Volunteer

There are plenty of things to do. In June 2026 we went out of maintenance mode. Further down on this page you can see a bunch of actual tasks that people are working on. If you have tech skills it should be fairly easy to jump in and help out. If you don’t have tech skills and you want to help there’s still ways to do that, especially around testing.

Decentralized social networking

The history of hospitality exchange is full of networks that failed their communities — sold to investors, abandoned, or dependent on a single person. In 2022, Trustroots nearly joined that list: only one volunteer had server access. We responded in two steps: first, we raised our bus factor to 3 so at least three people can maintain the infrastructure; second, we asked how Trustroots could outlast any particular team of volunteers.

Federated models like Matrix or the Fediverse help, but they were not enough — they still tie your identity and data to specific servers and admins. We wanted deeper decentralisation, with users owning their own identity and data. We experimented with Secure Scuttlebutt, but it proved too impractical for everyday use; when Nostr looked viable, we started moving there instead. Read more in the Nostroots background.

Nostroots

Trustroots is exploring how hospitality networks can rely less on individually run servers and administrative overhead. Nostr offers a promising path toward a more decentralised, gift-economy social web. One of the most helpful actions you can take is to try it out and provide feedback.

Try it out at nos.trustroots.org.

Technical help

Useful areas include testing, simplifying old code, upgrading dependencies, helping with finishing the transition to React, and connecting Trustroots with Nostroots.

Check what’s been going on recently, your help is very welcome:

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