the multi-cart HUD we’re excited to introduce.

This process has been fun and informative. While we’re spending time on the backend engineering too, Conduit is taking a UX-first approach to the build of the platform. This creative process is already paying dividends. It's helping us uncover the product design needed to give users a smooth and feature-rich experience.

The social experience is the top differentiator for a Nostr-based marketplace. This topic is front and center in all our UX working sessions.

Screenshot 2 from the editing room: showing the filter option for “My Network” vs. “Global” within a product category.

How do we show users the significance of the reputation-based content sorting system? How do we do this without taking away from a modern e-commerce experience? How can we do this in a way that’s fun and intuitive? We’re thinking about this in every working session with Santoral.

We’ll leave it there for now. Excited to share more on the UX front next month.

Upcoming Developments

Moar UX & a Landing Page

After an incredible “Phase 1” experience with Santoral, we’ve tasked them with more creative work. You can already see some of it in the screenshots above. They’re currently working on finalizing our design guidelines and applying them to the Hi-Fi wireframes. Then they'll deliver us the master Figma file for our developers to bring to life. This will include mobile screens.

We’ve got a new logo in the works, too. The fun part about our base Hamsa + Lightning logo design is we can rework it in so many ways without losing the essence:

Logo type 3/n. The alien lightning meteorite.

They’re also working with us on an updated landing page that will showcase what we’re building and tell the Conduit story visually. This page will serve as a portal to bring in a community of merchants and users who are excited about what we’re building.

Stayin’ Legal

Behind UX, our second biggest spend was on legal services. We’re going to be working with a forward thinking firm who will help us navigate the choppy regulatory waters of the Bitcoin e-commerce ocean. Beyond the normal start-up stuff, we hope for them to give us input on our designs to avoid potential pitfalls.

A wise Nostrich Lama.

We know that the platform we are building is just. We know that Nostr and Bitcoin are pro-humanity technologies. We believe them to be pro-democracy technologies as well. As we push forward, we’re bound to ruffle some feathers. So we need to make sure what we’re doing falls well within the established legal frameworks for us to survive (and thrive). Not everyone in this community will take this approach, and we respect that. But, this is the path Conduit is taking.

Plugging in Conduit.Coffee

Once we have the finalized design we’re going to start by launching and testing our own store, Conduit Coffee, on the platform. This one might be out a couple months, but it’s an important step to mention and one we’re really looking forward to!

In the meantime, don’t forget to stock up on yourConduit.Coffee.Our FOSS Friday sale was a success, and together we sent a solid bag of Christmas Bitcoin to OpenSats.In fact, we managed to sell out of our first coffee run! This is perfect, since we want to make sure we’re always delivering fresh roasted product to our followers. Thank you for your support.

Note: some of you have requested a “how-to” for Bitcoin/Lightning beginners for the current Conduit.Coffee site. We’ll get that to you in an interim bulletin soon! We’d be honored if your first Bitcoin commercial transaction was with us, and excited for you if it were to be the start of your freedom-tech journey.

Concluding 01/45²

When you’ve got a huge goal (like revolutionizing e-commerce or something like that), it’s tough to feel like you’ve accomplished anything. Especially at the beginning. Looking back on our recent developments has us motivated though. 2024 was a very creative and transformative year for us, with a lot built up under the surface preparing to show itself in 2025.

We’ve got an exciting year ahead. We wish you and your families health, wealth and happiness in the new year- whatever that uniquely means for each of you.

Please feel free toreach out to usand let us know your thoughts on anything we’ve shared. We’d love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Eric FJ- Caffeinated Operating Officer,Conduit Hodlings

Acea Spades- Caffeinated Tech Officer,Conduit Hodlings

Postscript: Growing the Conduit Team

We are actively seeking motivated individuals to accelerate our mission. We’re courting a few people already, but as it stands we feel there are currently roles available in the following areas: - Social Media Marketing / Community Building - Merchant Relations / Strategic Partnerships - Web Development

Please reach out to us by Nostr DM if you are inspired by our mission and interested in helping with any of the above.

Here is the white paper: #naddr1qq…t053

2024-12-16T01:16:25+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…lnmt
_________________________

Here is the white paper:

quoting naddr1qq…t053

Written by Acea Spades, Caffeinated Tech Officer @ Conduit BTC https://primal.net/AceaSpades AceaSpades (npub1xzr…0qap)

Editing and feedback by Eric FJ, Caffeinated Operating Officer @ Conduit BTC https://primal.net/EricFJ EricFJ (npub10xv…g437)

NIP-15 enables a new architectural paradigm in e-commerce. Every piece of data is distributed across a network of relays, adding resiliency and redundancy. Every piece of sensitive data is encrypted in-transit and at-rest, accessible only to Customer and Merchant. Communications and e-commerce activities use an inbox/outbox model across relays. This gives both the Customer and Merchant freedom to choose the digital environment for their shared activities.

