The outrage is odd.

Do we want normies here? Yes. We want users. We want growth.

Without growth, devs lose interest. Without devs, funding dries up. Without funding, Nostr goes back to being a 2022 side project.

Nostr has been declining in growth and activity for a year and a half. Apps and services have exploded, but the people using them have dwindled. In 2023 and 2024, my notes saw incredible interaction. By 2025 things slowed down, and in 2026 I barely get engagement on an average note.

Something new has to be done. UTXO is trying new things. Many of us are exploring different paths forward, because the old paths aren't leading anywhere and we want this to succeed.

The beauty of Nostr is its flexibility. Large community, small community, basic app, complex app, it's all still Nostr.

So go ahead. Run your private community relay, accessible only over Tor, requiring Lightning payments for read and write access. Nostr won't change much for you.

But for the rest of us trying to build something that actually grows? We need to try something different.