How to Set Up Damus and Send Your First Lightning Zap on Nostr

Imagine tipping someone a few cents for a great post, and the money arrives in their wallet three seconds later. No platform taking a cut. No bank approval. No algorithm deciding whether your payment is allowed. That's what zaps on Nostr feel like, and Damus is one of the most popular ways to experience it.

If you're coming from Twitter (or X, or whatever it's called this week), Nostr can feel disorienting at first. There's no company running it. No central server. Your identity is a cryptographic key pair, and your posts live on a network of independent relays. Damus is simply a client, a window into that network, available on iOS, Android, desktop, and web.

This guide walks you through setting up Damus from scratch and sending your first Lightning zap. You'll need about 15 minutes and a willingness to handle a small amount of Bitcoin.

What You're Actually Setting Up

Before diving into steps, it helps to understand the moving parts.

Nostr is a protocol, not a platform. Your identity consists of two keys: a public key (your username, shareable with anyone) and a private key (your password, never share it). Damus reads and writes to Nostr relays using these keys.

Zaps are Lightning Network payments tied to Nostr posts or profiles. They're standardized by NIP-57, which defines how clients request invoices and broadcast payment receipts. When you tap the ⚡ icon in Damus, the app queries the recipient's Lightning address, gets an invoice, and passes it to your wallet. Once paid, a "zap receipt" appears under the post for everyone to see.

To make this work, you need three things: a Nostr client (Damus), a Lightning wallet with Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) support, and a Lightning address on your profile so others can zap you back.

Step 1: Install Damus

Damus is available in the iOS App Store, Google Play, and as a desktop or web app. Search for "Damus" and install it. The app is free.

When you first open Damus, you'll have two options: create a new account or log in with an existing Nostr key. If you're new to Nostr, tap "Create Account."

Step 2: Generate and Back Up Your Keys

Damus will generate a key pair for you. This is the most important step, and the easiest to botch.

Your public key (often shown as an "npub" string) is like your email address. Share it freely. Your private key (an "nsec" string) is your master password. Whoever has it controls your identity forever. There's no "forgot password" button on Nostr.

Damus will show you your private key exactly once during setup. Write it down on paper and store it somewhere secure, like you would a Bitcoin seed phrase. Don't screenshot it. Don't paste it into a notes app synced to the cloud. If you lose this key and get logged out, your account is gone.

Once you've backed up your key, you can set a display name, bio, and profile picture. These are optional but make you easier to find.

Step 3: Choose and Set Up a Lightning Wallet

Damus doesn't have a built-in wallet. It connects to external Lightning wallets using Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC), a protocol that lets the app request payments from your wallet without holding your funds.

Several wallets support NWC as of mid-2026:

• Alby (browser extension and mobile) is popular for its budgeting features. You can set spending limits so a misclick doesn't drain your wallet.
• Wallet of Satoshi (mobile) is the simplest option for beginners, though it's custodial and unavailable in some regions.
• Zeus (mobile) works with your own Lightning node if you want full self-custody.
• Rizful (cloud-based) provides NWC strings and Lightning addresses through a straightforward web interface.

For this guide, we'll use Alby as an example, but the process is similar across wallets.

Setting Up Alby

1. Go to getalby.com and create an account.
2. Fund your Alby wallet with a small amount of Bitcoin, enough for a few zaps (1,000-5,000 sats is plenty to start).
3. In Alby's settings, find "Nostr Wallet Connect" and generate a connection string. This is a long string starting with "nostr+walletconnect://".
4. Copy this string.

Connecting the Wallet to Damus

1. In Damus, go to Settings (gear icon).
2. Tap "Wallet" or "Set up Wallet."
3. Select "Paste NWC Address" and paste your connection string.
4. Damus will confirm the connection and may show your wallet balance.

You can now send zaps from within Damus. The app will request invoices, and your connected wallet will pay them.

Step 4: Add a Lightning Address to Your Profile

To receive zaps, others need a way to send you Lightning payments. This requires a Lightning address on your Nostr profile.

A Lightning address looks like an email: `yourname@getalby.com` or `yourname@walletofsatoshi.com`. Your wallet provider gives you one automatically.

To add it to Damus:

1. Go to your profile and tap "Edit."
2. Find the field labeled "Bitcoin Lightning Address" or "Lightning Tips."
3. Paste your Lightning address.
4. Save your profile.