This also introduces a host of fun and exciting new issues, such as stale data, relay mismatches, unreachable Customers/Merchants, disappearing messages, and this pesky direct message checkout system.

Platforms like Wordpress, Shopify, and Etsy have democratized the space of e-commerce, made it easy to onboard as a Merchant, and smooth to transact as a Customer. But these systems require centralized servers, siloed data stores, unclear third-party visibility, and possess no protocol-level mechanism for connection with a larger network.

NIP-15: Nostr Marketplaces enables Merchants and Customers to transact directly using the Nostr protocol. It enables a resilient, decentralized presence of Products, and a way to purchase them. It adds privacy and encryption to all correspondence, automatically. Both parties gain the amazing features of Nostr, out-of-the-box. However, the current implementation of the protocol has much to be desired.

Our team at Conduit BTC is focusing our efforts on resolving the shortcomings of the current system. Our mission is to push Nostr E-Commerce forward and help it evolve into a top-quality online retail experience for all.

But to get there, we've got to do some housekeeping.

Let's start with the checkout problem...

Checkout: A Problem

The current state of Nostr E-Commerce is, to put it lightly, lacking in real-world viability.

If I want to purchase a Product, my Nostr client sends a direct message to the Merchant. When they see the message appear, the Merchant generates an invoice, sends it back, waits for payment, then performs the fulfillment steps that their unique businesses requires.

While that might look good on paper, there's some unfortunate implications for both the Merchant and Customer experience. Let's explore some negatives.

NIP-15 uses direct messages to exchange Checkout events between Customer and Merchant. Any Nostr client that doesn't handle NIP-15 events will display the order in good ol' JSON:
{
  "id": "ord_cust_1234567890abcdef",
  "type": 0,
  "name": "Jane Smith",
  "address": "123 Mountain View Dr, Boulder, CO 80302",
  "message": "Looking forward to using these boots on my upcoming hike!",
  "contact": {
    "nostr": "7f3b5f21c9880ce33043478436487435878934578934589345893458934",
    "phone": "+1 303-555-0123",
    "email": "jane.smith@email.com"
  },
  "items": [
    {
      "product_id": "boot_model_789xyz",
      "quantity": 1
    }
  ],
  "shipping_id": "zone_us_rocky_mountain"
}
Imagine parsing through that every time you get an order.

Most clients won't separate these ugly JSON orders from human-speak messages. These orders will be side-by-side with all other conversations, spamming your inbox.

Since the order message needs the Merchant to receive it, generate an invoice by-hand, then send the invoice back, the Bitcoin-based price might fluctuate. This could mean lowering the transaction value for the Merchant or increasing expected cost for the Customer. There's also a higher chance of invoice expiration for Merchants with a smaller risk window against Bitcoin's volatile price.

While Lightning payment processors (Strike, BTCPay Server, etc) send webhooks when funds are received, typical commerce systems don't have a way to communicate with Nostr relays. Product details on-relay aren't auto-updated with current stock, leading Customers placing orders for out-of-stock items.

And, the Merchant has to manually send shipment details in a direct message to the Customer; another manual step in the checkout flow.

Long story short, it's simply not functional for a Merchant to complete the entire series of checkout steps as-described by NIP-15, at-scale for real-world e-commerce, by hand.

To summarize the challenges we must overcome:

Merchant experience friction: Manual steps require time per order multiplied by their unique business operation's requirements.

Spammed inbox: Non-relevant JSON messages fill the Merchant's inbox.

Fulfillment delays: Checkout flow is delayed until several manual steps are completed by both parties.

Price fluctuations: Time between order placed and invoice paid leads to possible price fluctuation, impacting Merchant or Customer expectations

Invoice expirations: Time between invoice generation and payment increases chance of expiration

In-Stock Mismatches: Relays may have incorrect inventory stock, leading to failed orders and customer inconvenience.

With these points considered, a "real-world" checkout process requires automation. Coordination between inventory, payments, fulfillment, and Customer communication, should take place by an automatic process.

To that effect, we at Conduit BTC propose a solution. We call it the Nostr Commerce Coordinator.

