How pleb.school uses Nostr for content

pleb.school publishes course and lesson content to Nostr and keeps operational metadata in PostgreSQL. The UI merges both sources into a single, consistent view.

Event kinds used

NIP-23 (kind 30023): free resources (long-form)
NIP-99 (kind 30402): paid resources (classified listings with price hint)
NIP-51 (kind 30004): courses (lists of lessons)
NIP-57 (kind 9735): zap receipts
NIP-01 (kind 0): profiles

Example: free resource (NIP-23)

{ "kind": 30023, "tags": [["d","lesson-id"],["title","Lesson title"],["summary","..."]] }

Example: paid resource (NIP-99)

{ "kind": 30402, "tags": [["d","lesson-id"],["title","Premium lesson"],["price","10000","sats"]] }

Example: course (NIP-51)

{ "kind": 30004, "tags": [["d","course-id"],["name","Course title"],["a","30023:pubkey:lesson-id"]] }

Why the database still matters

The database stores the authoritative price and ownership
Each published event is linked via a noteId
The UI merges DB metadata with Nostr content for display and access checks

Publishing flow (high level)

Draft in DB -> create event -> sign (NIP-07 or server-side) -> publish to relays -> store noteId

Publishing to Nostr makes content portable and verifiable, while pleb.school enforces access to paid content based on database purchases and zap receipts.

How Content Lives on Nostr