Building a Self‑Sovereign Reputation Economy over Nostr
The Web‑of‑Trust Hackathon is a six‑month, open‑source sprint (November 2025 – April 2026) that brings together developers, designers, cryptographers, community‑builders, and privacy‑advocates to create the next generation of trust‑layer tools for the Nostr ecosystem.
Our core mission is an ecosystem of personalized and portable trust metrics in Nostr. We envision trust metrics generated independently from traditional Nostr clients, but consumed by them and used for spam elimination, content discovery and content filtering/stratification.
We are particularly partial to the publication and consumption of Trusted Assertions (NIP-85) which we believe to be the crucial next step towards this mission. We also hope to build and promote:
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trust metrics that are contextual
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the utilization of centrality algorithms like PageRank and GrapeRank
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graph databases, including graph database Nostr relays
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application of trust metrics to Decentralized Lists (as discussed here)
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other methods to communicate trust metrics, e.g. API-based methods
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middleware
However, any open source contributions that advance the core mission will be considered. We are eager to hear your ideas!
The result will be a modular ecosystem of open source tools that let anyone prove, discover, utilize and manage reputation without a central authority. It is the antithesis of the centralized “social credit” system, the specter of which makes our endeavor all the more urgent.
Challenge Structure
| Phase | Dates | Core Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Kick‑off & Idea Pitch | 12 Nov – 30 Nov, 2025Meeting 1: Kickoff 11/20 | Live launch stream, “trust‑primer” talks. Pitching ideas. |
| Sprint 1 – Core Primitives & Idea Pitch | 20 Nov – 31 Dec 2025Meetings: 12/4, 12/11, & 12/18 | Weekly Trust‑Lab (Tue 18 UTC).Office hours every Thursday 12 PM ET (5 PM UTC).Project proposal/summary due 12/31 |
| Sprint 2 – UI/UX & Incentives | 1 Jan – Feb 28 2026 | Design‑review webinars, Lightning‑integration workshops, and community‑testing sessions. |
| Sprint 3 – Inter‑Operability & Scaling | 1 March – 15 April 2026 | Cross‑project demo day, security‑audit sprint, documentation sprint. |
| Judging & Awards | 16 April – 30 April 2026 | Final presentations, public voting, jury deliberation. |
| Post‑Hackathon Support | May – June 2026 | Mentorship program with partner firms, seed‑grant pipeline, and maintenance fund. |
Weekly Rhythm
| Day | Activity | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | Topic / demo submission | Submit topics or demos to be discussed on Thursdays. |
| Thursday | Office Hours (1 hr) | Open Q\&A with cryptographers, Nostr contributors, bitcoiners, and WoT researchers. Opportunity to garner feedback on ongoing development. |
| Friday | Async Updates |
Post progress in Nostr with #wotathon. |
All sessions are virtual; recordings will be posted on the WoT‑Hub for later reference.
Evaluation Criteria
| Metric | What Judges Look For |
|---|---|
| Functional Readiness | End‑to‑end demo, secure key handling, polished UI (if applicable) |
| Depth & Innovation | Novel and creative strategies to advance the core mission |
| Interoperability | Full compliance with WoT‑Protocols including NIP‑85 (kinds 30382 & 10040), clean REST/Nostr API, and ability to exchange data with other submissions |
| Decentralizing Ecosystem Impact | Potential to become a reusable building block for nostr clients |
| Documentation & Openness | Clear README, architecture diagrams, tests, and license. etc |
| Business Model Sustainability | Ability to maintain sats flow after the Wotathon |
Prize Pool – 50,000,000 satoshis
| Category | Reward |
|---|---|
| Grand Prize | 25,000,000 satoshis |
| Runner‑Up | 10,000,000 satoshis |
| Third Place | 5,000,000 satoshis |
| NIP‑85 Excellence | 10,000,000 satoshis for the project that implements the best and/or largest number of NIP‑85 use‑cases. |
Who Should Participate?
| Role | Why You Belong |
|---|---|
| Full‑Stack Developers | Build SDKs, relays, libraries, dev-ops integrations, and cross‑platform widgets. |
| UX/UI & Product Designers | Craft intuitive flows for clients, trust attestation, consent management, and reputation dashboards. Help with user and dev education |
| Community & Governance Specialists | Define policies for reputation management, decay, slashing, dispute resolution, and perspective selection. |
| Bitcoin & Lightning Enthusiasts | Integrate transactions as a source of trust. |
| Nostr Core Contributors | Evolve relay standards, improve message formats, ensure low‑latency delivery of trust events. |
| Researchers & Academics | Provide theoretical grounding for trust metrics, graph analytics, and game‑theoretic incentive models. |
| Open‑Source Advocates & Maintainers | Ensure long‑term sustainability, social impact evaluations, licensing compliance, and community health. |
How to Participate
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Register at Formstr: https://formstr.app/i/wotathonsignup
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Follow the Nostr hashtag
#wotathon. -
Submit a Project Pitch – By December 31, 2025 – a 2‑page PDF covering:
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Problem statement
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Proposed solution
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Tech stack, timeline, and team roles
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Build & Iterate – Attend weekly NosFabrica sessions, post progress on the public issue board, and request feedback during office hours.
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Final Submission – By 15 April 2026 – a public repository, a demo video (≤ 5 min), and a one‑page impact statement.
Conclusion
In this hackathon, participants will lay the reusable bricks for a self‑sovereign reputation economy. In Nostr, Trust is owned, portable, and verifiable without gatekeepers. Whether you’re a seasoned cryptographer, a daring UI/UX artisan, or simply someone who’s ever wished “I could trust this source,” this hackathon gives you the tools, community, and incentives to turn that vision into reality.
Let’s engineer trust together.
Questions?
Reach out to jon@nosfabrica.com (host organizer) or visit https://nosfabrica.com/wotathon/ for FAQs, the full WoT‑Protocol documentation, and the latest updates.
Happy hacking! 🚀