The Case for Coordinators

An NCC (Nostr Commerce Coordinator) is a server-based Nostr bot that: - Is under control of, and represents, the Merchant on Nostr - Subscribes to a relay pool - Posts and queries NIP-15 events - Coordinates the NIP-15 Checkout process on behalf of a Merchant: - Inventory Management: verify, increment, and decrement product stock, create and update Stalls and Products on relays via signed events - Payment Processing: generate Lightning invoices, send invoice to customer, respond to payment events via webhook - Fulfillment Services: create shipments, notify fulfillment partners Handles Checkout-related communications with the Customer Notifies the Merchant when certain things occur Collect sales-relates metrics for Merchant visibility

To summarize the benefits of an NCC: - Automated, frictionless checkout flow - Direct integration with Merchant's existing e-commerce stack: inventory management, payment processing, and shipping service - Separation of Checkout-related direct messages (containing ugly JSON) from actual human readable direct messages - General separation-of-concerns between Merchant's social graph and e-commerce activities - Ability to implement additional commerce features, such as metrics collection, financial statements, subscriptions, and much more yet-to-be explored possibilities

Where do I put my private key?

There's one violation of Nostr pleb sensibility that, at first glance, might seem required for the NCC equation to work: putting a Merchant account's private key in the hands of a cloud-based server.

Obviously, we don't want our private keys stored on a cloud-based server.

To overcome this, there's the option to use an nsec Bunker (with supported clients). Using an Nsec bunker would more-safely store our private keys, granting both sign-and-decrypt access to the server. It's a great solution.

However, we'll explain a couple of reasons why using the Merchant account with an Nsec bunker for checkout fulfillment may not be right for most use cases:

All checkout messages would spam the Merchant account with non-social direct messages. For popular Merchants, this will increase friction for both fulfilling orders and engaging with Customers. This can be resolved by clients enabling NIP-15 message sorting, but it's likely that most clients will still display an inbox filled with socially-irrelevant messages.

Both business and social activities would be strongly coupled. Stalls, Products, and Orders are managed by the same keypair that the Merchant's social graph is tied to. A leaked key has the potential to bring the entire business operation to a halt, social presence included.

There is, however, an alternative to using the Merchant account for checkout resolution. And, it works great with nsecBunkers, too.

We're now going to explore the use of a utility keypair, a Nostr account generated specifically for assisting the primary account holder in any number of tasks. We'll explore utility keypairs in greater detail through a paradigm we call Merchant Delegation.

Merchant Delegation

In the Merchant Delegation paradigm, a different Nostr keypair effectively controls all commerce-related events on behalf of the Merchant. The delegated account creates every Stall and Product, receives all Checkout events, and handles checkout-related communication with the Customer.

The Merchant signs a Merchant Delegate Token, which is placed in a tag on every event signed by the delegate account. Clients parse the tag, verify the signature is valid, and cause non-checkout events to target the Delegator automatically.

As an extra layer of validation, a NIP-05 identifier may be included. When an identifier is present, clients will verify its validity, and reject delegation if the Npub is not properly identified. This provides the ability to invalidate the delegation, if need be.

When coupled with an NCC, the Merchant Delegation paradigm really begins to shine.

For the mindful Merchant who doesn't want to use their main account for checkout activities, Merchant Delegation is the answer. For wary Merchants who want to keep their private keys off-cloud, an NCC can use a utility keypair and act on behalf of the Merchant through Merchant Delegation.

For the rest of this article, we will refer to this utility keypair as the NCC Account, while calling the Merchant's primary Nostr account the Merchant Root Account.

When an order is placed, the NCC automatically fetches the incoming message, decrypts it, parses the order, generates an invoice, and sends it to the Customer. A Customer can place an order, then receive an invoice in seconds.

Once paid, the payment processor's webhook notifies the NCC. The NCC decrements stock in the inventory management system, posts a Product Update event across the relay pool, then forwards the paid order to the fulfillment service.

NCCs can optionally keep a copy of every event they've handled. This enables local persistence and immediate access to important events without requiring re-retrieval from relays. A locally-kept reconstruction of the entire e-commerce activity graph. This can be useful for keeping order history, assisting Customer support, generating sales reports and financial records, etc.

All the while, the Merchant's Root Account remains free to engage solely in social graph activities (ie. posting short-form / long-form content creation and engagement, non-checkout communications with Customers, etc), without the checkout-related events spamming their inbox.