Once saved, a ⚡ icon will appear on your profile, signaling to others that you can receive zaps.

Step 5: Send Your First Zap

Now for the fun part.

Find a post you like, or navigate to someone's profile. Look for the ⚡ icon. Tap it.

Damus will show you a zap interface where you can choose an amount (often preset options like 21, 100, or 1,000 sats) and optionally add a message. Select your amount and confirm.

Behind the scenes, Damus queries the recipient's Lightning address, receives an invoice, and passes it to your NWC-connected wallet. Your wallet pays the invoice, and a zap receipt broadcasts to Nostr. Within seconds, the recipient sees your zap on their post or profile, along with any message you included.

That's it. You've just sent money across the internet without a bank, payment processor, or platform intermediary.

A Note on Apple's Restrictions

If you're using Damus on iOS, you may notice that zap buttons appear on profiles but not on individual posts. This isn't a bug.

In June 2023, Apple classified post-level zaps as digital content purchases and demanded Damus remove them or use Apple's in-app purchase system (which would take a 30% cut and defeat the purpose). Damus negotiated a compromise: profile-level zaps stayed, post-level zaps were removed from the App Store build.

As of late 2025, this restriction remains in place. Apple continues to threaten removal if Damus ships a working zap button on posts.

There are workarounds. Some users run scripts from services like zap.army to re-enable post-level zaps in the iOS client. Others use Zapple Pay, a service that automatically sends zaps when you react to a post with a specific emoji. These workarounds involve additional setup and some trust in third-party services.

On Android, desktop, and web, post-level zaps work without restriction.

Setting Budgets and Limits

Zaps are real Bitcoin payments. The frictionless UX, tap and send, hides a meaningful risk: you can accidentally drain your wallet through enthusiastic tipping.

Most NWC-compatible wallets let you set spending limits. In Alby, you can configure a daily or weekly budget for NWC connections. If you exceed it, the wallet refuses further payments until you manually approve them.

Set a budget you're comfortable losing. 5,000 sats a week is enough for casual zapping without risking significant funds.

Understanding Custody Trade-offs

Wallets like Wallet of Satoshi and Alby's hosted option are custodial. They hold your Bitcoin, and you trust them not to steal it or get hacked. This is simpler but carries counterparty risk.

Self-custodial options like Zeus (connected to your own node) eliminate that risk but require more technical setup. You're responsible for backups, channel management, and liquidity.

For small amounts, custodial wallets are convenient. For larger holdings, consider self-custody. Most Nostr power users keep a small "zapping budget" in a custodial wallet and larger savings elsewhere.

What Happens After You Zap

Zap receipts are public. When you zap someone, other Nostr users can see the amount, your public key, and any message you attached. This transparency is by design, it's social proof that someone valued a post enough to pay for it.

Recipients receive the Bitcoin in their Lightning wallet, minus any routing fees (usually a fraction of a sat for small payments). They can spend it, save it, or zap it forward to someone else.

Over time, you'll notice zaps creating a different dynamic than likes or retweets. When tipping costs real money, even tiny amounts, people become more thoughtful about what they amplify.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Zap button doesn't appear: Make sure your NWC wallet is connected and your Lightning address is set on your profile. On iOS, remember that post-level zaps are disabled by default.

Zap fails with "invoice expired": Lightning invoices have short expiration times. If you wait too long before confirming, the invoice may expire. Try again promptly.

Wallet shows "insufficient balance": You need enough sats to cover the zap amount plus routing fees. Add more Bitcoin to your wallet.

Recipient doesn't receive zap: Check that their Lightning address is valid and their wallet supports NIP-57 zaps. Some older wallets don't process zap receipts correctly.

Moving Forward

Once you've sent your first zap, you've experienced something genuinely new: permissionless, instant, global micropayments tied to social interactions. No advertising model. No engagement farming. Just people paying each other for content they value.

Damus isn't the only Nostr client, alternatives like Primal, Amethyst, and Nostur offer different interfaces and features, but it remains one of the most established options, particularly for iOS users despite Apple's constraints.

The Nostr ecosystem continues to evolve. NWC support is expanding across clients and wallets. New tools keep emerging to smooth over platform-specific limitations. The underlying vision, a social network where users control their identity and can transact freely, is becoming more accessible with each iteration.

Start small. Zap a few posts. See how it feels to tip someone directly, without a corporation in the middle. That experience, more than any technical explanation, is what makes Nostr worth understanding.