A Watchtower for Discovering the Nostr Ecosystem
- Contact:
- Roman Bögli
Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays (Nostr) is a decentralized communication system built on open protocols, enabling censorship-resistant and permissionless information exchange. Its development is driven by Nostr Improvement Proposals (NIPs), which define modular features that developers implement selectively, leading to an intentionally highly flexible and diverse ecosystem. This project aims to analyze Nostr from both a data-driven and software-engineering perspective, examining its usage patterns, architectural variations, and the broader implications of its decentralized design and development paradigm.

Context
This project intersects three fields of research:
- Decentralized and censorship-resistant communication systems, which provide the foundation for secure, open, and resilient information exchange.
- The study of social networks and their behavior, examining how user interactions shape network dynamics, influence information flow, and contribute to the development of decentralized communities.
- Software variability and evolution in general, focusing on the challenges of maintaining interoperability across diverse implementations.
Motivation
Nostr is a promising and emerging system with the potential to serve as the backbone for various applications that rely on a social layer. Its evolving structure, user activity, and network scalability offer valuable research opportunities that, if properly explored, can provide the Nostr community with guiding insights for future development decisions.
Another interesting aspect of research concerns Nostr’s evolution and its NIP-driven development model, which allows different developers to implement selective features using diverse architectures and technology stacks. Together, they foster a heterogeneous ecosystem where software variants exhibit varying levels of NIP compliance and compatibility. Understanding these dynamics is essential for assessing interoperability challenges and the broader implications of decentralized software engineering.
Lastly, this project is also motivated by security concerns. The resilience of decentralized systems depends on early identification and mitigation of potential attack vectors, making security research a crucial component.
In summary, this project seeks to establish a well-integrated Nostr relay to support long-term studies on (i) network evolution, (ii) NIPs-driven software engineering, and (iii) realistic attack experiments to evaluate network resilience.
Goal
The project’s goal requires progress in two work packages (WP). WP1 consists of two foundational components, (a) and (b), that lay the groundwork. Building on this, WP2 leverages the results from WP1 to initiate experiments driven by relevant research questions.
- WP1a Oversight: Gain an overview of popular Nostr relays and APIs, identifying key functionalities, major differences, and their relevance to this study. This will help establish a foundational understanding of the ecosystem and guide the next stage.
- WP1b Watchtower: Develop and deploy a watchtower that serves as both an active Nostr relay and a data collection tool. It will participate in the network while systematically gathering and archiving ecosystem data, including metadata and insights from third-party APIs. The collected data will be stored in a database to support future analysis.
- WP2 Evaluation: Perform an initial experiment assessing 2-4 concrete aspects of the Nostr ecosystem using the data collected by the watchtower. This could involve, for example, replicating and extending Wei & Tyson’s preliminary study (see pointers), analyzing popular relays/clients and their (mis)alignment with the NIP domain, performing network attack experiments, or exploring any other relevant research question that aligns with the overall motivation of this project.
Students interested in this topic may focus only WP1 for a start, depending on the chosen context (e.g., Seminar, BSc Thesis) and agreed-upon scope.
Requirements
Required skills:
- Interest in decentralized systems, open-source ecosystems, and censorship-resistant networks.
- Solid programming skills in at least one of C++, Python, Go, or Rust
- Solid data modeling skills as required, e.g., in relational DBMS
- Self-motivated, able to think and work independently, eager to learn.
- Able to work with Linux environments and SSH.
- Able to work with APIs, databases (SQL), and network data.
Recommended skills (to be acquired while working on the topic):
- Understanding of Nostr protocol and NIPs.
Pointers
- Y. Wei and G. Tyson, “ Exploring the Nostr Ecosystem: A Study of Decentralization and Resilience,” Feb. 08, 2024 (preprint).
- “ Nostr Implementation Possibilities (NIPs).” Accessed: Oct. 04, 2024.
- nostorg/clients. Accessed: Feb. 13, 2025. GitHub Project, Webpage “ Feature Matrix for Nostr Clients”
- nostr-protocol/nostr. Accessed: Dec. 16, 2024. GitHub Project
- A. Ceru, aljazceru/awesome-nostr. Accessed: Feb. 13, 2025. GitHub Project, Webpage “ Awesome Nostr Resources”
- sandwichfarm/nostr-watch. Accessed: Feb. 13, 2025. GitHub Project, Webpage “ next.nostr.watch”
- NostrCorp, “ Nostr Stats.” Accessed: Feb. 13, 2025.
- Pablof7z, “ Nostr Discoverability Doesn’t Suck,” presented at the Nostrasia 2023, Nov. 03, 2023. Accessed: Feb. 15, 2025.
- Elsat, “ Nostrability: And Other Stuff,” presented at the Bit Block Bloom 2024, Apr. 10, 2024. Accessed: Feb. 15, 2025.