In this way, the NCC becomes the bridge between the Nostr protocol and the Merchant's e-commerce systems. The Merchant freed from manual checkout management, and gain a piece of extendable software that can meet many of their needs as a Nostr-based business.

NIP-15 Amendment - Merchant Delegate Tag Spec

In order to separate the social graph from checkout activities, an amendment to the NIP-15 spec has been proposed: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1648.

To use Merchant Delegation Tags:

Clients MUST treat events with a merchant-delegation tag in the following manner:

Validate the delegation token signature

If retarget_while< and/or retarget_while> is present in the conditions query string, only perform event re-targeting within the given time window

If nip_05_identifier is present in the conditions query string, only perform re-targeting if the Npub of the event's creator is verifiable as-per the NIP-05 spec

Clients SHOULD display a relevant visual indicator that a Stall and/or Product's Checkout process is handled by a Merchant Delegate.

Merchant Delegation tags are described as follows:
[
  "merchant-delegation",
  <pubkey of the delegator>,
  <conditions query string>,
  <delegation token: 64-byte Schnorr signature of the sha256 hash of the delegation string>
]
The merchant-delegation token should be a 64-byte Schnorr signature of the sha256 hash of the following string: nostr:delegation:<pubkey of publisher (delegatee)>:\<conditions query string>

To keep this article concise, we have omitted most of the proposal details. The above may be deprecated. See the link to the PR to read the complete and up-to-date spec.

Merchant Delegate NCC Tags In-Action

On a NIP-15 enabled clients that adhere to this spec, the experience would be as follows:

UX: A Product for sale, in a Stall, by Merchant (Root Account)

Nostr: Kind 30017 (Set Stall) and 30018 (Set Product) events signed by the NCC Account, with a "merchant-delegation" tag pointing to the Merchant Root Account.

UX: Select this Product for purchase, fill in the appropriate details on a Checkout Form, then click "Buy Now".

Nostr: Client creates a direct message addressed to the NCC Account. NCC server generates a Lightning invoice for this order, and sends it back immediately as a direct message addressed to the Customer

UX: Customer receives a Lightning Invoice from NCC Account, then pays the invoice.

Lightning + Nostr: NCC receives a webhook message from its Payment Processor, indicating payment was received. NCC sends a direct message to the Customer indicating Order Confirmation. Any time there are shipping updates from the Shipping Service, NCC will send additional direct messages to the Customer; in the case of digital goods, the order will be fulfilled as-appropriate for the business use case.

UX: From the same Product's details page, the Customer will see the Product is sold by the Merchant Root Account, with a visual indicator stating the Checkout process is managed by NCC. Customer clicks Follow. Customer zaps the Merchant 100 sats. Customer sends a direct message to the Merchant to thank them for the excellent service.

Nostr: Product and Stall are both created by the NCC Account, Follow, Zap, and Direct Message events all target the Merchant Root Account.

Additional Features

Private Key Watchman

As an additional feature of an NCC, we get "for free" a server can match on-relay events with locally-stored events to detect unauthorized events signed with its private key. The underlying issue corresponding to the leak could then be investigated. A rare instance, but a powerful tool for account safety.

If an unauthorized event were discovered, the NCC can respond in a number of ways, chosen by the Merchant, which may include:

"Purge and replace": Send NIP-09 Event Deletion Requests to every relay in the pool for every existing Stall and Product. Generate a new keypair, recreate the Stalls and Products, then propagate them to all relays. Notify the Merchant that a purge took place.

"Purge, then notify": Perform a full purge, then notify Merchant. Useful in scenarios where the running server may have become compromised.

"Notify, then purge": Notify the Merchant. Unless cancelled within a set amount of time, perform a purge.

"Just notify": Notify the Merchant that one or more events were signed with the NCC secret key outside of the NCC server. Useful if the Merchant chooses to use the NCC's utility keypair in other clients.

Following a purge, the Merchant (or NCC automatically) would then generate a new keypair / NCC Account, then republish all Stalls and Products. Commerce would continue uninterrupted with an uncompromised Merchant social graph. Through Merchant Delegate tags, clients would still properly route Customer interactions through to the proper systems.

There's a lot of conversation happening at Conduit BTC about this particular feature, and how we can "watch the watchman" by providing additional layers of security to the server itself. This is an ongoing discussion, and we'd love for you to be a part of it. Visit the Discussions tab on on C3: The Conduit Commerce Coordinator Repo, and let's chat about it.

Stall and Product Management

Stall and Product Management could be handled from a web UI served by the NCC, instead of solely within the external Inventory Management service.

