Pierre Simon

Let’s be honest for a Saturday morning: the Nostr echo chamber has an engagement problem.

My wife posts our Gran Canaria holiday photos on Facebook: 79 likes, 30 comments. I post virtually identical content here on Nostr: 1 or 2 interactions if I’m lucky.

I’m fully committed to the sovereign web, but let's cut the coping—I completely miss the network traction, reach, and vibrant engagement of legacy giants like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Nostr is a brilliant protocol, but as a functional social network, we are barely scratching the surface of true mainstream adoption.

How do we stop talking to ourselves, fix this retention issue, and actually bring the crowd over? (And no, it won’t stop me from posting.) 👇

#nostr #plebs #grownostr #decentralized #socialmedia #bitcoin

A phenomenal Saturday spent way up north at the beach in Den Oever with the extended family. Full execution on relaxation: swimming, a bit of football on the sand, great food, drinks, dancing, and soaking up the perfect weather. ☀️🌊🏖️

The core mission of the day? Celebrating my father-in-law's 81st birthday (round two!). His actual birthday was last Thursday, but you don't cross a milestone like that without a proper family roundup.

At 81, he is healthy, full of energy, and surrounded by his legacy—including his 11 grandchildren. Seeing him this vibrant is the ultimate reminder of what truly matters.

Family is the ultimate foundation. Hope you are all resting and resetting with the people who matter most. 🦅❤️

#family #legacy #dadlife #denoever #grownostr

What a finish to the season! Samantha and her team just fought through an absolute thriller on the pitch, locking in a hard-earned 6-5 victory to close things out. Pure determination from the girls. ⚽️🏆🔥

With the season officially wrapped, we are immediately shifting gears. Sun is shining, weather is perfect, and we are heading way up north to Den Oever for a well-deserved weekend escape. 🌊☀️🚙

Big wins, beautiful weather, and family execution. Enjoy your Saturday, everyone! ⚡🥊

#dadlife #football #victory #weekend #grownostr

The World Cup kicks off in just a couple of weeks, and while I’m living in the Netherlands, my heart and my allegiance are 100% heading to the Caribbean this year. 🇨🇼⚽️

With a population of only 150,000 people, Curaçao is officially making history as the smallest nation ever to play on football’s biggest stage. They call the national team The Blue Wave, and they are about to show the world what pure passion looks like. 🌊💙

Why Curaçao for me? It's deeply personal. My grandfather, my great-grandfather, and his father before him were all born there. It's the sister island of Aruba, and the connection runs through my blood.

To make it even more special, the team's brand-new World Cup anthem was written and performed by Aruban superstar Jeon—sung beautifully in my native language, Papiamento! 🎶🇦🇼🇨🇼

The ultimate underdog story is about to unfold. Who else is riding with the Blue Wave and cheering for Curaçao this summer? Let’s go! 🚀🇨🇼🔥

#worldcup2026 #curacao #bluewave #football #papiamento #underdog #grownostr

A public proposal for the teams at

and

to completely break the back of legacy social media competition. 🧠🚀

Both of your UI/UX is already top-tier, but if we, as Nostr community, want to give users absolutely zero reason to ever fall back on walled gardens like WhatsApp, Facebook, or LinkedIn, we need to bring full-spectrum communication to the protocol layer.

Imagine if Primal and /or Yakihonne integrated: 👥 Native Group Chats: High-signal, encrypted spaces for communities and businesses. 📞 Voice Calls: Instant peer-to-peer audio right from the DM interface. 📹 Video Calling: Secure, open-protocol video streaming without corporate spyware.

Because Nostr handles the identity layer natively, adding secure, WebRTC-based communication rails means that a comprehensive, sovereign communications hub can be build.

