Nostr and Bitcoin: My Experience Selling Handmade Goods

I have used Nostr to sell handmade goods and receive payment in Bitcoin.

Broadly speaking, I have sold my products in two different ways.

The first method was listing items on a marketplace built on Nostr. There are several marketplaces available, but so far I have listed my products twice on Plebian Market.

The first time, I listed five Maxis Club plushies. All five sold out within about ten minutes of being listed. The second time, I listed three Satoshi plushies, and they sold out within about an hour.

During the sales process, I encountered a few errors and had to communicate with customers several times. However, in the end, every transaction was completed successfully, and I was able to ship the products to everyone who purchased them.

What I find particularly interesting about this marketplace is that Plebian Market can be used with nothing more than a Nostr account.

Normally, when using an online marketplace, you are required to register various pieces of personal information, such as your name, address, phone number, and bank account details. However, this marketplace can be used simply by having a Nostr account. Since I already used Nostr on a daily basis, I was able to start selling immediately without any additional registration.

The second way I sold products on Nostr was through direct peer-to-peer interactions.

There have been occasions when I posted about my handmade goods on Nostr, received questions in the replies, and eventually made a sale. For example, someone asked whether I could make a different size of one of my wallet cases. After discussing their preferred dimensions, I created a custom version for them. We exchanged only the shipping information via DM, and payment was sent through Zap.

I have also sold Satoshi plushies through interactions on Nostr. After I posted about my project, someone replied expressing interest in the plushie. We exchanged shipping details through DM, and I received the payment via Zap. Personally, I regularly send 21-sat Zaps to posts that I enjoy, so Zap is already a very familiar part of my daily Nostr experience.

Because of that, receiving payment for my handmade goods via Zap feels especially exciting.

When selling my products, I usually send payment addresses through email or X DMs. However, with Nostr, there is no need to send a payment address.

If both parties are already accustomed to using Zap, payments can be made extremely smoothly.

I find it fascinating that communication with customers, product sales, and Bitcoin payments can all be completed entirely within Nostr.

For example, after telling a customer, "Including shipping, the total is X sats," having Bitcoin arrive almost immediately is something that still excites me every time it happens.

There are Bitcoiners all around the world who also enjoy using Nostr, so I plan to continue using Nostr to sell my handmade goods in the future.

Note: This article is a written transcript of the content discussed in the video below.