Note: if the "leaked key protection" guard was in place, it would actually be necessary to either use the web UI to manage products, or temporarily disable the guard, to prevent NCC from becoming angry and initiating (or threatening) a purge. Yikes.

Subscriptions

In the future, the NIP-15 spec can be updated to include a Subscription event type, indicating that the Customer would like to repeat the same order one or more times.

The NCC can automatically send the subscribing Customer their next order's payment notice. Accepting the notice (via direct message response, following a URL, etc.) generates an invoice on-the-spot.

Direct Messaging

A direct message client could be placed into the web UI, for passing Checkout-related messages to the Customer, instead of using the Merchant Root account and splitting order-specific conversation into two threads.

Drawbacks

If the NCC were taken offline, then Customer's order messages would accumulate without automatic resolution.

However, like an escalator conveniently becoming stairs when not functioning properly, Customer orders continue to accumulate on-relay, awaiting the deployment of another NCC, or manual resolution. As long as the NCC Account's private key is safely stored away, it can be loaded into another NCC or Nostr client at any time.

A serious drawback to the current NIP-15 spec is using NIP-04 Encrypted Direct Messages for checkout events. Luckily, we've already opened a PR to improve that: https://github.com/amunrarara/nips/blob/patch-1/15.md

Conclusion

Without a system capable of automating the process between a Customer's intent to purchase and a Merchant's acceptance, e-commerce on Nostr will not grow beyond small sales plagued with high-friction manual checkout steps.

This proposal contains the groundwork for a new type of Nostr bot. A Nostr bot whose core function is handling NIP-15 checkout events automatically on behalf of a Merchant.

We've included many implementation possibilities, which the community may explore, innovate, and perfect.

To recap, concepts introduced in this article were: - Nostr Commerce Coordinators - Utility keypair accounts - Merchant Delegation

This is an ongoing conversation, and we'd love to have your feedback and participation in making Nostr E-Commerce an incredible experience for all.

We hope that this new software and NIP proposal will improve the experience for all of us on Nostr. Join us on this adventure into a new frontier in decentralized online e-commerce.

Conduit BTC has begun development on the first Nostr Commerce Coordinator, which we call C3: The Conduit Commerce Coordinator. This is, of course, an open-source project - as everything we do will be.

Follow, star, share, and join the discussion on Github: https://github.com/Conduit-BTC/conduit-commerce-coordinator

@npub1gcx…nj5z would love to get your feedback

2024-12-15T07:58:29+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…k4hs
_________________________

VitorPamplona (npub1gcx…nj5z) would love to get your feedback

Lol, sad but true symptom of ZIRP. Now that BTC is forcing the ...

2024-12-10T16:18:46+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…065c
_________________________

Lol, sad but true symptom of ZIRP. Now that BTC is forcing the price of money back to normal, they’ll learn to celebrate a version of this again: “We became sat flow positive”

What if I told you… that you didn’t need to make trade offs ...

2024-12-05T03:34:36+01:00

What if I told you… that you didn’t need to make trade offs anymore?
#bitcoin online merchants, feel free to reach out to us

“A match made in heaven: a currency based on energy, with no ...

2024-12-03T04:45:32+01:00

“A match made in heaven: a currency based on energy, with no central bank... and a protocol based on reputation, with no central authority”
#nostronly #grownostr

Read the manifesto:

quoting
naddr1qq…4t6n

Welcome to the Conduit Signal

Good morning friends, both old and new. Welcome to the very first of our monthly updates on the development of the Conduit platform. We're going to use this as the hub for keeping people in the loop about our progress. We'll make sure this is fun and educational along the way, too.

This first letter is a manifesto. It gives new followers vital context before introducing our flagship demo: Conduit.Coffee. Future updates will be shorter and more to the point. So, while we wish you a happy Black Friday, there will be no discounts on words today.

Onward.

Reading commitment: ~2,800 words / ~11 minutes

What are we building?

We're making a new platform for online shoppers to discover products they love and trust. A place where all the product reviews you see are real. A platform where you control your buying decisions and are not manipulated. This is a destination where you can both shop in private or choose to share your purchases with your friends. And by friends, I mean the ones already in your network—not a bunch of new ones you need to make.

It's also an interactive marketplace for stores to connect with their customers. It gives them a forum to create content, chat, and listen to their customers—all out of the box. An infinite online mail-order catalog combined with a live editorial section and chat. Did I mention thousands of users are already sitting there, waiting for the stores to show up?

