Understanding Web of Trust

A decentralized approach to reputation and spam filtering on Nostr, built on the principle of social distance.

The Problem

Nostr has no central authority to filter spam or verify identity. Traditional blocklists are centralized and don't scale. Web of Trust solves this by measuring social distance—how many hops separate you from someone in the follow graph.

1 hop

2 hops

3+ hops

Why Social Distance Works

1-Hop (Direct Follows)

People you explicitly chose to follow. High trust by definition—these are your curated connections.

2-Hop (Extended Network)

Friends of friends. Still likely to be real humans with shared interests. Good for content discovery.

3+ Hops (Unknown)

No meaningful connection. Could be anyone—legitimate users or spam bots. Filter or review carefully.

System Architecture

Your App / WebsiteNostr client, marketplace, social app

WoT Extensionwindow.nostr.wot API

Local IndexIndexedDB (privacy)

WoT OracleRemote API (speed)

Nostr RelaysFollow lists (Kind 3 events)

Use Cases

Web of Trust enables a wide range of applications that benefit from decentralized reputation.

Spam Filtering

Filter content by social distance without centralized blocklists. Only show content from people within 2-3 hops.

Trust Scores

Build reputation systems for marketplaces, reviews, and recommendations based on social proximity.

Smart Notifications

Prioritize notifications from close connections. Alert immediately for 1-hop, batch for 2-hop, mute beyond.

Content Discovery

Surface content from your extended network. Find interesting posts from friends-of-friends.

Code Examples

javascript

// Check if someone is in your web of trust
if (window.nostr?.wot) {
  const distance = await window.nostr.wot.getDistance(pubkey);

  if (distance !== null && distance <= 2) {
    console.log("Trusted! " + distance + " hops away");
  }
}

terminal

# Query social distance between two users

$curl "https://wot-oracle.mappingbitcoin.com/distance?from=PUBKEY1&to=PUBKEY2"

# Response

${ "distance": 2, "paths": 5, "mutual": false }

# Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/nostr-wot/nostr-wot-extension.git

# Go to chrome://extensions in your browser

# Enable "Developer mode" (toggle in top right)

# Click "Load unpacked"

# Select the nostr-wot-extension folder

Or install manually:

No build required - the extension loads directly from source.

Interactive Demo

Try the Playground

Explore your Web of Trust graph interactively. See your social connections, trust distances, and how the extension works in real-time.

Install from Chrome Web Store

The extension is now available on the Chrome Web Store for easy installation:

Install from Chrome Web Store

Open Playground

Ready to Get Started?

Explore our documentation or dive straight into the code.

Read the Docs Get the Extension