FAQ

What is Siner?

Siner is an app for creators to capture, sign, and share authentic work — built on Nostr, an open social protocol. Your identity is a key you own, your content is yours, and your tips go straight to you. There's no central account, no algorithmic feed deciding what you see, and no ads.

What does Siner stand for?

Three things: you own your identity (a key you hold, not an account we can lock); you own your content and your audience (they live on an open network, not inside our walls); and your privacy is the default (no third-party tracking, no ad networks, no data sales). The only data the app sends is anonymous, aggregated product analytics — not linked to your identity, and you can turn it off. Siner collects as little as possible and tries to be honest about what's public.

What is Nostr, and why does Siner use it?

Nostr ("Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays") is an open protocol for social apps. Instead of one company's servers, your posts are signed with your key and sent to "relays" that anyone can run. Because your identity and content aren't locked to one app, you can take them with you. Siner uses Nostr so you're never dependent on us to keep your audience or your work.

What can I do in Siner?

Siner is built around a few things: a social feed of posts you can like, comment on, and zap; autographs and collabs (signed, tamper-evident creative work); postcards (private, sealed pieces sent to one person); greet cards (a card several people sign together, which can carry sats to the person it's for); an encrypted Mailbox for direct messages; and a Lightning wallet for sending and receiving tips. You also get a profile, bookmarks, drafts, and control over which relays you connect to.

What is an autograph?

An autograph is a signed piece of work you capture in the app — you draw or sign on top of a photo or canvas, and Siner records the moment. Each autograph can carry a Siner Seal: a tamper-evident proof that ties the content to your key, the time it was made, and (if you choose) where and on what device. It's a way to publish something and prove it's genuinely yours.

What is a postcard?

A postcard is a sealed piece you send privately to one person instead of posting publicly. It's wrapped end-to-end encrypted (like a direct message), so only you and the recipient can open it — but it still carries a Siner Seal proving who made it and when. Think of it as a private, provable note or keepsake.

What is a collab?

A collab is a piece signed by more than one person. You invite collaborators, and each one signs on their own device, building a chain of proofs — every signer's contribution is sealed with their own key and context. When a collab post is zapped, the tip is automatically split among the collaborators (see "What are zap splits?").

Are my direct messages private?

Yes. The Mailbox uses end-to-end encrypted direct messages (NIP-17): the text is encrypted on your device and addressed to your recipient, so relays — and we — only ever see ciphertext. We can't read your messages. As with any messaging, your recipient and the relays involved can still tell that an encrypted message was sent, and the decrypted text is cached on your device so you can read it.

What are zaps, sats, lightning, and bitcoin?

A "zap" is a tip. It's paid in "sats" (satoshis — the smallest unit of bitcoin, where 100 million sats = 1 bitcoin) over the Lightning Network, a fast, low-fee way to send bitcoin. When someone zaps your post, the sats go directly from their wallet to yours. Siner never touches the money — it just helps you send and receive tips.

Why tips in bitcoin instead of regular payments?

Lightning lets anyone, anywhere, send you a few cents instantly without an account, a card, or a middleman taking a cut — and without us holding your funds. It's peer-to-peer by design, which fits an app where you own your identity and your audience. Siner gives you a built-in, self-custodial wallet (or connect your own); either way, Siner never custodies your money.

What are zap splits?

When a post has more than one creator — a collab — a zap to that post is automatically divided among the collaborators by their agreed weights, and each share is paid to that person's own Lightning address. Siner shows you the breakdown before you confirm. If you're one of the collaborators, your own share is skipped (you don't zap yourself), and any collaborator who has withdrawn is left out. Siner never takes a cut of a split.

What network fees do zaps cost, and who pays?

Zaps travel over the Lightning Network, which charges a small routing fee — usually a tiny fraction of the amount. The sender always pays the fee, on top of the zap amount, out of their own wallet balance; the recipient gets the full sats you sent. With the built-in wallet, Siner shows an estimated fee before you confirm so there are no surprises; external (NWC) wallets apply their own fees on their side. Siner itself charges nothing and takes no cut.

Do I need to set up a wallet?

