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A brief review of OpenSats:

This is from the public record.

2020–2022 → OpenSats says it was founded in 2020 → 2021: Ben Price listed directly as director → 2022: Ben Price listed as officer/director; Lisa Neigut as director

2023 → May: $10M #startsmall gift → $5M earmarked for Nostr → NVK + Gigi join the board → fiatjaf + NVK named in Nostr evaluation → July: first major Nostr grant wave → September: board minutes discuss “setting up LLCs for board members”

2024 → March 26: board unanimously approves LLCs as board members → May 4: another $21M #startsmall gift → another $5M earmarked for Nostr → Nostr LTS rolls out

FY2024 Form 990: → 9 voting board seats → 9 reported independent → $0 board compensation

Director entities listed:

Freedom Tech LLC BigRebase LLC Necessary Trouble LLC Full Disclosure LLC IB Cypherust LLC Orange Coin Good LLC X0F Corp Innocuous Widgets LLC Stay Humble LLC

PUBLIC ROLE OVERLAPS

Ben Price → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company

Lisa Neigut → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company + Base58 + Ego Death Capital

Gigi → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company + Sovereign Engineering

Matt Odell → OpenSats + Ten31 + Bitcoin Park

NVK → OpenSats + Nostr evaluation + Coinkite

Dread → OpenSats + Education Initiative + Flash

James O’Beirne → OpenSats board + funding-candidate assessments + Bitcoin Core/NYDIG

2025 → Nostr LTS: 13 people → 12 returning → 1 new → 92.3% returning

Q1/Q2 minutes: → discuss “making Ben obsolete” through automation/distributed responsibility

September 25: → one unidentified board member auto-recuses from ALL Nostr applications → approval threshold drops to 4/8

WHO? Unknown. WHY? Unknown.

2026 → Q1: OpenSats reports 3,000+ application evaluations → James O’Beirne’s grant application discussed while he remains on board → June 24: James drops grant plan + resigns → same meeting: board votes to restructure “with natural persons” → August: NVK’s board tenure ends → September: OpenSats describes technical committees + majority board approval

UNRESOLVED

⬜ exact human behind each of the 9 director LLCs ⬜ identity/reason for blanket Nostr recusal ⬜ exact relationship behind FY2024 Form 990 “YES” family/business relationship disclosure

Just the timeline, the relationships, and the gaps.

People can decide what they think.

#FollowTheSats #FollowTheFiat #FollowTheHumans #FollowTheEntities #Nostr #OpenSats

The entire forest 🌳 for now. Please 🙏 tell me where I’m wrong 😑

🌳 FOLLOW THE SATS

Everything I have mapped so far.

LEGEND

🟩 verified money / relationship 🟦 project / output 🟪 repeat funding / renewal / LTS 🟧 concentration / structure ⬜ unknown / incomplete 🔴 governance question, NOT proof of wrongdoing

