Nostr Web of Trust

Open infrastructure for trust-based filtering on Nostr.

The Problem

Nostr has no central authority to filter spam or verify identity. Web of Trust solves this by measuring social distance—how many hops separate you from someone in the follow graph.

Projects

Browser Extension

The WoT Extension adds Web of Trust capabilities directly to your browser, exposing the window.nostr.wot API for any Nostr client to use.

• Repository: github.com/nostr-wot/nostr-wot-extension
• Features: Real-time trust scoring, visual indicators, client-side filtering
• Browsers: Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, Firefox

JavaScript SDK

The nostr-wot-sdk provides a lightweight JavaScript/TypeScript library for integrating Web of Trust directly into your applications without requiring the browser extension.

• Repository: github.com/nostr-wot/nostr-wot-sdk
• NPM: npmjs.com/package/nostr-wot-sdk
• Features: TypeScript support, React hooks, configurable trust scoring

WoT Oracle

A high-performance Rust backend that maintains a real-time graph of the Nostr follow network and provides instant distance/trust queries via REST API.

• Repository: github.com/nostr-wot/nostr-wot-oracle
• Public Instance: https://wot-oracle.mappingbitcoin.com
• Features: Bidirectional BFS, LRU caching, <1ms cached queries, self-hostable

How It Works

1. Your pubkey is the center
2. People you follow = 1 hop
3. People they follow = 2 hops
4. Beyond 3 hops = likely noise

Use Cases

• Spam filtering without centralized blocklists
• Trust scores for marketplace/reviews
• Tiered notifications by social proximity
• Client-side content filtering

API

// Extension (client-side)
await window.nostr.wot.getDistance(pubkey)
await window.nostr.wot.getTrustScore(pubkey)

// SDK (client-side)
import { NostrWoT } from 'nostr-wot-sdk'
const wot = new NostrWoT({ userPubkey: '...' })
await wot.getTrustScore(pubkey)

// Oracle (server-side)
GET /distance?from={pubkey}&to={pubkey}
POST /distance/batch
GET /stats

Implementing

Projects currently using Nostr Web of Trust:

Project	Description
Mapping Bitcoin	Bitcoin merchant directory with WoT-based trust filtering

Supporters

Organizations supporting the development of Nostr Web of Trust:

Organization	Website
Dandelion Labs	dandelionlabs.io
We Are Bitcoin	wearebitcoin.org
Nostr WoT	nostr-wot.com

Run Your Own

All components are fully open source. Run your own oracle, fork the extension, build trust infrastructure for your community.

License

MIT