In the Siner app, no: every account gets a built-in, self-custodial Lightning wallet automatically, and you alone hold the keys. In the web app, one tap: choose “Create Siner wallet” on the Wallet tab — or “Restore from recovery phrase” to open the wallet from your other device with the same balance. Either way you can instead connect any Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) wallet and the app drives it for you; your keys never leave that wallet, and Siner never holds your funds.

Siner wallet or my own (NWC) wallet — what's the difference?

The built-in Siner wallet is self-custodial and powered by the Breez (Spark) SDK: it's created for you automatically in the Siner app and with one tap on the web, its keys stay on that device, and it can receive even when the app is closed. An NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect, NIP-47) wallet is an external wallet you already use — you paste its connection string and Siner asks it to pay or receive on your behalf, without ever seeing its keys. You can add more than one wallet and switch which is active; whichever is active is what your zaps and sends use. Fee previews before sending are available for the built-in wallet; most NWC wallets handle fees on their side. Zaps always travel over Lightning and carry a small network fee — including a zap from one Siner wallet to another.

How do I back up and recover my Siner wallet?

The built-in wallet has its own 12-word recovery phrase, separate from your Nostr account key. It lives on your device: Settings → Wallet → "Back up recovery phrase", which asks for Face ID before it shows the words. Write them down and keep them offline — they're the only way to restore that wallet's funds if you lose or replace that device. Because the wallet seed is independent from your account, backing up your Nostr key does NOT back up your wallet — do both. To move a wallet to a new device, use "Restore from recovery phrase." An NWC wallet you connect keeps its own backup wherever that wallet lives; there is nothing to back up in Siner for it.

What is a Siner handle (and Lightning address)?

Your handle (like you@siner.me) is one name for three things at once: your username, your verified identity (a ✓ badge, via NIP-05), and your Lightning address for receiving zaps. You don't need a handle to receive sats — your built-in wallet works immediately — but claiming one gives you a clean, memorable name. If you arrived from another app with an existing handle or Lightning address, Siner keeps it: we only ever offer, never overwrite.

How does account recovery work, and why can't Siner read my key?

Your identity is a key (your "nsec") that only you hold. On the iPhone it's generated and stored in the Keychain, and it never leaves your phone.

In a browser it depends how you sign in. With a signer extension (NIP-07) or by linking the signer on your phone (NIP-46), the key never enters the web page at all — those are the safest options. If you paste your key instead, it's stored encrypted in that browser, under a key the browser won't hand back to any script, so you stay signed in across reloads. Be clear about the limit: that protects your key at rest — a stolen disk, a device backup — not against anything running on siner.me itself, and a Nostr key can't be rotated. You can add a passphrase (Settings → Account & Security) so nothing on the device opens it without you. And a browser is not a backup: logging out or clearing site data erases the stored copy.

Recovery is optional and separate. If you turn on backup (Settings → Account & Security), your key is encrypted on your own device with a password only you know (PBKDF2, then AES-256-GCM) before anything leaves it. We store only the scrambled result and never receive your password, so we literally cannot unscramble it. To restore, you provide your email (for a one-time code) and your backup password, and the decryption happens on your device. You can also export the raw key to store it yourself.

What if I lose my backup password?

Then no one can recover your key — not even us — because only your password can decrypt your backup. That's the trade-off of true ownership: there's no "forgot password" reset. Store your backup password somewhere safe, like a password manager. (Your wallet's 12-word phrase is separate — keep that too.)

What is a "proof of authenticity" or Siner Seal?

A Siner Seal is a tamper-evident proof attached to autographs, postcards, and collabs. It bundles a cryptographic fingerprint (hash) of the content, your signature with your key, the time it was made, optional context like location and device, and — for autographs — characteristics of your signing gesture. The seal can be anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain via OpenTimestamps for an independent timestamp (only a hash is sent to public timestamp servers, never your content). Anyone can later re-verify a sealed piece, in either app, to confirm it's genuinely yours and unaltered. You choose how much context to include. (On iPhone an optional device-integrity check via Apple App Attest can strengthen a seal; a browser has no equivalent, so a seal made in one carries the signature, hashes and timestamp without it.)

