Exploring the Playground: Visualize Your Trust Network

Your Web of Trust is more than just a list of people you follow. It's a living network of connections, trust relationships, and social paths that define who you trust and why. But until now, you could only imagine what it looked like.

Enter the Playground.

See Your Trust Network Come to Life

The Playground transforms your abstract social graph into a visual, interactive experience. Every person in your network becomes a node. Every follow relationship becomes a connection. And trust levels? They're painted right on the canvas.

Trust Levels, Color-Coded

At a glance, you can see who you trust most:

• Blue — That's you, the root of your network
• Green — High trust (70%+), usually people you follow directly
• Yellow — Medium trust (30-70%), friends of friends
• Red — Low trust (under 30%), distant connections on the edge of your network

The color system makes it instantly clear where someone stands in your trust hierarchy. No numbers to parse, no lists to scan—just intuitive visual feedback.

Understanding Hops and Paths

The Playground organizes your network by distance—how many hops it takes to reach someone from you.

• 1 hop: People you follow directly (100% distance weight)
• 2 hops: Friends of friends (50% weight)
• 3 hops: Two degrees removed (25% weight)
• 4+ hops: Extended network (10% weight)

But distance isn't everything. The system also considers paths—how many different routes lead to the same person. If you follow someone, and three of your friends also follow them, that's four paths. More paths mean more trust.

Expand and Explore

The real power of the Playground is interactive expansion. You don't see the entire network at once—that would be overwhelming. Instead:

1. Start with yourself as the root node
2. Click to expand and load your direct follows
3. Click any node to expand their connections
4. Go deeper, up to 3 hops into the network

This on-demand loading means you can explore exactly the parts of your network that interest you, without waiting for thousands of nodes to load upfront.

Choose Your Dimension: 2D or 3D

Everyone thinks differently. Some prefer a flat, fast overview. Others want to dive into an immersive space. The Playground supports both:

2D Mode

The 2D view renders on a canvas with nodes arranged in concentric circles by hop distance. It's fast, responsive, and can handle up to 10,000 nodes. Perfect for:

• Quick overviews of your network structure
• Finding specific people
• Performance on lower-end devices

3D Mode

The 3D view uses WebGL to render your network in three-dimensional space. Orbit around, zoom in, and explore your network like navigating a galaxy. Great for:

• Immersive exploration
• Understanding complex connection patterns
• Discovering clusters and communities

Filter and Focus

Large networks can get noisy. The Playground gives you tools to filter down to what matters:

• Trust Threshold: Only show nodes above a certain trust percentage
• Distance Limit: Cap the maximum hops displayed (1-5)
• Edge Types: Toggle follows, mutes, or show only mutual connections
• Search: Find specific people by name or pubkey

Combine these filters to answer questions like "Who are my highly-trusted connections within 2 hops?" or "Show me only mutual follows."

Why Visualization Matters

Seeing your trust network isn't just cool—it's useful. You can:

• Spot trusted bridges who connect different parts of your network
• Discover clusters of people who all know each other
• Identify outliers who might be worth following directly
• Understand your reach into different communities

The Web of Trust is a powerful concept, but it becomes truly intuitive when you can see it.

Try It Now

Ready to see your network? Head to the Playground and start exploring. Connect your Nostr account, and watch your trust network unfold before your eyes.

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Questions or feedback? Find us on Nostr or check the documentation.