So why don't you build the ultimate killer app layer. What do you say, nostr:nprofile1qqs9xtvrphl7p8qnua0gk9zusft33lqjkqqr7cwkr6g8wusu0lle8jcpzamhxue69uhkummnw3ezuurpwfjhgmeww3hhwmsprpmhxue69uhhqun9d45h2mfwwpexjmtpdshxuet5cfkclk and nostr:nprofile1qqszpxr0hql8whvk6xyv5hya7yxwd4snur4hu4mg5rctz2ehekkzrvcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6vp39eukz6mfdphkumn99e3k7mgd22h8g teams? 😉⚡📡

#nostr #primal #yakihonne #bitcoin #innovation #fintech #grownostr

We are knocking on the door of triple digits! Sitting at exactly 99 followers on my personal profile this morning. 📈📡

Coming from over 6,100 followers on LinkedIn, it’s a humble reminder of what starting fresh on a new protocol looks like. But let’s be honest—the signal-to-noise ratio here is unmatched. A follower on Nostr isn't a passive algorithmic connection; it's a sovereign node interested in the actual plumbing of future finance.

Does anyone want to step up and be follower number 100 today? Let’s cross the milestone! 😉🚀⚡

#nostr #bitcoin #growth #buildonnostr #grownostr

Lost my purple verification checkmark recently because

unfortunately phased out their NIP-05 mapping directory to focus purely on Cashu/Ecash. Zaps were still landing perfectly, but the missing badge was bugging me!

Dug into an old account and mapped my personal npub to an

address instead. Back to being verified, and zero downtime for my personal profile.

Ultimate long-term goal is hosting my own nostr.json file on my domain (simon-consulting.nl) to be 100% sovereign, but this quick fix does the trick for now! 🤙

#nostr #grownostr #bitcoin #lightning #nip05

Caught the

popping up on my Nostr feed this morning. It’s pretty cool seeing a major European institution getting their data into open protocols! 🇪🇺📡

A few interesting details under the hood for the those interested: 🔹 They aren't natively here yet. Their official account lives on a Mastodon server (the federated ActivityPub protocol), which is being mirrored over to our timeline via a mostr.pub bridge. 🔹 Because it’s just a passive data bridge, I hit a wall trying to send them a test zap—no Lightning address is configured. ⚡🛑

Honestly, it would be awesome to see the Commission step past passive bridging and go fully native with a real Nostr pubkey and a Lightning address. There are so many great, free options out there to plug value directly into communication.

nostr:nprofile1qqs0tysd6mv22vmgq2gr80wu83220gfru2xwvwdev5fmesz5a9qf0kgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qm4t7e4—if your team needs a quick hand navigating the payment layer, my DMs are always open. Happy to help you wire up the value rails! 😉📈

#fintech #nostr #europeancommission #bitcoin #lightning #fediverse #grownostr

Ran a quick end-to-end liquidity drill on the new Numo Pay merchant app this morning. 📱⚡

Pulled a manual test withdrawal of 50 sats from the

mint straight to my LN address at

. It settled near instant in just a few seconds, costing a microscopic 2 sat mint and/or lightning fee. Flawless.

Huge credit to

for the slick implementation on Numo, and a massive shoutout to the broader nostr:nprofile1qqs0y3tvskgs9gpgxxu5ahgz3fmms3rzmxt504qceqtz4a6pdgfwlkgppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qywhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnzd96xxmmfdejhytnnda3kjctv9ue5cmar developer community for their incredible hard work putting these foundational protocol layers together. 🛠️🛡️

What makes this setup a total game-changer for local business owners is the automated backend stack:

1️⃣ Numo Pay lets any merchant accept Bitcoin effortlessly right at the counter. 2️⃣ The Auto-Withdraw feature lets them set a threshold (like 50k sats) to automatically sweep funds without manual headache. 3️⃣ nostr:nprofile1qqstpkv7ykr7fe99wxh84ef5xr5h5g3xex3d2mrgk39hz4m0n3ad93qpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz9mhwden5te0wfjkccte9ehx7um5wghxyctwvshsjzvmya acts as the perfect operational anchor, instantly bridging the Bitcoin and fiat worlds so merchants can swap incoming sats into Euros whenever they need fiat liquidity.

