![<description><p>In this episode, Avi talks with Stirling Forge about building a decentralized rideshare alternative on Nostr, sparked by the brutal economics of driving for Uber and Lyft today.</p>
<p>Stirling shares his background: former weather forecaster turned rideshare driver who stacked sats hard when payouts were better, then watched driver take-home shrink dramatically in recent years (with platforms extracting a much bigger share).</p>
<p>From there, the episode dives into his open-source project: <strong>Ridestr</strong> (rider) and <strong>Drivestr</strong> (driver), a peer-to-peer rideshare flow that uses Nostr as the communication layer, does routing and fare calculation locally on-device, and aims to keep privacy tighter (drivers share approximate location; riders avoid broadcasting location by default).</p>
<p>A big chunk is the “how does this not die to network effects?” question, and Stirling’s answer is the episode’s secret sauce: <strong>Road Flare</strong>, a “bat-signal” mode for repeat rides. Riders scan a driver QR once, save them to a favorites list, and later ping their personal micro-network of trusted drivers first, reducing signup friction and sidestepping the classic chicken-and-egg problem.</p>
<p><strong>Links</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://primal.net/stirling">Stirling on nostr</a></li>
<li><a href="https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs0e3ng8fxcwyxf54g5vgpadvx5r39q7ln85j8czshmxl664r4sfqcpd0phd">Ridestr Video 1</a> | <a href="https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsqgklt7gv03q5s6emmau8cmwq4wax54ja9u5ke38che8aqtupdm4gemn9dg">Ridestr Video 2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/variablefate/ridestr">Ridestr GitHub page</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/July-18-Avi-Burra/dp/B0G12PPTCM">Avi's New Book – July 18</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indeehub.studio/film/finding-home/season/1/episode/3">Finding Home Episode 3 – Paraguay</a> [IndeeHub Code: <strong>PIONEER21</strong> ]</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/24-Avi-Burra/dp/B0CN9NRNNB/ref=sr*1*1?crid=27RW9P8JQ4YMV&keywords=avi+burra+24&qid=1700327391&sprefix=avi+burra+24%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1%5D(https://www.amazon.com/24-Avi-Burra/dp/B0CN9NRNNB/ref=sr11?crid=27RW9P8JQ4YMV&keywords=avi+burra+24&qid=1700327391&sprefix=avi+burra+24%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1">Avi's First Book – 24 (2nd Edition)</a></li>
</ul></description>](https://us-central1-podcastguru-217d6.cloudfunctions.net/gcf_get_image?image_url=https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts211/v4/5d/f0/63/5df06354-a08e-010a-9576-415cfb1017d6/mza_17691993919286006024.jpg/600x600bb.jpg&width=300&height=300&api_key=xqFmUFX5BHLBTA)
Plebchain Radio
Avi Burra and QW
149 – The Bat Signal Virus: Ridestr and Drivestr with Stirling Forge
FEB 6, 2026103 MIN
149 – The Bat Signal Virus: Ridestr and Drivestr with Stirling Forge
FEB 6, 2026103 MIN
Description
<p>In this episode, Avi talks with Stirling Forge about building a decentralized rideshare alternative on Nostr, sparked by the brutal economics of driving for Uber and Lyft today.</p>
<p>Stirling shares his background: former weather forecaster turned rideshare driver who stacked sats hard when payouts were better, then watched driver take-home shrink dramatically in recent years (with platforms extracting a much bigger share).</p>
<p>From there, the episode dives into his open-source project: <strong>Ridestr</strong> (rider) and <strong>Drivestr</strong> (driver), a peer-to-peer rideshare flow that uses Nostr as the communication layer, does routing and fare calculation locally on-device, and aims to keep privacy tighter (drivers share approximate location; riders avoid broadcasting location by default).</p>
<p>A big chunk is the “how does this not die to network effects?” question, and Stirling’s answer is the episode’s secret sauce: <strong>Road Flare</strong>, a “bat-signal” mode for repeat rides. Riders scan a driver QR once, save them to a favorites list, and later ping their personal micro-network of trusted drivers first, reducing signup friction and sidestepping the classic chicken-and-egg problem.</p>
<p><strong>Links</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://primal.net/stirling">Stirling on nostr</a></li>
<li><a href="https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs0e3ng8fxcwyxf54g5vgpadvx5r39q7ln85j8czshmxl664r4sfqcpd0phd">Ridestr Video 1</a> | <a href="https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsqgklt7gv03q5s6emmau8cmwq4wax54ja9u5ke38che8aqtupdm4gemn9dg">Ridestr Video 2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/variablefate/ridestr">Ridestr GitHub page</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/July-18-Avi-Burra/dp/B0G12PPTCM">Avi's New Book – July 18</a></li>
<li><a href="https://indeehub.studio/film/finding-home/season/1/episode/3">Finding Home Episode 3 – Paraguay</a> [IndeeHub Code: <strong>PIONEER21</strong> ]</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/24-Avi-Burra/dp/B0CN9NRNNB/ref=sr*1*1?crid=27RW9P8JQ4YMV&keywords=avi+burra+24&qid=1700327391&sprefix=avi+burra+24%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1%5D(https://www.amazon.com/24-Avi-Burra/dp/B0CN9NRNNB/ref=sr11?crid=27RW9P8JQ4YMV&keywords=avi+burra+24&qid=1700327391&sprefix=avi+burra+24%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1">Avi's First Book – 24 (2nd Edition)</a></li>
</ul>