What's public, and how do my privacy controls work?

On Nostr, what you publish is public and hard to fully erase: your posts, profile, reactions, zaps, and reports are visible to anyone and can be copied by relays. The exceptions are direct messages and postcards, which are end-to-end encrypted so only you and your recipient can read them. You control extra details too: toggles in Privacy settings decide whether your location and your device are attached to what you capture, and you can turn both off before you capture. In a browser, location and camera are additionally gated by your browser's own permission prompt — deny it and nothing can be attached at all.

Does Siner track me or show ads?

No ads, no third-party tracking, and no data sales. The iPhone app doesn't use an advertising identifier and doesn't track you across other apps or sites; the web app sets no cookies and loads no third-party analytics or advertising script. Two kinds of data may be sent, both anonymous and never linked to your identity (your npub): (1) crash and performance diagnostics (Apple MetricKit on the iPhone; the web app sends none), and (2) first-party product analytics — anonymous, aggregated counts of how features and screens are used, so we can find and fix where the app frustrates people. Those analytics use a random identifier belonging to that install or browser, not your key, are aggregated into totals with no per-person trails, and can be turned off anytime in Settings → Privacy — which also throws that random identifier away. See the Privacy Policy for specifics.

How do I report, mute, or block someone?

Every post has a report option in its share menu, and every profile has Report, Mute, and Block in its overflow (⋯) menu. Choose the reason that fits and add an optional note; reports are published as signed events, so they can't be forged in your name. Muting hides someone quietly; blocking hides them and stops their messages. Mute and block are instant and private to you. See our Community Guidelines for what's not allowed and how we act on reports.

How does Siner handle bans and takedowns?

Reports go to review, and on the infrastructure Siner runs — our relay and media storage — we can act: warn, remove the content, temporarily suspend an account, or, for severe or repeated violations, ban it from our relay. The most serious harms (like child-safety violations or credible threats) skip the ladder and are removed and escalated immediately. Honest limit: Nostr is decentralized, so removing content from our relay broadcasts a deletion request but can't reach relays we don't run, and a banned key can still exist elsewhere. If you think we got it wrong, you can appeal at support@siner.me. See the Community Guidelines for the full rules.

What happens when I delete my account?

Deleting removes your data and keys from wherever you're using Siner — the app on your phone, or that browser — asks relays to delete your posts, and deletes the media we host for you. If you use both, delete in both: clearing one doesn't clear the other. Because Nostr is decentralized, posts already spread to other relays may persist, and a deletion request is something other relays may not honor. It's a real delete on our side, with honest limits on the parts of the network we don't control. (Your wallet's funds are tied to its 12-word phrase, not your account — move them out or back up the phrase first if you want to keep them.)

Can I use Siner in a browser, and how do I sign in?

Yes — siner.me runs the full app in a browser, with no install needed. There are four ways in. If you already have a Nostr key: use a browser signer extension (NIP-07, like Alby or nos2x) and your key never enters the page at all; link the signer on your phone by scanning a QR (NIP-46), which keeps the key on the phone and asks it to sign; or paste your nsec directly, which is the simplest and the least private of the three, since the key does enter the page. If you're new, create an account right there — Siner generates the key in your browser and you can back it up straight away. Whichever you choose, the key is yours: there is no Siner account or password behind it.

Does the web app do everything the iPhone app does?

Nearly. In a browser you can read and post to the feed, like, comment, zap, and split zaps; make autographs, postcards, greet cards and collabs with the same templates and the same signature tools as the phone, including placing and resizing your signature; send and read encrypted messages; open your Mailbox and accept or decline a collab invitation there; verify a Siner Seal, including its Bitcoin anchoring; and manage bookmarks, drafts, profile and relays. The built-in Siner wallet works in both too — create one in the browser, or restore the phone's with its 12 words. Some things are still the phone's alone. Three because a browser has no equivalent: Face ID locks, Apple's App Attest device check on a seal, and push notifications while the app is closed. Two more because they aren't built yet: signing your part of a collab once it's accepted, and voting on a collab deletion. Everything you make in one shows up in the other — it's the same key and the same relays, not two accounts.