This might sound a little insane or idealistic. And it all was... before the combined power of the Nostr and Bitcoin networks existed. Leveraging this tech allows us to create the place we describe above. We can unlock the internet's true potential and bypass the big e-commerce sites. It gives us the power to make online shopping more direct, transparent, fair, and enjoyable.

Why are we doing this?

Today's e-commerce environment feels like a game rigged against the consumer. Fake reviews, intrusive data tracking, and manipulative algorithms are completely normal. Your data is being sold—including all your credit card purchases. Companies are building profiles on you. They're so good that it feels like your phone is listening and feeding them tips (is it?).

Most of us find ourselves caught up in a manipulative algorithmic loop. We're in the Matrix, losing the diverse freedom of thought that makes us human.

"You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." - Morpheus, The Matrix (1999)

You are the product and they have the tools to influence you. Your mind and attention are being mashed up, tossed around, and sold to the highest bidder. Worst of all, the consumer doesn't get much value from it: their services aren't geared towards you. The reviews can't be trusted since the discourse around a product can be bought and manipulated, with no effective way for the user to know who the faceless army of follows and likes came from... can I trust them? Is it even real?

**And is it even all the merchants' fault? **Now that the game is afoot, they must take part or die. Even our favorite brands must compromise their values to stay afloat. It's hard to blame them either... it's the playing field itself that's set up with bad incentives.

On top of all that, the merchants need to work their asses off to stay relevant. Making apps, newsletters, and text bots while sneaking in product placements... whatever they need to stay at the top of your feed. Then we, the consumers, respond with dummy accounts, routing services, ad blockers... whatever we need to salvage what we've got left of our attention and privacy.

It's a stupid and wasteful game.

We're told: "This is the way it is now." These are the new rules; the technology is here to stay, and we are at its mercy. We're pretty sick of it... and we're here to show you: this is a lie.

The Good Old Days...

Imagine yourself in the early '60s, when cash was king. Long before the internet age.

You stroll into a convenience store to get a coffee and your favorite magazine, Outdoor Life. You hand over some change and get the goods; transaction completed.

"They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em... Freedom." - George Hanson, Easy Rider (1969)

The magazine's advertisers know only that you like the outdoors. They serve you their top brands alongside the content in a manner that emphasizes good taste. The paper can't watch your eyes. The pages must have enjoyable content and design. Advertisers must captivate you with their branding. They need to take some risks and be creative to earn your attention.

From there, you might have ordered something by mail off one of the pages. It wasn't perfect, and a bit slow by today's standards—but it was a fairer and simpler game. There was also nothing illegal or immoral about doing all this in private. Our culture used to respect privacy... remember the phrase "mind your own business"? This was normal.

...are gone?

We have an intense desire to return to some modern version of this. Our ability to express our unique and diverse selves through commerce is dependent on it. Our respective cultures need this diversity to remain rich and robust.

But we also recognize the convenience and connectivity of the digital age. We're not Luddites—far from it.

If we're honest, none of us wants to go back to the way things were before. We're aware that we are accepting trade-offs for our privacy and freedom of thought. It's so cool that I can tap a few buttons and summon objects to my door. It's amazing that I can (sort of) figure out what to buy without being in a store.

What if I told you… you didn't need to make tradeoffs anymore?

The challenge is great.

How do we create a system that has users and merchants interacting like the good old days… but with modern convenience? How do we connect users and merchants so they can both win? How do we do this while allowing users the option for complete privacy and zero manipulation?

The centralized services of the Matrix have set high expectations. They have unmatched speed and vast catalogs. We have tough work ahead of us.

Why the hell would we pursue this? Because it's a worthy goal—a hill worth dying on. We need to see this in the world for future generations.

...And we can be successful in our mission thanks to Bitcoin, Nostr, and open-source code. And because the incumbents are too big and reliant on the old systems to adopt these new technologies.

The Potential of Nostr

For those of you new to this: Nostr stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

"Nostr is a simple, open protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media." - Nostr.com

We'd recommend exploring nostr.com if you're tech-savvy, or nostr.how if you're looking for something more accessible. We also recommend Lyn Alden's write-up for a less technical deep dive. If you're an investor or a VC, try Max Webster's article here.

So what does this mean?

Nostr is a protocol (like HTTP), not a platform (like TikTok, X, or Instagram). It's completely open, and nobody owns it.

And everyone there is proud to be a "Nostrich"

It has clients (apps), relays (simple servers), and key pairs (user profiles). Each of these interacts with different events (text, images, etc.) in different ways: - Users access any client with their secret keys. - Clients allow users to view and interact with events fetched from any relay that they choose. - Relays store and serve events signed by users through the clients.

