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@ ManiMe
2025-03-13 00:23:46
> For over a year, I have been developing “webs of trust onboarding and discovery” tools for Nostr. With additional funding, I hope to continue this endeavor in 2025. Here’s the story so far…
## What I’m Building
More than simply a “list of follows follows”, “web of trust” implementations will power user discovery, content search, reviews and reccomendations, identity verification and access to all corners of the “trusted” Nostr network as it scales. Without relying on a central “trust authority” to recommend people and content for us, sovereign Nostr users will leverage many forms of “relative trust” derived from our own “web” of natural interactions, “simply” by normalizing and scoring these interactions. The problem is, Nostr doesn’t have an extensible library for performing these “web of trust” calculations and delivering standardized reccomendations to any client … until now.
I have built a developer library by which clients and relays can offer “webs of trust” score calculations for any user. Primarily, I am also building a “social onboarding” client, which will leverage this library to provide “webs of trust” powered recommendations for new users at their crucial “first interaction” touchpoint.
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me) (onboarding client) : This is my first project on Nostr, which I started a year ago with seed funding from [@druid](https://primal.net/druid). This “social onboarding” client will leverage in person relationships, QR invites, and advocate recommendations to improve new user retention. Currently, it creates new accounts with encrypted keys upon scanning any user’s invite. Last summer, without additional funding or a reliable WoT engine to produce recommendations, I “paused” development of this project.
- [GrapeRank Engine](https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs) (developer library) : Working with [@straycat](https://primal.net/straycat) last fall, I built an open source and extensible library for Nostr developers to integrate “web of trust” powered reccomendations into their products and services. The power of GrapeRank is that it can generate different recommendations for different use cases (not just “web of trust” from “follows and mutes”), configurable easily by developers and by end users. This library is currently in v0.1, “generating and storing usable scores” without NIP standard outputs for Nostr clients.
- [My Grapevine](https://grapevine.my) (algo dashboard) : In addition, I’ve just now wrapped up the demo release of a web client by which users and developers can explore the power of the GrapeRank Engine.
## Potential Impact
Webs of Trust is how Nostr scales. But so far, “web of trust” recommendations on Nostr have been implemented ad-hoc by clients with no consistency and little choice for end users. The “onboarding and discovery” tools I am developing promise to :
- Establish “sovereignty” for webs of trust users, by stimulating a “free market of choices” with open source libraries, enabling any developer to implement WoT powered recommendations with ease.
- Accelerate the isolation of “bots and bad actors”, and improve the “trustiness” of Nostr for everyone else, by streamlining the onboarding of “real world” trusted people directly into established “webs of trust”.
- Improve “discoverability of users and content” across all clients, by providing an extensible algo engine with “unlimited” NIP standard outputs, allowing any client to consume and take advantage of WoT powered recommendations, even as these NIPs are still in flux.
- Pave the way for “global Nostr adoption”, where WoT powered recommendations (and searches) are consistently available for any user across a wide variety of clients.
## Timeline & Milestones
2025 roadmap for “Webs of Trust Onboarding and Discovery” :
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me/) (onboarding client) : MVP release : “scan my QR for instant account and DM with me on Nostr”.
- [GrapeRank Engine ](https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs)(developer library) : 1.0 release : “output WoT scores to Nostr NIPs and other stuff” for consumption by clients and relays.
- [My Grapevine](https://grapevine.my/) (algo dashboard) : 1.0 release : “usable dashboard with API endpoints” for end users to configure and consume GrapeRank scores on their own clients and relays.
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me/) (onboarding client) : 1.0 release : first integration with My Grapevine, offering “follow and app recommendations for invited users”, customizable per-invite for Nostr advocates.
## Funding
In February 2024, I received a one time donation from [@druid](https://primal.net/druid) to start the “Meet Me On Nostr” client.
In May 2024, I applied for an OpenSats grant to fund further development of “Meet Me On Nostr”. This was denied.
In September 2024, [@straycat](https://primal.net/straycat) offered to fund me for three months, to develop the “GrapeRank Engine” and “My Grapevine” demo client around his algorithm design.
I have a [Geyser Fund page](https://geyser.fund/project/nostrmeetme)
Please reach out via DM if you are interested to fund part of this or any related project.