How Kickstr works

How to play

1. Sign in with email + password (a Nostr key is generated and encrypted in your browser) or with a Nostr extension like Alby / nos2x.
2. Open a game from Kickstrs and predict the score for each match (e.g. "2 : 1") before kickoff. Predictions lock a few minutes before each match starts.
3. Results come in after the match. Points get added to your tally. Open the game tab to watch the leaderboard live during matchdays.
4. At the end of the tournament the prize pool gets paid out by rank. Free games run on bragging rights; paid games settle in sats (see below).

Points

Default scoring (game-creators can override per game):

• 3 points — exact score (e.g. you tipped 2:1, final was 2:1)
• 1 point — correct tendency (you got the winner / draw right, exact score wrong)
• 0 points — wrong tendency

Penalty shootouts: tendency is awarded for the winning team in the knockout phase, not for the regulation draw.

Your identity is a Nostr key

Kickstr doesn't run a username DB. Every account is a Nostr keypair — a public part (npub1…) you can share, and a secret part (nsec1…) you keep private. Your tips and profile are signed with your secret key; anyone with the public key can verify them.

If you signed up with email + password: your key was generated client-side and the secret is stored in your browser, encrypted with your password. Kickstr's server only ever sees the encrypted form (NIP-49). Lose the password without backing up the key first → account gone. Back it up on /account — takes 30 seconds.

If you use a Nostr extension (Alby / nos2x / Amber): your key stays in the extension. Kickstr never has access. Manage backups there.

Your profile (name, avatar, about) is a public NIP-01 kind:0 event signed by your key. Edit it on /account and it appears on every Nostr client — Damus, Primal, Amethyst, snort.social — under the same identity.

Paid games: sats & Cashu

Free games (entry-fee = 0) need nothing beyond an account. Paid games are denominated in sats — the smallest unit of Bitcoin (100 million sats = 1 BTC) — and Kickstr settles them in Cashu.

Sats

The currency. 21 sats, 1000 sats, etc. Roughly a few cents to a few euros depending on price.

Cashu (the format Kickstr accepts)

A bearer-token for sats — like a digital cash voucher. To enter a paid game you paste a Cashu token string (starts with cashuA…) into the entry-fee form; Kickstr verifies its value against the mint and credits the pot. Web wallet: wallet.cashu.me ; protocol overview + current wallet list at cashu.space .

Lightning (under the hood)

Lightning is the Bitcoin network layer Cashu mints use to move sats in and out. You typically fund a Cashu wallet by paying a Lightning invoice once (e.g. from Alby , Phoenix , or Breez ), then spend the resulting Cashu tokens on Kickstr. Kickstr's entry-fee form does not accept raw Lightning invoices — only Cashu tokens.

Bottom line for paid games: get sats into a Cashu wallet first → mint a token of the entry-fee amount → paste it. For the current WM-Game (free), nothing to set up.

Privacy

• Your tips are public. Every prediction is a signed Nostr event — anyone running a Nostr relay can read it. That's by design: a signed tip with a timestamp is cryptographic proof that you predicted that score before kickoff. No one can dispute or rewrite it afterwards.
• Your profile and chat messages are public Nostr events too.
• Want privacy? Create a pseudonymous Nostr account just for Kickstr — your tip history then isn't linked to your real-name identity. Sign up with a fresh email or a separate Nostr extension key.
• Kickstr stores your encrypted key + email (if you used email auth). We don't ship analytics or share data.
• You can move to a different Nostr client at any time using your key backup. Same identity, same tip history.

FAQ