Anyone can spin up a client. There are already dozens with their own unique spin on the network. And we guarantee they've already got a version of your favorite social media site.

Anyone can host a relay. There are already hundreds serving different enclaves of the network.

Anyone can generate a secret key and start building a social profile to interact with any of the above. There are already millions.

Imagine if you could transfer your TikTok account to X in an instant. Then over to LinkedIn. Maybe you're feeling Instagram? Whatever you want—your friends, content, messages, and profile would come with you. Now, imagine if you could control the content you see on these platforms, too.

This is Nostr.

A New Cyberspace Frontier

The network is a giant constellation of interactive events in cyberspace. All organized by identity, time, popularity, value, or whatever you see fit. All secured by cryptography without needing to trust a big company.

"A whole new world. A new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no, or where to go…" - Aladdin (1992)

Every user is a navigator in this space. Their client is a powerful telescope. It lets them observe and engage with the constellation in their own way. Some may focus on the vibrant nebulae of social interaction. Others may seek the dense star clusters of commerce and exchange. Your reputation and relationships travel with you, wherever you go. They foster a sense of continuity and community across the vast Nostr space.

The potential for this technology to connect us all in a way that was never before possible is so damn exciting. It's easy to imagine a future where more people have Nostr identities than email and social media accounts combined. If you spend any time on there, it seems like the open source developers are dropping a new feature, update or application every single day...

Of all the things this protocol can do, we are most excited about e-commerce. It hasn't been properly tackled yet. Nostr allows us to connect users and merchants without actually being a middleman. We can become like our '60s Outdoor Life magazine. Except, we're now infinitely connected and social.

The Role of Bitcoin

As much as we'd love to, we're not going to waste too much time evangelizing Bitcoin here. There are plenty of people doing that already. We do suggest that if you're new to Bitcoin, you check out these resources and start learning right away: - https://bitcoin.org/en/ - https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html

You'll thank us one day.

In short: Bitcoin is a completely permissionless, energy-based form of money. It's already changing the financial landscape under our feet. Most importantly, it can be sent peer-to-peer without a central authority. This can be done cheaply and somewhat privately using the Lightning Network. Soon, it will be even cheaper to use Bitcoin completely privately with e-cash.

It's the future of money—but we're here to make it fun. We want to create an app so engaging, useful, and easy to use that people will buy Bitcoin just to take part. We want to showcase Bitcoin's practical benefits in e-commerce.

As promised, Tom.

Nostr and Bitcoin

A match made in heaven: a currency based on energy, with no central bank... and a protocol based on reputation, with no central authority.

Bitcoin is already integrated into the Nostr network. Users can send each other micropayments called "zaps" along with liking posts. This is a killer feature that is already changing the incentives for what users post. It seems to encourage valuable content instead of blatantly provocative discourse. Who would have thought the ability for folks to put their money where their mouth is on social media would drive out all the annoying people?

This is the tech that lets users send value to the stores and to each other directly, without Conduit handling any transactions. This also ensures the most valuable content can rise to the top. Users can sort reviews by most zapped or a minimum follower count. This will make faking a valuable review unfeasible.

The Future of E-Commerce

With those bases covered, let's address the idealistic claims we made at the beginning:

"We're making a new platform for online shoppers to discover products they love and trust. A place where all the product reviews you see are real."

Nostr's search parameters are more powerful than any traditional social media site allows. You can find profiles and events based on reputation and value. This includes follows, engagement, and zaps. The same can be said about filtering reviews like we discussed earlier. You can also filter anything to be within your friend network, or even your friends' friends, and so on.

If you'd like to see for yourself what's possible, check out the search on Primal.

"A platform where you control your buying decisions and are not manipulated."

Nostr is a place where you can choose your social feed algorithms. The Primal client linked above now has this feature. But it has been in the ecosystem for a while already through "Data Vending Machines." We will be leveraging this technology on our platform, too.

Our use of open-source code is relevant here, too. We will prove our statements by posting our codebase in a public forum (our GitHub page).

"This is a destination where you can shop in private if you want or share your purchases with your friends."

We will enable privacy by creating throwaway profiles for users when desired. This will not compromise essential features.

"...by friends, I mean the ones already in your network—not a bunch of new ones you need to make."

We covered this above: your profile and content follow you wherever you decide to plug in.

