The Damus app is powered by Nostr, which uses decentralized relays to distribute end-to-end encrypted messages, and has a powerful backer in Jack Dorsey. Currently the app goes live on both Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Notably, Damus claims itself to be “the social network you control”, adding that “it’s your very own Twitter for your friends or business”, which makes it in a way a “Twitter Killer”. According to the description on Damus official website, Damus has the following six advantages:

Damus Tutorial

After downloading Damus, you can directly create an account. There are two keys on the creation page, one is the public key starting with npub, which can be shared with friends for attention, or you can set the user name yourself, and the other is the private key, which needs to be kept by yourself.

Similar to Twitter, the "+" at the bottom right of the Damus homepage is the entry for posting. Similar to most current social networks, Damus has also set up a hashtag function, and we can add a topic or topic word after # when posting. However, if you want to add a picture when posting, you can only convert the picture into a link before publishing it.

In terms of Profile settings, Damus allows you to change the avatar and background picture (via picture link), add your own website and profile information, and also supports setting the bitcoin lightning tip address, which is also a core highlight of Damus. Currently, the lightning tip payment platforms supported by Damus include Strike, Cash App, Muun, Blue Wallet, Wallet of Satoshi, Zebedee, Zeus LN, LNLink, Phoenix, Breez, Bitcoin Beach, Blixt Wallet, River.

At the bottom of the Damus home page, there are four buttons: Moments, private messages and new friend requests, Global and notifications. The Moments timeline bar can receive the dynamics of users we follow. Global can browse the dynamics of all Damus users in real time, and also supports direct search for other Username or public key address, but only supports searching for username or public key, not specific content. In addition, Damus also supports user reporting and blocking functions, which can report scam, illegal, impersonation and other accounts.

Overall, Damus UI is simple and elegant, but many functions are somewhat rough and incomplete, such as posting does not support style editing, cannot be deleted after posting, likes or retweets cannot be undone, and pictures need to be converted into links before they can be published. In addition, Advanced requirements such as trends and filters are also urgently needed to be added. It is worth mentioning that Amethyst also has a group chat function, where we can make friends with similar interests, which is also conducive to the formation of a strong social network effect.

The website snort.social has the option to delete posts, but there is a bug, and it will still be displayed after refreshing after deletion. There are also user feedbacks that the downloaded Damus mobile version is in German or Spanish, and no language change option is found. In addition, Damus, Amethyst and the webpage snort.social can also log in with a private key address, and personal publishing dynamics will also be synchronized.

However, Damus and Nostr as an infrastructure are still in their early stages, and the combination with Bitcoin and Web3 gives us a lot of room for imagination. Whether Jack Dorsey's decentralized social vision can be realized on a large scale, let us wait and see.

Learn more: https://damus.io/