This is exactly how we solve real-world merchant adoption. Give businesses sovereign digital rails at the point of sale, backed by a seamless off-ramp to manage real business risks. Beautiful execution! 🏝️💶📈

#fintech #bitcoin #lightning #cashu #merchantadoption #grownostr

I’m always down to test new protocol tech, which is why I actually gave Pubky a spin a few months ago. The recent rants from its founder claiming "Nostr is dead" definitely made me look back at that experience. 🕵️‍♂️🔥

My verdict remains the same. The UI looks incredibly sharp—no surprise there, as it shares that sleek, polished DNA with their Bitkit app. Visually, it’s beautiful. 🎨✨

But beneath the hood, the friction is real. Creating a profile months ago felt like an unnecessary obstacle course, and once inside... it was an absolute ghost town. Flash forward to today, and a beautiful interface still doesn't mean much without an active network effect to back it up. 🏜️📱

Meanwhile, Nostr is thriving. Just in the last few days alone, I've welcomed almost 10 new followers to my profile, alongside a steady stream of likes, comments, and zaps. Does Nostr have legacy social media numbers yet? No. But we aren't in a hurry. We are building the right way. ⚡📡

A flashy UI is a great start, but protocol growth requires seamless onboarding and sustained community traction. Less tribal bashing, more frictionless engineering! 😉📈

#fintech #nostr #pubky #bitcoin #uxdesign #protocols #grownostr

I come from a family of educators. It’s exactly why my passion for structured learning runs so deep, and why I founded

. You cannot scale institutional adoption or build a sustainable circular economy without a rock-solid educational foundation. 🎓🧠

That’s why, alongside the Academy, I became an official Satsman Founder and Pro Max user. Over the past 3+ months, I’ve been road-testing the gamified microlearning framework. It perfectly solves the onboarding bottleneck by rewarding real proof-of-understanding with genuine Bitcoin satoshis—no points, no junk tokens. ⚡

My personal milestones so far: 📈 110,780 total sats earned 🔥 17,800 sats stacked on consistency streaks 🎯 5,607 sats via core learning missions

Globally, the platform is booming with 27.5k+ active users across 176 countries pushing past 1.1M missions. 🌍

Want to join my army? 1️⃣ Slide into my DMs for a personal referral link. 2️⃣ Onboarding and learning is 100% free. 3️⃣ To accelerate your growth, you can upgrade later to a paid tier to support the platform and unlock higher sat yields. 🚀🏆

Drop a message and let's get you stacking knowledge and sats! 🛡️

#fintech #bitcoin #education #microlearning #satsman #grownostr

This latest Numo Pay update from

hits close to home for me—literally! As an Aruban, seeing the Aruban Florin (Afl.) added natively to the merchant terminal is incredibly special. 🇦🇼❤️⚡

This is exactly how we scale real-world adoption. Local businesses on the island can now input prices in Florins seamlessly at the counter, completely bypassing the manual conversion headache while settling instantly via

ecash and Lightning.

Beautiful work on the localization. The circular economy is coming to the Caribbean in full force,

! 🏝️📈

#fintech #bitcoin #cashu #aruba #merchantadoption #grownostr

Back on the pitch for football practice tonight with our fresh tournament champions! ⚽🏆

Attendance was thin this evening with a lot of the girls away celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice. Eid Mubarak to all of my Muslim friends! 🕋✨

I ran a high-energy session with a tight group of just 5 girls of my U11 players, shifting the entire tactical focus onto attacking combinations and quick-passing links. Quality over quantity. 🧠⚡

#coaching #football #parenting #svhoofddorp #champions #grownostr

Commuted into Amsterdam this morning: caught the bus, hopped the train to Amsterdam South, and took the metro straight into the city. The entire multi-modal transit journey was executed flawlessly via a simple Google Pay contactless tap. 🚌🇳🇱🚇

The UX of the Dutch OVpay framework is a masterclass in frictionless infrastructure. The tragedy? It runs entirely on legacy fiat rails. 📉

Imagine this exact tap-and-go convenience built natively on Bitcoin Layer 2 or Layer 3 architectures. Think about Lightning routing or completely free Spark-to-address transfers. Better yet, look at

protocol wallets like

which already demonstrate true tap-to-pay functionality via NFC—even while completely offline. ⚡📱

The legacy rails have the onboarding UX solved, but open protocols—combining Lightning liquidity, free Spark settlement, and private Cashu ecash—possess the vastly superior infrastructure. Time to bridge the gap. 📈🛡️

#fintech #bitcoin #lightningnetwork #Spark #Cashu #payments #OVpay #grownostr

Testing the Spark wallet landscape reveals massive UX fragmentation. The incentive is huge: Spark-to-address transactions are completely free, while Lightning carries routing costs. 💰⚡

