In bitcoin’s early years, a lot of people debated the theoretical functioning of it with a critical lens, but then in practice it just worked and bootstrapped for the next 15 years and counting. It was simple and elegant enough to work despite being rough around the edges, caught all the right types of mindshare, and grew.

Nostr has a similar pattern so far. Lots of people critique it. And galaxy brains are trying to build more complex alternative digital identity schemes without much shipping. Meanwhile Nostr is out in the field bootstrapping with users and developers and companies.