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Damus, a so-called "Twitter killer" built on a decentralised network, has been approved by Apple's App Store.
The Damus team confirmed the approval to its 11,500 Twitter followers on Jan. 31, following what it claims were at least three rejections from the Big Tech player.
Shortly after, Twitter co-founder and Nostr contributor Jack Dorsey shared the news with his 6.5 million followers, with the entrepreneur labeling it as a “milestone” moment for open-source protocols:
a milestone for open protocols...#nostr is now officially on the Apple App Store with @damusapp:https://t.co/GQmvPE5nfX
— jack (@jack) January 31, 2023
The application is called the "social network that you control" and is an email service built on Nostr - a decentralized network allowing encrypted private messages from end to end, among others.
It plans to become a social media platform with uncensored content. It also has built-in payments through the Bitcoin () layer-2 Lightning Network, according to a Jan. 27 post from Protos.
The network is not managed by any server. Instead, nostr uses distributed relays to deliver messages.
Nostr developers are also focused on using Bitcoin and the Lightning Network to prevent distributed denial-of-service spam attacks on the Damus app.
There have been 44 different software developers who have contributed to the code for the Damus web app, according to the team’s GitHub page.
Neat way to fetch bitcoin addresses: #nostr encrypted dms. pic.twitter.com/lMlnIhf3fg
— William Casarin ?? (@jb55) January 29, 2023
Having Damus in the Apple App Store wasn't easy.
Damus' Twitter page published that he had failed in at least three attempts before being eventually approved:
We responded once again by indicating where and how these functions are implemented. That's all we can do at this time....
— Damus?? (@damusapp) January 31, 2023
One of Nostr’s core developers, William Casarin, also shared some frustration on his personal Twitter account, stating that it would be a “shame” if Apple users couldn’t use Nostr natively.
Related: An inside look at the moral and technical considerations of crypto social media
While the exact partnership between Dorsey and Nostr isn’t known, the billionaire entrepreneur sent over 14 BTC — worth about $250,000 at the time — in mid-December to help the Nostr developer team.
While the news seemed to have heightened application awareness among the bitcoin community, other high-level figures have tested the application damus too.
Among these are Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, Edward Snowden, former entrepreneur of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Cynthia Lummis, American senator pro-crypto.
One of the interesting things about Nostr ("Notes and other things handed down from relays", a new decentralized protocol that replaces things such as Twitter and Instagram), beyond resistance to censorship, is that we are not limited to 280 characters.
I want you to find me. pic.twitter.com/B7JUHeeSdP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 23, 2023
At the time of writing, there were issues with the Damus web application. A warning message on the site homepage reads:
“Damus Web is down because there is someone trying to exploit browser loopholes to steal private keys. I wouldn't recommend a web client at this point in time. Damus iOS remains unaffected."
