NIPs — Nostr Implementation Possibilities

Complete catalog of published NIPs. Statuses: final (stable), draft (in development), deprecated (replaced).

Core Protocol

NIP-01 — Basic Protocol

draft mandatory

The foundation. Defines the event object, secp256k1/Schnorr signatures, WebSocket communication between clients and relays, REQ/EVENT/CLOSE/OK messages, tag conventions, and kind ranges (0, 1, regular/replaceable/ephemeral/addressable).

NIP-04 — Encrypted Direct Messages (deprecated)

unrecommended

Original DM spec. Encrypts content with shared-secret AES using ECDH. No forward secrecy, no metadata privacy. Use NIP-17 instead.

NIP-17 — Private Direct Messages

final

Modern DM spec using NIP-44 v2 encryption wrapped inside NIP-59 gift-wrapped seals. Randomized timestamps, no pubkey tag, recipient-signed pubkey hiding. Kind 14 for text, kind 15 for files.

Your DM → NIP-44 encrypt → NIP-59 gift wrap (kind 1059) → relay broadcast

NIP-59 — Gift Wraps

final

Encrypted wrapper event (kind 1059) that contains another event. Like stuffing a signed-encrypted letter inside a sealed outer envelope. Randomizes timestamps, eliminates metadata leakage.

Encryption & Authentication

NIP-44 — Encrypted Payloads (Versioned)

final

The encryption standard. Replaces NIP-04. Uses:

• ChaCha20-Poly1305 authenticated encryption
• ECDH shared secret (secp256k1)
• HKDF-SHA256 key derivation
• Versioned format (v2)
• Two conversation modes: nip44-v2-1 and nip44-v2-2

NIP-42 — Client Authentication

draft

Challenge-response to prove you control a pubkey without signing every REQ. Relay sends challenge → client signs → authenticated access.

NIP-98 — HTTP Auth

draft

HTTP-based authentication using signed Nostr events (kind 27235). AUTH header is a base64-encoded signed event.

Identity

NIP-05 — DNS-based Verification

final

Human-readable identity: username@domain.com. The domain serves a JSON file at /.well-known/nostr.json mapping names to pubkeys.

{
  "names": {
    "bob": "b0635d6a9851d3aed0cd6c495b282167acf761729078d975fc341b22650b07b9"
  }
}

NIP-19 — bech32-encoded Entities

final

Human-friendly encoding for Nostr entities:

• npub1... — public keys
• nsec1... — private keys
• note1... — event IDs
• nevent1... — event with relay hints
• naddr1... — addressable events
• nprofile1... — profile with relay hints

NIP-21 — nostr: URI Scheme

draft

Deep links: nostr:npub1..., nostr:note1..., etc. Opens in Nostr client.

Social Features

NIP-02 — Contact List and Petnames

draft

Kind 3 (follow list). Your social graph. Tags encode follow relationships with optional petnames:

["p", "<pubkey>", "<optional-relay>", "<optional-petname>"]

NIP-10 — Text Notes (Kind 1)

final

The tweet/note. Content conventions, threading with e tags:

• Root: ["e", "<root-id>", "", "root"]
• Reply: ["e", "<parent-id>", "", "reply"]

NIP-18 — Reposts

final

Kind 6 (ordinary repost), Kind 16 (generic repost). Two types:

• Kind 6: basic repost, share an event
• Kind 16: generic repost with type differentiation (application, article, graphic)

Quote repost = kind 1 with embedded nostr:nevent reference.

NIP-25 — Reactions

final

Kind 7. content is the emoji (or +/- for like/dislike). Tags reference the reacted-to event.

NIP-51 — Lists

draft

Parameterized replaceable events for user-curated lists. All are kind 300xx with d tags.

Long-Form & Media

NIP-23 — Long-form Content

draft

Kind 30023. Articles/blog posts using Markdown content. Addressable by d tag. Supports title, summary, image, published_at tags.

NIP-68 — Picture References

draft

Kind 20. Image-only events with imeta (image metadata) tags.

NIP-71 — Video Events

draft

Kind 21 (horizontal), Kind 22 (vertical shorts). Video content events.

Lightning & Payments

NIP-57 — Lightning Zaps

final

Value-for-value payments over Lightning. Two-event flow:

1. Kind 9734 — Zap Request: Sent to LNURL-pay endpoint
2. Kind 9735 — Zap Receipt: Published by wallet after payment

Includes split payments with weight-based zap tags.

NIP-47 — Nostr Wallet Connect

final

Wallet service on Nostr. Events:

• Kind 13194: Wallet info (replaceable)
• Kind 23194: Request (ephemeral, encrypted)
• Kind 23195: Response (ephemeral, encrypted)

Commands: pay_invoice, get_balance, make_invoice, lookup_invoice, list_transactions, multi_pay_invoice, multi_pay_keysend.

NIP-60 — Cashu Wallet

draft

Ecash tokens on Nostr. Kinds: 7374 (reserved), 7375 (tokens), 7376 (history). Moon people fly here.

NIP-61 — Nutzaps

draft

Zap-style payments using ecash/Cashu instead of Lightning.

Networking

NIP-65 — Relay List Metadata

draft

Kind 10002. Declares read/write relays:

["r", "wss://my.relay", "write"]
["r", "wss://their.relay", "read"]

NIP-11 — Relay Information

draft

Relay metadata served at wss://<relay> with HTTP headers and NIP-11 doc: name, description, contact, supported NIPs, limitations, fees.

NIP-13 — Proof of Work

draft

Require computational effort to combat spam. Nonce tag with leading zeros in event ID.

Agent & Compute

NIP-46 — Nostr Connect

final

Remote signing (bunker). Separate key management from application. Uses NIP-44 encrypted communication.

NIP-89 — Handler Information

draft

Announces an app/handler service. Kind 31990 (handler info), Kind 31989 (recommendation).

NIP-90 — Data Vending Machines

draft

Marketplace for computation: request jobs, get results, pay. Kinds:

• 5000-5999: Job Request
• 6000-6999: Job Result
• 7000: Job Feedback

Moderation & Community

NIP-28 — Public Chat

final

Channels with kinds 40-44. Create, join, message, mute.

NIP-29 — Groups

draft

Permissioned groups. Kinds 9000-9030 for control events (add/remove/edit user/meta).

NIP-43 — Memberships

draft

Private, restricted access groups. Join requests, invites, role management.

NIP-56 — Reporting

draft

Kind 1984. Content reporting with reason classifications: nudity, malware, spam, impersonation, illegal.

NIP-58 — Badges

draft

Profile badge definitions and awards. Kind 30009 for badge definition, Kind 8 for award.

Miscellaneous

Status Summary