"It's also an interactive marketplace for stores to connect with their customers. It gives them a forum to create content, chat, and listen to their customers—all out of the box. An infinite online mail-order catalog combined with a live editorial section and chat."

Check out the market stall chat features of our peers on Plebeian Market that leverage the Nostr Improvement Proposal 28 specification. These folks could replace Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, etc. We're cheering them on while we go after Amazon.

"Did I mention thousands of users are already sitting there, waiting for the stores to show up?"

Anyone with a Nostr identity can hop between clients. So, the whole network is already available to merchants who are ready to plug into Conduit.

In summary: Nostr already has most of what we need for our e-commerce vision built in. Including a specification for marketplaces that we'll be using and expanding.

Our First Steps

We're already deep into the UX design of the platform (shoutout to Emi and Dylan at Santoral). We've also spent a lot of time designing the general architecture and back-end systems. This includes developing custom relays and relay controllers.

But how can we have a platform if there aren't any stores?

Enter Coffee by Conduit

Today's proof of concept release is for our flagship store: Conduit.Coffee. This solves the problem of needing a first store on the platform. It also lets us test our ideas and shows future merchants that we're not afraid to eat our own cooking.

Or rather, drink our own coffee. Which is definitely happening.

Coffee by Conduit is a simple shop. We accept Bitcoin in exchange for fresh-roasted coffee beans that we ship to your doorstep (US only, for now). We provide receipts in any format you need, including a private Nostr direct message.

From here, we'll iterate and add features until we build our dream marketplace.

Zima Purple, in the beginning.

Supporting Open Source Software

Obviously, any coffee sales will help us with overhead and development costs. If you take the plunge and try our delicious coffee—thank you. We're grateful for all our early adopter customers.

But, we know our work rests on the foundations of countless open source contributors. So, we're committed to giving back to the open source community from the start.

In that spirit, we will donate 2.1% of coffee sales to an organization called OpenSats. They're supporting dozens of developers writing the open-source code for the Nostr protocol.

It's something we will do every step of the way. We may give to similar organizations in the future but... we'll NEVER go below the 2.1% donation of our own store sales to support open-source software.

F.O.S.S. FRIDAY "DEAL"

Here's a fun idea to get us started. Black Friday? How about Free Open Source Software (“FOSS”) Friday?

To celebrate the launch of our demo product, we will 10x our commitment to OpenSats for the rest of 2024. Yes, we're donating 21% of all sales for an entire month. The price of the coffee bags stays the same at USD $21; our profit goes down, and OpenSats gets more funding.

Get Involved

If you're excited about the potential of Conduit, we invite you to get involved! Here are a few easy things you can do (besides buying our coffee): - Share this newsletter with anyone you think would be interested. - If you're new to Nostr, dive in and explore this transformative technology. - If you're already a Nostr user, follow us. You might even like, zap, and share our posts if you feel like it.

And, of course, feel free to reach out with any questions by direct messaging either of us on a Nostr client!

The Future is Exciting

We see so much potential in the Nostr/Bitcoin ecosystem. We're thrilled to join the renaissance of powerful, free, open-source software.

We plan to be the worst part of Jeff Bezos’s epic midlife crisis, so we’ll start by misquoting him…

This is Day 1 of Nostr

We see the potential in this space for a revolution in e-commerce, and we're working hard to make it happen.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. We're at the very beginning of something transformative. See you around Christmas time for another update—there's a lot cooking on our end.

Cheers,

Eric FJ - Caffeinated Operating Officer, Conduit Hodlings

Acea Spades - Caffeinated Tech Officer, Conduit Hodlings

Thanks Shaun! We published this on @npub1yzv…rf8q !

2024-12-02T02:26:40+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…t9cc
_________________________

Thanks Shaun! We published this on YakiHonne (npub1yzv…rf8q) !

Thanks Derek!

2024-11-30T19:03:45+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…2glz
_________________________

Thanks Derek!

#introductions Hello world! #note1zfc…3xse

2024-11-29T19:46:14+01:00

#introductions

Hello world!

quoting
note1zfc…3xse
GM
HAPPY FOSS FRIDAY!
We are LIVE with deletednpub (npub18pl…4wh4) !

21% of ALL SALES go to OpenSats (npub10pe…n34f) until the end of 2024!

Read the manifesto here:
https://buttondown.com/Conduit/archive/day-1-manifesto/
(long form content to be posted on Nostr today too)

THANK YOU EARLY ADOPTERS!

https://conduit.coffee/

#coffee #coffeechain #blackfriday #foss