#14: Building Browsers w/ Justin

"I want Nostr to be the perfect thing just for me." Justin & Gigi drive to the airport. Recorded October 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: Blitz (Rust HTML/CSS renderer) QuickJS (lightweight JavaScript engine) Dioxus (Rust UI framework) Iroh (peer-to-peer networking) MOQ (Media Over QUIC) White Noise (MLS-based private messaging on Nostr) Ladybird (independent browser by Andreas Kling) VRChat In this dialogue: Driving to the airport "Don't say anything that could be used against you" The low quality of this podcast focuses the mind of the listener You need proper headphones Walking focuses you, and stops you after 90 minutes Justin's adoption curve: hater first, builder later "I'm the ascending left curve" Bitcoin hating, Lightning hating, Nostr hating Audio calling with npubs: Nostr as signaling & identity layer First version: Iroh for peer-to-peer, Nostr for lookup Calling Paul Miller's npub from a CLI innpub: a 2D pixel art level with rooms you can hang out in The killer feature of positional audio VRChat Bitcoin meetups during COVID, thanks to Udi Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse, and why one big room encourages attention seeking Positional audio lets you hide in a corner WebRTC is Google Meet shipped as a "web standard" Safari and Firefox just shipped Google's code MOQ (Media Over QUIC) as the simple alternative CDN-style mesh relays for binary data What if MOQ relays were Nostr-style, and you'd pay to relay? E2E encrypted group audio in the browser using White Noise / MLS compiled to WASM "Let's make Nostr fast" The web is dying: Chrome blocked ad blockers and Justin just stopped visiting websites No SQLite in the browser, no TypeScript in the browser Why do I need a domain name? Why certificate authorities? Building a browser in 3 days Blitz + QuickJS = a browser that runs a React counter app "This would have taken me months" Andreas Kling: built a browser as part of a 12-step program Ladybird proving that you can build a browser from scratch Vibe coding: 20-30 projects in six weeks Nerd-sniped into implementing Mosaic in Zig, then dropping it in two days What Nostr got right: "good enough" Binary transport for Nostr relays Getting rid of DNS: a theme every week at SovEng (noDNS) Claiming names via Nostr events, no .com needed Web of trust for conflict resolution Self-signed TLS certs trusted through Nostr identity Social handles already replaced URLs in practice "Build for the nerds, not the mass market" "I want Nostr to be the perfect thing just for me" Building blocks crystallizing: mesh networking, noDNS, better relays, search Relays in the browser The synergistic ecosystem "You're gonna miss your flight" Recorded at 917,999.