#8 Born To Be Free | Open Markets Podcast
Open Markets Podcast | Episode 8: Born To Be Free
In this episode, Eric FJ and Sync are joined by Nadja and John, founders of Born To Be Free, the first merchant guests on the Open Markets podcast. Born To Be Free makes tallow-based, non-toxic skincare rooted in health, sovereignty, Bitcoin values, and regenerative sourcing.
The conversation covers what it means to be a merchant on Nostr today, how decentralized marketplaces can give businesses resilience beyond Shopify, Meta, and other centralized platforms, and why Bitcoiners are often some of the most intentional customers. Nadja and John also share the story of Born To Be Free’s origin during COVID, their move toward tallow skincare, their experience losing access to Instagram, and why they see health, freedom, self-custody, and commerce as deeply connected.
Where to follow Born To Be Free:
* Website: borntobefree.store [http://borntobefree.store]
* Nostr / Primal: primal.net/borntobefree [http://primal.net/borntobefree]
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_borntobefree_/ [https://www.instagram.com/_borntobefree_/]
* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bornto_befree [https://www.tiktok.com/@bornto_befree]
* Substack: https://borntobefreeoffical.substack.com/ [https://borntobefreeoffical.substack.com/]
* X: https://x.com/BornToBeFreehttps://x.com/BornToBeFree [https://x.com/BornTo_BeFree]
Links & references from the episode:
* Open Markets Foundation - https://openmarkets.pub/ [https://openmarkets.pub/]
* Conduit Market - https://conduit.market/ [https://conduit.market/]
* NIP-99: Classified Listings - https://nips.nostr.com/99 [https://nips.nostr.com/99]
* BTCPay Server - https://btcpayserver.org/ [https://btcpayserver.org/]
* BTCPay Server Nostr / NIP-05 docs - https://docs.btcpayserver.org/Nostr/ [https://docs.btcpayserver.org/Nostr/]
* Shopstr — Bitcoin-native Nostr marketplace - https://shopstr.store/ [https://shopstr.store/]
* Plebeian Market - https://plebeian.market/ [https://plebeian.market/]
* Nostr Boutique - https://www.nostr.boutique/ [https://www.nostr.boutique/]
* Shosho — live streaming on Nostr - https://github.com/r0d8lsh0p/shosho-releases [https://github.com/r0d8lsh0p/shosho-releases]
* Shosho on Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shosho.app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shosho.app]
* Conduit “Zap Out” announcement featuring Oshi - https://stacker.news/items/1502668 [https://stacker.news/items/1502668]
* Oshi — artisan nut butters & chocolate - https://www.oshigood.us/ [https://www.oshigood.us/]
* NIP-17: Private Direct Messages - https://nips.nostr.com/17 [https://nips.nostr.com/17]
* BudaBit — sovereign software communities - https://www.budabit.org/ [https://www.budabit.org/]
* HiveTalk — Nostr + Lightning friendly video conferencing - https://vanilla.hivetalk.org/faq [https://vanilla.hivetalk.org/faq]
* Pyramid Relay - https://github.com/fiatjaf/pyramid [https://github.com/fiatjaf/pyramid]
* Colabonate Protocol - https://github.com/Colabonate/Colabonate_Protocol [https://github.com/Colabonate/Colabonate_Protocol]
* CrowdHealth - https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ [https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/]
* The Beef Initiative - https://beefinitiative.com/ [https://beefinitiative.com/]
* Texas Slim / Beef Initiative about page - https://beefinitiative.com/pages/about-us-page [https://beefinitiative.com/pages/about-us-page]
* Red Banks Beef Farm - https://redbanksbeeffarm.com/ [https://redbanksbeeffarm.com/]
* USPS Star Routes history - https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/star-routes.pdf [https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/star-routes.pdf]
* National Postal Museum: Moving the Mail — Star Routes - https://postalmuseum.si.edu/moving-the-mail-star-routes [https://postalmuseum.si.edu/moving-the-mail-star-routes]
* Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment - https://supplychain.amazon.com/multichannel-fulfillment [https://supplychain.amazon.com/multichannel-fulfillment]
* The UPS Store franchise information - https://www.theupsstorefranchise.com/ [https://www.theupsstorefranchise.com/]
* Camp Nakamoto - https://www.campnakamoto.com/ [https://www.campnakamoto.com/]
* Bullish Market - https://bestinmarkets.com/ [https://bestinmarkets.com/]
* Nostr protocol overview - https://nostr.org/ [https://nostr.org/]
* Primal - https://primal.net/ [https://primal.net/]
* Damus - https://damus.io/ [https://damus.io/]
* Zap.Stream [http://Zap.Stream] - https://zap.stream/ [https://zap.stream/]
* Fountain - https://fountain.fm/ [https://fountain.fm/]
* Nostr Wallet Connect / NIP-47 - https://nips.nostr.com/47 [https://nips.nostr.com/47]
* Nostr Zaps / NIP-57 - https://nips.nostr.com/57 [https://nips.nostr.com/57]
Projects and ideas discussed:
* NIP-99 commerce listings and how merchants can publish products across Nostr-native marketplaces.
* The possibility of BTCPay Server integrations for NIP-99 and the tradeoff between convenience, decentralization, and merchant privacy.
* Decentralized shipping, including historical parallels with USPS Star Routes and modern ideas like private shipping networks or drone-based delivery.
* Merchant resilience after centralized platform failures, including Born To Be Free’s experience losing Instagram access and seeing Shopify outages.
* “Zap Out,” Conduit’s early experiment in decentralized checkout using a Lightning zap paired with an order message.
* Private vs. public checkout flows, including the idea that public zap-outs could double as customer-approved merchant promotion.
* Escrow, dispute resolution, and reputation models for Nostr commerce.
* CrowdHealth as inspiration for a community-based, reputation-driven way to handle refunds, merchant disputes, or chargeback-like problems.
* Shosho’s live-stream shopping model on Nostr, including products and checkout inside a live creator experience.
* Shopify Collective and Violet-style integrations as useful models for future Nostr commerce tooling.
* The need for easier merchant onboarding, product imports, notifications, order alerts, scheduled posts, and better seller workflows.
