We are pleased to announce the latest wave of grants from The Nostr Fund, dedicated to advancing the nostr ecosystem by supporting builders working to make nostr more accessible, secure, and resilient.

In this wave, we highlight four projects that span creator tools, data security and recovery, archival systems, and distributed collaboration. Five additional projects outlined below have received renewal grants to continue their work. Supporting these projects reflects our belief that resilient open-source software is a public good. Once built, it can be reused, adapted, and scaled by the community.

First-time project grants:

• ZapTracker
• Keydex
• Bigbrotr
• Grasp

Grant renewals:

• Jumble.Social (Jun. 2025)
• Nostr Safebox (Dec. 2024)
• Coop (Nov. 2024)
• 0xchat (Oct. 2023)
• Damus (Jul. 2023)

The generosity of our donors is what makes these grants possible. If you care about a free and open internet, please consider donating to The Nostr Fund:

Let’s take a closer look at the projects receiving their first-time grants.

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ZapTracker

ZapTracker is an open-source dashboard for Lightning and nostr creators that brings together zap analytics, wallet management via Nostr Wallet Connect, audience interaction, and content publishing in a single, privacy-first frontend application. It tracks earnings and supporters in real time, including chat and long-form posts, and stores data locally to avoid reliance on servers or third-party data collection.

With support from this grant, ZapTracker plans to ship ZapGoals with NIP-75 support, a calendar and RSVP for events with NIP-52, scheduled notes and long-form publishing, monetized private content, audience-building follow lists, improving messaging security, and a UX redesign based on user feedback.

Repository: pratik227/zap_dashboard License: MIT

Keydex

Keydex is an open-source backup and recovery tool for sensitive data, including passwords, digital wills, and cryptographic keys. Instead of storing full copies in one place, Keydex uses Shamir’s Secret Sharing to split a secret into pieces and distribute them to friends and family. Recovery happens only when enough participants consent to reassemble the secret. The app is built with Flutter for cross-platform delivery and is currently in the alpha stage of development.

Support from this grant will advance Keydex from an alpha prototype toward a dependable release by improving the secret-sharing and recovery flows, the consent and coordination UX, and expanding cross-platform packaging and distribution. Funds will also support testing, documentation, and security review work required for a tool that handles high-stakes data.

Repository: mplorentz/keydex License: MIT

Bigbrotr

Bigbrotr is a modular, open-source infrastructure for archiving and monitoring the nostr network. It enables structured analysis of public events and relay activity across Clearnet and Tor, offering a transparent view of network behavior and health. Built as containerized services with PostgreSQL for data management, it includes a synchronizer for event indexing, a monitor for relay responsiveness and metadata including NIP-11 and NIP-66, and a finder for discovering new relays. Designed for research and interoperability, Bigbrotr’s Docker-based setup makes it simple to deploy and extend, serving as a versatile backend for clients, researchers, and relay operators with APIs, dashboards, and a Data Vending Machine integration for specialized data queries.

With support from this grant, the project will deploy Bigbrotr on self-hosted hardware, optimize synchronization and monitoring, and release Lilbrotr, a lightweight version for indexing on low-resource devices. The roadmap includes finalizing Lilbrotr and documentation, publishing public APIs, and refining security and performance ahead of dashboard releases and community feedback cycles. These improvements will strengthen Bigbrotr’s role as a foundation for advanced analytics, smarter relay selection, and reusable backend tools across the nostr ecosystem.

Repository: Bigbrotr/bigbrotr License: MIT

Grasp

Grasp is a distributed, nostr-native alternative to centralized git hosting platforms. Developed by returning grantee Dan Conway, the Grasp project extends his previous work on ngit by applying nostr’s event-based authorization and relay architecture to version control. Built around NIP-34, it allows repository actions such as pushes and state updates to be authorized and verified directly through signed nostr events, removing the need for centralized intermediaries.

With support from this grant, Grasp will deliver libraries and tooling for nostr clients to interact with git data and pull requests, a high-performance git plugin, and synchronization tools that maintain reliability across distributed relays. The project will also define a clear specification and collaborate with other developers to build an open ecosystem of nostr-based git infrastructure, positioning Grasp as a decentralized, verifiable alternative to existing code-hosting platforms.

Repository: danconwaydev.com/grasp License: MIT

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Our gratitude goes to all of our donors—big and small—who make these grants possible, and to the developers pushing the nostr open‑source ecosystem forward. Join us in strengthening nostr’s long‑term future by becoming a recurring supporter today:

The projects in this wave illustrate how foundational work can turn protocols into thriving ecosystems. By funding tools for creators, communities, infrastructure, and distributed collaboration, OpenSats helps strengthen the long‑term viability of the nostr ecosystem.

​If you are a developer working on free and open-source nostr projects, please consider to apply for funding.