My breakdown of the current stack: 🔹 Xverse: Full Spark capability (send/receive via Spark address). Only Xverse lacks a standard LN address. 🔹 Blitz Wallet: The absolute gold standard for identity—the only one with a NIP-verified LN address. 🔹 Primal, WoS, Bringin: Spark capability completely disabled by the apps. 🔹 Club Orange: Send-only for Spark; incoming blocked. 🔹 Tether Wallet: Smooth tech, but zero privacy. Wallet balances and tx history are completely transparent. 🔎🛑

Conclusion:

(Blitz) takes the crown today. It successfully hits the ultimate sweet spot by giving you full, private, free Spark-to-address transfers alongside a native, working LN address. 🏆⚡

The rails are there, but developers need to stop disabling them. Free, private, peer-to-peer settlement is the ultimate goal. 📈🛡️

#fintech #bitcoin #lightningnetwork #Spark #payments #grownostr

The Nostr economy is pure micro-transaction proof-of-concept. The top 10 zappers alone moved over 180k sats today (~$120 USD / €110 EUR) in pure, peer-to-peer micro-tips. ⚡

Compared to WeChat Pay’s massive centralized volume, the nominal fiat value here is a drop in the ocean. But the architecture is the real story: zero payment processors, zero clearing houses, and instant cross-border finality at near-zero cost.

Centralized giants rely on closed volume; open protocols scale on pure friction-free efficiency. 📈

#grownostr #fintech #lightningnetwork #payments

Yesterday was Samantha’s turn, and today my 10-year-old Isabella and her team absolutely crushed it too. They took 1st place, secured the trophy, and every single girl brought home a well-deserved medal. 🥇⚽

The weather was fantastic all day. We just wrapped up celebrating the big win as a family at a local pancake house here in Katwijk. 🥞☀️ A flawless double-championship weekend for the household is officially in the books. Time to head home and unwind. Have a great evening, everyone! ⚡🍻

#grownostr #parenting #coaching #football #champions

Absolute dominance from my 8-year-old daughter Samantha and her squad today! They played 4 games, won all 4 back-to-back, and took home the championship title for their poule. The girls played with incredible heart and relentless energy.

As a dad, there is no better feeling than watching them lift that trophy after putting in the work on the pitch. 🥇☀️

Heading back home now to celebrate with a proper family dinner. Recharged, proud, and ready to dust off the clipboard tomorrow.

Switching back into "Coach" mode to lead my 10-year-old Isabella and her team at their big tournament for Tweede Pinksterdag in Katwijk!

Let's see if we can make it a double-championship weekend! ⚡🇳🇱

#grownostr #parenting #football #champions #pride

Diving deep into WeChat Pay architecture today for our upcoming merchant offerings at PayPro. 📊🇨🇳

The front-end UX looks like a Lightning transaction with its instant QR codes, but the cross-border reality is vastly different. To get an EU merchant paid in EUR while a Chinese consumer pays in CNY, the system remains chained to traditional banking networks, PSP clearing lags, and complex FX exchange layers.

Nostr Client apps like

and

powered by the Lightning Network don't just offer a cleaner interface; they fundamentally solve the plumbing. Lightning acts as a native, borderless protocol.

It routes and settles value peer-to-peer instantly, completely bypassing the legacy correspondent banking and FX tollbooths.

WeChat has the centralized user lock-in for now, but open protocol architecture is the superior global infrastructure. The shift is inevitable. ⚡🇳🇱

#grownostr #plebchain #fintech #payments #lightningnetwork

Shaking off the late-night family poker session and putting in the work, massively inspired by

who has been absolutely setting the pace with his own fitness and health journey. Consistency breeds consistency. 🚀

Locked in 5,800 steps early to stack passive Sats via sMiles, then executed: 🔹 Barbell Squats: Progressed up to 50kg (RIR 1-2) 🔹 Vertical Leg Press: Ran the pyramid up to 160kg total loaded 🔹 Hamstrings & Calves: Finished strong at 37kg / 77kg

