[HN Gopher] Show HN: Nostr Web - decentralized website hosting o...
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       Show HN: Nostr Web - decentralized website hosting on Nostr
        
       We built Nostr Web, a new way to publish and host websites that
       live entirely on the Nostr network instead of centralized servers.
       Each website is a collection of signed, verifiable Nostr events
       distributed across relays--so it can't be taken down, censored, or
       lost.  It includes: * DNS TXT records for domain-based discovery
       (_nweb.domain.com) * CLI publisher tool for versioned deployments
       (nw-publisher) * Browser extension (nw-extension) for native
       browsing experience * Relay v1.3.5 support for Nostr Web event
       kinds  Try the live demo: https://nweb.shugur.com  Repos:
       https://github.com/Shugur-Network/relay |
       https://github.com/Shugur-Network/nw-nips |
       https://github.com/Shugur-Network/nw-publisher |
       https://github.com/Shugur-Network/nw-extention  Would love feedback
       from the HN community--on protocol design, relay performance, or UX
       ideas for improving decentralized web publishing.
        
       Author : karihass
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2025-10-23 14:20 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nweb.shugur.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nweb.shugur.com)
        
       | lbhdc wrote:
       | Isn't website hosting already decentralized? I can host my site
       | on one of the many different providers out there, I can host my
       | own, or even deploy to multiple providers. Users can access my
       | site without extra steps.
       | 
       | Why would I want to host my site on Nostr? What does it do better
       | than the competition?
       | 
       | As a side note, your demo isn't viewable without the extension.
       | Trusting a new browser extension has a high level of friction. It
       | would be nice if your site gave some hint of why a user might
       | want to jump through those hoops.
        
         | karihass wrote:
         | Nice observations
         | 
         | 1- Hosting site on one of the service providers doesn't mean
         | centralization, ex. these week amazon outage, if you are going
         | to deploy to multi-providers it will costs much, in our
         | solution we offer you freedom of hosting on whatever relays you
         | prefer many relays are public which means 0$ cost, moreover you
         | able to expand your deployment on more relays as you want.
         | 
         | 2- You are definitely correct, We have just highlighted a small
         | note in the landing page that end users need extension to
         | access the website, to gain some trust we have published the
         | extension to chrome and Firefox store so a code review is
         | applied to ensure security.
         | 
         | Really appreciate your feedback we can add more informative
         | details in the landing page to show why end user need an
         | extension, also we are planning to build a gateway so end user
         | doesn't need to install extension in order to to access nostr
         | websites "Frankly speaking we don't prefer this way in favor of
         | decentralization and it is planned just for demonstration
         | purposes"
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | Isn't that the same as putting your website on many different
           | public, free website hosts? Which don't really exist, for
           | good reason.
        
       | RobGR wrote:
       | In addition to the browser extension, you need a web proxy -- a
       | bit of server side code that acts as the nostr client and gets
       | the page, and displays it over ordinary http/https.
       | 
       | Of course this means the existing web will find multiple URLs to
       | the same content, if many people run the proxy, but that can be
       | mitigated in various ways, or just ignored.
        
       | shrubble wrote:
       | You should expect a lot of friction around having to install the
       | extension; if you can figure out how to do it without the
       | extension, it will lead to faster uptake.
        
       | verdverm wrote:
       | > Each website is a collection of signed, verifiable Nostr events
       | distributed across relays--so it can't be taken down, censored,
       | or lost.
       | 
       | How does Nostr deal with illegal content like CSAM?
        
         | digitalbase wrote:
         | This has been discussed/answered in other Nostr thread:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45300004
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45299986
        
           | peaseagee wrote:
           | The links you shared talk only about spam. They do not talk
           | about illegal content like CSAM.
        
             | digitalbase wrote:
             | There is no single approach as no central moderation
             | exists. That's a feature.
             | 
             | So it's to relay operators in combination with WoT (web of
             | trust) on the client (and sometimes relays)
        
         | iamnothere wrote:
         | Individual relay operators must detect and block it on their
         | own. Same as Mastodon servers or other social platforms.
         | 
         | Public relays take measures to deal with this. It was an issue
         | early on, along with China spam.
        
       | evbogue wrote:
       | How does this handle changes to the website. Is the entire
       | website re-uploaded to a Nostr relay, or is there some re-use of
       | old material that's already been uploaded before?
        
         | DavidHaerer wrote:
         | Nostr is append only, if an event is published to someone
         | else's relay, you can't delete it.
        
           | evbogue wrote:
           | oh yes, i get that about nostr. my question relates to
           | updating the website.
           | 
           | if i have 5 pages, which i publish to nostr using this tool,
           | and then i make a small change to one of the pages, do i then
           | need to create and publish the entire project again?
        
       | dewey wrote:
       | A website for people who don't want others to see their website.
        
       | karel-3d wrote:
       | Is nostr related to bitcoin?
       | 
       | I always only see it with the same people that talk about
       | bitcoin.
        
         | DavidHaerer wrote:
         | Nostr has built-in support (NIP idk) for Bitcoin Lightning
         | payments. Bitcoiners see Nostr doing to social media what
         | Bitcoin did to fiat.
        
       | bryanrasmussen wrote:
       | as I'm understanding this - it would be useful for having your
       | intranet sites available to everybody without a VPN as long as
       | people used the extension - EXCEPT that anyone with the extension
       | would be able to see YOUR intranet sites.
       | 
       | That is to say one use case I can see would be that people could
       | have the extension, log in, and get available the intranet
       | published for that particular log in.
       | 
       | That is to say unless I have totally misunderstood what it does,
       | and my idea is idiotic, both of which are probably true.
       | 
       | on edit: that is to say I say that is to say way too much because
       | I'm used to having people misunderstand things I thought I said
       | relatively clearly.
        
       | renshijian wrote:
       | You're rebuilding trust online through decentralized identity.
       | We're doing something fundamentally similar in AI: making machine
       | honesty verifiable, not just trustworthy Our oracle system
       | creates an "ethical black box" for AI conversations. If you
       | believe transparency and verifiability are cornerstones of the
       | digital future, perhaps our project resonates with you. I'd be
       | happy to compare notes
        
       | seanclayton wrote:
       | > Nostr is an apolitical communication commons.
       | 
       | Apolitical is starting to mean something rather political these
       | days.
        
         | gigatree wrote:
         | Only because those who make everything political take it as an
         | offense. See also "silence is violence".
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-23 23:01 UTC)