What are zaps?
A wallet question about NIP-57, Lightning and value signals.
This is a community question attached to the Nostr knowledge atlas. Answers are separate from canonical Crays article text.
Question
A wallet question about NIP-57, Lightning and value signals.
Answer model
Answers can include explanation, source links and related pages. A useful answer can be accepted without editing the canonical page.
How to place What are zaps? on the map
Read What are zaps? as part of the Wallets route, not as an isolated entry. Its main surface is payments and value flow: zaps, Lightning, Nostr Wallet Connect, Cashu, Safebox, budgets, invoices and permission boundaries. That framing matters because a Nostr page is useful only when you can see which layer it belongs to and which layer it does not solve by itself.
The first question is practical: what changes for you if What are zaps? works well? Sometimes the answer is safer signing, sometimes better relay discovery, sometimes clearer media storage, sometimes a stronger source trail. Keep that question in front of you and the page becomes easier to judge.
- Layer. Wallets is the parent route, so the page should send you back to that shelf and sideways into adjacent concepts.
- Evidence. The current source trail starts with NIP-7D, NIP-22, NIP-25, NIP-29. Treat those as anchors, then compare product behavior and NIP support.
What What are zaps? should help you decide
A good page about What are zaps? should leave you with a decision, not just recognition. You should know whether it is a protocol primitive, a client behavior, a relay operation, a product example, a research source or our implementation question. That distinction keeps the archive from becoming a flat glossary.
The common mistake is making payments feel simple while leaving custody, spending limits and signing authority vague. We avoid that by making the claim, the evidence and the next step visible. If a statement depends on a NIP, the page should point to that NIP. If it depends on a project, the page should show the project source. If it affects user safety, the page should say what can fail.
The working example behind What are zaps?
Use this page with a concrete mental test: a wallet page should explain who holds funds, who signs, what an app can request and how the user can revoke access. That example is more useful than a generic definition because Nostr is not one product. The same signed event can be read by different clients, stored by different relays and interpreted through different product choices.
This is also why internal links matter. When the page mentions keys, clients, relays, events, zaps, Blossom, Cashu, FoundUPS or NIPs, those words should lead to the page that explains the concept more deeply. The goal is not to trap you in tabs; the goal is to let you move with context.
Source discipline for What are zaps?
The source list is part of the content, not decoration. For What are zaps?, use primary protocol documents first when the claim is technical, project repositories or product pages when the claim is about an app, and research or directory sources when the claim is about ecosystem position. If the sources disagree, the page should show the uncertainty instead of smoothing it away.
That source discipline is how a large archive stays trustworthy. It also helps learning: you get a short explanation first, then a route to the source that proves or complicates it. The page should feel like a guided chapter, but the evidence should still be close enough to inspect.
Before and after reading What are zaps?
Before reading What are zaps?, make sure you know the nearby base concepts: a public key identifies, a private key signs, relays carry signed events, clients render those events, and NIPs describe shared behavior. You do not need to memorize the whole protocol, but those pieces prevent most confusion.
After reading What are zaps?, the next useful move is to compare it with one neighboring page. If this is an app, compare it with a signer, relay or wallet page. If this is a NIP, compare it with the product behavior it enables. If this is a research source, compare it with the hub that uses it. That is how the archive becomes a learning path instead of a pile.
Why What are zaps? is not just a short note
Some pages look small because the object is small: a source entry, a micro-topic, a category shelf or a project reference. The page still needs a job. For What are zaps?, the job is to name the object clearly, place it in the right route, connect it to source evidence and give you the next reading step.
That is the difference between a database row and a useful knowledge node. A database row stores a fact. A knowledge node explains what the fact connects to, what it does not prove and why you might open the next page.
The navigation job of What are zaps?
What are zaps? also has a navigation job. It should help you decide whether to move upward to the Wallets hub, sideways to a related concept, or downward into a more technical source. That sounds simple, but it is the difference between browsing and learning.
When a page does that job well, you do not need to keep the whole archive in your head. The page carries enough context to orient you, enough links to continue, and enough source discipline to show where the claims come from.