Starting the official Basic-Fit 4-week strength program tomorrow. Monday, let's go. ⚡ Fueling up now, then hitting the road to Haarlem for a massive double-header of youth football coaching and academy training! ⚽☀️ #grownostr #plebchain #fitness #discipline #life

Woke up still fueled by a classic family Saturday. Made it home late after an incredible birthday BBQ—kids playing until dark, the guys locked into poker, and the ladies dominating the karaoke mic. The absolute best part of having a big, vibrant family. 🥩🃏🎤

No time for a weekend slowdown, though. Up early and heading to the gym now to sweat it out before Day 2 of the football marathon kicks off in Haarlem. 🏋️‍♂️⚽

Pace your life, execute your discipline. Have a blessed Sunday, plebs! ⚡☀️

#grownostr #plebchain #family #life #discipline

Morning walk to the gym. Local canal inspector is already on duty. 🐦🌾

Taking in the quiet views before heading into Amsterdam for a packed Saturday of lifting, a barber stop, and supporting Samantha's football match on the pitch.

Pace your morning, execute your day. Have a great weekend, plebs! ⚡☀️

#grownostr #plebchain #life #netherlands

I used to be highly active on Facebook and LinkedIn, documenting my travels for

, updates for

, and milestones with my beautiful family. Then I stopped.

The algorithmic corporate silos just lost their soul. You shouldn’t have to pay with your data or navigate artificial rage-bait feeds just to share an honest story or an industry insight.

So, I'm completely shifting my digital footprint right here to

. The exact same personal storytelling—birthdays, holidays, Dutch football coaching highlights with the girls, compliance analysis, and a healthy dose of sovereign money architecture.

Pure open protocol, zero corporate corporate middlemen. Feels good to own my own voice again. 🥂⚡

#grownostr #plebchain #life #sovereignty

Spent day job hours advising legacy banks and PSPs on how to fix their clunky infrastructure.

Spent yesterday evening buying Bitcoin Pizza Day dinner using my

Visa card.

The legacy rails handle the merchant instantly, while my backend strategy is 100% focused on shorting fiat velocity: spend the EUR necessary for daily life, let the passive L2 USDB stablecoin sats yield roll over, harvest the task streaks, and sweep the entire floor into non-custodial Spark savings every 30 days.

16 years ago, Laszlo dropped 10k BTC to prove peer-to-peer cash worked. Today, we have the routing tech to run an entire personal central bank right from our pockets.

Good to be back. What's everyone stacking this weekend? 🍕⚡

#BitcoinPizzaDay #grownostr #plebchain #bitcoin

Morning #Nostr! ☕️

Seeing a lot of red in the legacy markets and a shakeout in the sats price this week. For the newcomers: don’t panic. This is where the "investor" becomes a "Bitcoiner."

My 20+ years working in TradFi have shown me that legacy systems fear volatility because they are built on fragile debt. Bitcoin thrives on it because it's built on truth.

💡 Knowledge Drop: In a down market, your greatest asset isn't your stack—it’s your infrastructure.

Use this time to test your #NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect) permissions.

Clean up your labels in your business or personal accounting.

Verify your NIP-05. Reputation is the only thing that doesn't draw down in a bear market.

Stay sovereign, stay pragmatic. 🛡️⚡️

#bitcoin #plebchain #grownostr #v4v #compliance #business #bearmarket

Hello #Nostr! ⚡️

After 20+ years working in the TradFi trenches, I finally took the "Orange Pill"—slowly, then all at once.

I’m bridging the gap between the legacy financial world and the sovereign web. I just published my first deep-dive on YakiHonne about my 5-year journey from a Bitvavo trader to a pragmatic Bitcoiner paying for burgers via Lightning. 🍔⚡️

I'm here to share insights on how entrepreneurs can navigate the "Great Transition" using tools like #Bringin, #Fedi, and #NWC without losing their minds (or their licenses).

I'm looking to connect with: 🇳🇱 Dutch & European Bitcoiners 💼 Entrepreneurs building on Lightning/Nostr ⚖️ FinTech & RegTech pioneers

If you believe in bridging TradFi to the Sovereign Web, please give this a boost! 🙏

#introductions #plebchain #bitcoin #grownostr #compliance #micar #v4v #coffeechain