Discover The Håkon

The Håkon was born from a simple idea: you shouldn't have to depend on a social media platform to publish your writing on the internet.

Here, every article you write becomes a regular web page with its own URL, ready to be shared with anyone and discovered through Google or other search engines. At the same time, your publications are distributed across the Nostr network and can be read in compatible apps.

You don't need to sign up with an email address, come up with yet another password, or install a browser extension to get started.

First, Create Your Identity

On The Håkon, we call your identity a Persona. It works differently from traditional accounts: instead of a username and password, you use a pair of cryptographic keys.

When you first access the writing area, you can create a new Persona or use an existing Nostr identity.

If you create a new one, The Håkon generates your keys and displays your private key, known as your NSEC, so you can copy it and store it safely. It's shown only once during the creation process.

If you already use Nostr, simply enter your existing NSEC to continue with the same identity. Or, if you prefer, you can easily create a separate Persona just for writing articles on your new blog.

This key matters because it allows you to sign your publications and prove they came from you. It's not a password we can reset or email back to you if you forget it.

Your Private Key Stays With You

One of our priorities is making sure your identity doesn't depend on a server storing your credentials.

That's why The Håkon doesn't store your NSEC on its servers. Your private key remains encrypted in your browser's storage and is used locally to sign your publications. What we send to Nostr relays are signed events, never your private key.

Since we don't keep a copy of your key, we can't recover it either. If you lose your browser data without having saved your NSEC somewhere safe, you'll lose access to that Persona.

If you want to remove a Persona from a particular device, go to Personas Saved in This Browser and select Remove. The key will be deleted from the storage used by the website in that browser, but your articles will remain published on the network.

For security, we recommend keeping a backup of your NSEC in a safe place and, whenever possible, using a dedicated publishing identity separate from your main Nostr identity.

And here's something worth mentioning: you can have a different Persona for every topic you want to write about. You could be a football commentator, a movie enthusiast, a food writer, or all three. There's no limit to what you can be!

Your Blog, Your Way

Once you're in, you can set up your profile, choose a display name, upload a photo, write a bio, and reserve a unique handle.

That handle becomes your blog's public address, in the format @yourhandle, making it easy for others to find your publications on The Håkon. And if you'd rather remain anonymous, you can simply leave your personal details blank.

From there, writing feels just like using a regular blogging editor. You can create full-length articles with titles, images, videos, YouTube links, and custom URLs, or publish shorter notes.

There's no need to finish everything in one sitting. The editor automatically saves your work, lets you keep drafts, and allows you to schedule publications up to seven days in advance, provided you've reserved a handle.

When you're happy with your article, just hit Publish and share the link.

Behind the scenes, The Håkon also takes care of distributing your content through Nostr. If the relays don't accept a publication right away, the signed event stays in your browser so you can try again later.

And if you need to fix something after publishing, just open the article from your dashboard and edit it.

What Happens When You Delete an Article?

This is one of the important differences between Nostr and traditional platforms.

When you request to delete a publication, The Håkon sends a deletion request to the relays. However, each relay decides whether to honor that request, and copies already stored by third parties may remain available.

That's part of how a decentralized network works. You don't depend on a single company to distribute your writing, but there's also no central authority capable of deleting every copy that has already spread across the internet.

Everything in One Dashboard

The Håkon's dashboard brings together the tools you need to manage your blog without juggling multiple services.

You can track how many people have viewed your publications, see which articles are getting the most attention, and follow how readers interact with your content. Your drafts, scheduled posts, and published articles are all organized in one place.

You can also manage comments directly from the dashboard, including hiding comments you don't want displayed on your posts.

If you'd like to receive support from your readers, you can add your Lightning address to your profile. This allows people to send you sats, tiny fractions of Bitcoin, directly. The monetization dashboard lets you track how much you've received and see your top contributors over different periods.

You'll also find options to configure your Nostr relays, synchronize publications, customize your profile, add an optional watermark, and block authors whose content you'd rather not see.

Private Messages and Emails

The Håkon also includes a built-in inbox right in your dashboard.

You can read private messages and emails you've received, reply directly, or delete conversations you no longer want to keep.

Encrypted messages are decrypted in your browser, and external content, such as images hosted on third-party servers, isn't loaded automatically. You decide when to display it.

This precaution helps prevent unnecessary connections to external services when opening a message.

What About People Who Just Want to Read?

Readers don't need a Persona at all.

Anyone can open an article in their browser, share it with friends, discover it through search engines, or follow your publications through RSS.

Readers can also explore content by tags, search for authors using their handle, Nostr address, or public key (npub), and join the conversation through comments.

The Håkon is available in seven languages, making it accessible to readers from different parts of the world.

Publish on the Internet, Not Just on a Platform

The Håkon uses Nostr to distribute content, but your readers don't need to use Nostr themselves. Your articles remain regular web pages, accessible through ordinary links and available for search engine indexing.

You write in a familiar blogging editor, publish under your own identity, and reach both people using Nostr apps and those who simply come across your writing through a Google search.

That's the whole idea: make publishing on the internet simple, without giving up the freedom of distributing your content through a decentralized network.