Nostr Surge After Telegram CEO Arrest Shows Growing User Demand for Privacy

Decentralized social media platform Nostr clocked a sizable uptick in users after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France on Aug. 25. Users concerned with potential regulatory interference are seeking more privacy-focused alternatives, as government control over everyday conversations continues to expand.

Daily users on the platform reached a yearly high of nearly 20,000 on Aug. 27, just two days after the detainment. More people are joining the platform, with a nearly fivefold increase in sign-ups in the week after authorities took Durov into custody. Sign-ups reached almost 50,000 today, up from 9,000 on Aug. 24, according to Nostr.Band, which tracks the platform’s data.

The increase in Nostr adoption reflects a broader trend. Users are becoming increasingly concerned about the potential for large tech companies and governments to exploit or misuse their data and are seeking ways to protect their privacy.

“Privacy is exceptional,” said Amir Taaki, a British-Iranian hacktivist with a long history in Bitcoin. He told The Defiant that it should be our rallying cry given the state of affairs in the world. And that’s what he ultimately is building, along with his team: an entire sector called DarkFi which shrouds its users in obfuscation against state-sponsored attacks on privacy, and freedom.

Privacy Concerns

According to the Pew Research Center, people who say they are worried about government use of their data have increased to 71% in 2023 from 64% in 2019. A 2022 poll by antivirus Norton shows that 80% of users are concerned about their privacy, while 70% said they were more alarmed than ever before.

Tech companies play a key role in debilitating privacy and are therefore a source of concern for users. According to the Washington Post, nearly 7 in 10 Americans think their devices are listening to them, and some of the main social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, are widely distrusted.

Durov’s arrest prompted an outcry from cryptocurrency experts and free speech advocates. The Telegram CEO was detained in France on Aug. 25, and days later charged with a wide swath of crimes related to the fact that illicit activity was taking place on Telegram, including drug trafficking, spreading child pornography, and using “cryptology” without a government authorization.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, tweeted “The arrest of Pavel Durov for enabling free speech communications through Telegram is very concerning. If we, as a society, lose the battle to defend freedom of speech and communication, nothing else won’t matter, dark ages will be our future.” Edward Snowden, renowned whistleblower also had words of caution for the world, and called people to “wake up.”

It’s worth noting though that Telegram isn’t the perfect platform for private messaging, however. It doesn’t have end-to-end encryption like Signal or other privacy-protecting apps, and there have been reports that Durov has previously shared information with Russian authorities.

Nevertheless, users are looking for alternatives, and new sign ups on Nostr in the wake of the arrest have been active. Daily users sending each other bitcoin jumped to 15,000 on Aug. 27 from a stagnant 5,000 in the days prior.

Notes & Other Stuff

Nostr is short for Notes & Other Stuff Transmitted By Relays. It aims to be a global, censorship-resistant, permissionless, and decentralized social media protocol which allows any developer to create their own app. According to its website, it allows any user to run a relay that transmits information across the internet instantly.

The protocol has built-in micropayments so users can be “zapped” (or tipped) directly by their followers. And since anybody can create an app, users own their social graph, meaning they can take their followers and data with them to another app.

However, Nostr continues to be used by a very niche community: Bitcoin maximalists. As news of Durov’s arrest surfaced, Bitcoin Twitter became a hotbed for users to drop their “npubs” as the equivalent of X handles.

And Nostr isn’t the only privacy-focused app that’s growing. Protonmail, one of the most used privacy-preserving email providers, reported in April 2023 that in nine years they grew from 10,000 users to 100 million–with signups surging amid the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and protests in Iran during 2022.

Government Control

Durov’s arrest shows the extent to which governments will reach to control the narrative, and ultimately limit private communication on social media platforms. The road is dangerous, and platforms like Nostr and open blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum will prove to be even more important in the coming years.

Bitcoin OG Taaki outlined a fully anonymous on-chain DAO with token-weighted voting in an Aug. 12 X post which caught the attention of many in the crypto community, because it addresses privacy concerns.

“The DAO has been around for two years,” Taaki told The Defiant “I was really surprised to see it catching the attention it did, which is indicative that times have changed.”

DarkFi

Behind the DAO, and a sector of crypto Taaki operates in dubbed DarkFi, operates a couple of simple yet powerful ideas: offer a treasury for building out privacy-preserving tools without fear of reprisal, and protect users from attack vectors coming during the “Age of Censorship and Populism.”

According to Taaki, the situation in the U.K., where authorities have begun persecuting, and incarcerating individuals for what they post online, is sparking a renewed interest in privacy tools, like the DAO.

Behind the DAO, and a sector of crypto Taaki operates in dubbed DarkFi, operates a couple of simple yet powerful ideas: offer a treasury for building out privacy-preserving tools without fear of reprisal, and protect users from attack vectors coming during the “Age of Censorship and Populism.”

“The DAO has been around for two years,” Taaki told The Defiant “I was really surprised to see it catching the attention it did, which is indicative that times have changed.”