How it works
Three steps, no accounts in the traditional sense
21.gifts uses a Passkey on your device as your identity. There are no usernames, no passwords, and no email sign-ups. Behind the scenes the Passkey derives a NOSTR key — but you never have to think about it.
Post a request
Sign in with a Passkey. Describe what you need in a short message and add your Lightning Address. That's the entire setup.
Your story spreads
Your message is published as a NOSTR event. It appears on 21.gifts, and on every NOSTR client that follows the same relay — Damus, Amethyst, and others.
Gifts arrive directly
Donors pay your Lightning Address from their own wallet. Satoshis land in your wallet, not ours. The platform never sees the money.
Why this exists
The shortest possible path from one person to another
Truly peer-to-peer
Funds move from the donor's Lightning wallet to the receiver's Lightning Address. 21.gifts never holds, routes, or escrows the money. There is nothing for us to freeze.
Self-sovereign keys
Your NOSTR key is derived from a Passkey on your own device, using the WebAuthn PRF extension. The server never sees the private key, and cannot impersonate you or read your future messages.
Open protocol
Every message is a standard NOSTR event. If 21.gifts disappears tomorrow, your identity and your posts continue to exist on the relay and in every NOSTR client that has them.
Non-profit by design
There is no take-rate, no platform fee, and no fundraising round to recoup. The project covers its own infrastructure cost and nothing more.
FAQ
Common questions, answered briefly
Who can post a request?
Anyone with a device that supports Passkeys and a Lightning Address from any custodial or self-custodial wallet. No application, no review process.
Do you take a cut of the gifts?
No. Payments go directly from the donor's wallet to the receiver's Lightning Address. 21.gifts is never in the payment path and earns nothing per transaction.
What happens to my keys?
Your Passkey lives in your device's secure enclave (or in iCloud Keychain / Google Password Manager / Bitwarden / a hardware authenticator, depending on your setup). 21.gifts derives a NOSTR key from it inside your browser. The server only ever sees signed events, never the private key itself.
Can I lose access to my account?
If your Passkey syncs through iCloud, Google, 1Password, or Bitwarden, restoring a device also restores access. On sign-up you can also choose to write down a 12-word backup phrase (NIP-06) — it recovers the same identity in 21.gifts and in any NOSTR client.
What is NOSTR doing in the background?
NOSTR is the message transport. Every request you post, and every comment under it, is a signed NOSTR event published to a public relay. You never have to know this — but it means the content lives on an open protocol, not inside a private database.
Why only Bitcoin Lightning?
Lightning is the only payment rail that is fast, low-fee, censorship-resistant, and works with simple addresses like email. It removes the need for any custodial layer and lets anyone in the world give or receive without permission.
Is this regulated, and how do taxes work?
21.gifts is a non-profit communication and discovery layer. It is not a payment service provider and does not move funds. Donors and receivers are responsible for their own tax treatment in their jurisdiction.