ROOT │ ├── JACK DORSEY / #startsmall │ │ ├── 🟩 OpenSats │ │ │ │ │ ├── $31M total #startsmall support tracked │ │ │ │ │ ├── $10M explicitly earmarked for Nostr │ │ │ ├── $5M → 2023 Nostr Fund │ │ │ └── $5M → 2024 Nostr Fund │ │ │ │ │ ├── ~$8.9M Nostr allocated by end-2024 │ │ ├── $3,205,776 Nostr payouts in 2025 │ │ ├── $1,430,816 payouts H1 2026 │ │ └── $801,317 payable June 2026 │ │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 SOAPBOX FAMILY │ │ │ └── Alex Gleason │ │ │ ├── 867,230,507 visible sats │ │ │ ├── 8.67230507 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── AOS │ │ │ ├── fiatjaf support │ │ │ ├── HRF relationship partially reconciled │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── Soapbox │ │ │ ├── Ditto │ │ │ ├── Mostr │ │ │ ├── Nostrify │ │ │ └── Shakespeare │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 NDK │ │ │ └── PabloF7z │ │ │ ├── 734,463,998 sats │ │ │ ├── 7.34463998 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── NDK │ │ │ ├── nsecBunker │ │ │ ├── Highlighter │ │ │ └── reusable TypeScript infrastructure │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 DAMUS FAMILY │ │ │ └── William Casarin / jb55 │ │ │ ├── 696,343,560 sats │ │ │ ├── 6.96343560 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── HRF → $50,000 │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ ├── 🟪 later renewals │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── Damus │ │ │ ├── Notedeck │ │ │ ├── NostrDB │ │ │ ├── NWC │ │ │ └── messaging work │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 CORACLE FAMILY │ │ │ └── Hodlbod │ │ │ ├── 573,101,947 sats │ │ │ ├── 5.73101947 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats → $187,500 entity support │ │ │ ├── HRF → $50,000 │ │ │ ├── AOS-related support │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── Coracle │ │ │ ├── Flotilla │ │ │ ├── Welshman │ │ │ └── relay/client infrastructure │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 ngit / git collaboration │ │ │ ├── 536,124,313 sats │ │ │ ├── 5.36124313 BTC │ │ │ └── ⬜ exact human attribution still incomplete │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 0xchat │ │ │ ├── 361,740,436 sats │ │ │ ├── 3.61740436 BTC │ │ │ ├── multiple funding events │ │ │ ├── 🟪 renewal │ │ │ └── Nostr got secure messaging │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 AMETHYST / QUARTZ │ │ │ └── Vitor Pamplona │ │ │ ├── 292,461,090 sats │ │ │ ├── 2.92461090 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── fiatjaf fund → 5,000,000 sats │ │ │ ├── HRF bounty │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── Amethyst │ │ │ └── Quartz reusable Kotlin library │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 APPLESAUCE FAMILY │ │ │ └── hzrd149 │ │ │ ├── 230,164,585 sats │ │ │ ├── 2.30164585 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── earlier fiatjaf support │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── Nostr got: │ │ │ ├── Applesauce │ │ │ ├── Blossom │ │ │ ├── noStrudel │ │ │ └── nsite │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 MOSTRO │ │ │ ├── 201,966,510 sats │ │ │ ├── 2.01966510 BTC │ │ │ ├── OpenSats │ │ │ ├── HRF │ │ │ ├── Btrust contributor support │ │ │ └── Nostr got P2P Bitcoin marketplace/protocol tooling │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 FROSTR │ │ │ ├── 122,738,299 sats │ │ │ ├── 1.22738299 BTC │ │ │ └── Nostr got key/signing infrastructure │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 ZAPSTORE │ │ │ ├── 90,912,247 sats │ │ │ ├── 0.90912247 BTC │ │ │ ├── 🟪 later renewal │ │ │ └── Nostr got app distribution + signed releases │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 AMBER │ │ │ └── Greenart7c3 │ │ │ ├── 75,283,890 sats │ │ │ ├── 0.75283890 BTC │ │ │ ├── 🟪 LTS │ │ │ └── signing / key isolation │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 CONTEXTVM │ │ │ ├── 63,547,798 sats │ │ │ ├── 0.63547798 BTC │ │ │ └── AI / MCP / SDK / relay infrastructure │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟦 JUMBLE │ │ │ ├── 60,982,479 sats │ │ │ ├── 0.60982479 BTC │ │ │ ├── 🟪 later renewal │ │ │ └── browser client / relay discovery │ │ │ │ │ └── 🟦 CITRINE │ │ └── Greenart7c3 │ │ ├── 3,873,203 sats │ │ ├── 0.03873203 BTC │ │ └── local relay / signing infrastructure │ │ │ │ │ ├── 🟪 NOSTR LONG-TERM SUPPORT │ │ │ │ ├── PabloF7z │ │ ├── Stuart Bowman │ │ ├── hzrd149 │ │ ├── William Casarin │ │ ├── Yuki Kishimoto │ │ ├── Hodlbod │ │ ├── fiatjaf │ │ ├── Kieran Harkin │ │ ├── Vitor Pamplona │ │ ├── Daniele │ │ ├── Alex Gleason │ │ ├── Mike Dilger │ │ ├── Greenart7c3 │ │ └── SnowCait │ │ │ │ └── 2025: │ │ ~35% of Nostr Fund allocation → LTS │ │ │ │ │ └── 🟦 OTHER OFFICIAL OPENSATS NOSTR GRANTS │ │ ├── Habla │ ├── Iris │ ├── rust-nostr / nostr-sdk │ ├── Nostr Relay NestJS │ ├── Satellite │ ├── Pinstr │ ├── nostr.build │ ├── Gossip │ ├── Nostr SDK iOS │ ├── Nostr Design │ ├── Amber │ ├── Nozzle │ ├── Blowater │ ├── Nostur │ ├── Nostrocket │ ├── Snort │ ├── zap.stream │ ├── algia │ ├── nostr.watch │ ├── Relay Tools │ ├── ONOSENDAI │ ├── Lume │ ├── Flockstr │ ├── Camelus │ ├── noStrudel │ ├── ZapThreads │ ├── NIP-44 audit │ ├── NIP-90 DVM framework │ ├── nosvelte │ ├── npub.cash │ ├── nostter │ ├── nostr-filter-relay │ ├── Mostro │ ├── Citrine │ ├── DVMDash │ ├── nostr-php │ ├── Shopstr │ ├── Nostromo │ ├── Captain’s Log │ ├── Osty │ ├── Seer │ ├── Alphaama │ ├── Corny Chat │ ├── Nostroots │ ├── Yana │ ├── Dart NDK │ ├── Jester │ ├── Nostr Spring Boot Starter │ ├── Nostr Arduino │ ├── White Noise │ ├── futr │ ├── Notedeck │ ├── Keystache │ ├── Formstr │ ├── Groups │ ├── Coop │ ├── Nostrability │ ├── NIP-44 Libraries Audit │ ├── AlgoRelay │ ├── Pokey │ ├── Nostr Safebox │ ├── Persian NIPs │ ├── LumiLumi │ ├── Chachi │ ├── Zapstore │ ├── HyperNote │ ├── Nostr Epoxy │ ├── Swae │ ├── HAMSTR │ ├── Vertex │ ├── Nostr Double Ratchet │ ├── Nostr Game Engine │ ├── Frostr │ ├── Aegis │ ├── Gitplaza │ ├── Jumble │ ├── Atomic Signature Swaps │ ├── ZapTracker │ ├── Keydex │ ├── Bigbrotr │ ├── Grasp │ ├── Quartz │ ├── ContextVM │ ├── Nostube │ ├── TollGate │ ├── Amethyst Desktop │ ├── Nostr Mail │ ├── Nostrord │ ├── Nurunuru │ ├── 44Billion │ ├── NosCall │ ├── Routstr │ └── Wisp │ │ ├── 🟩 JACK DORSEY → FIATJAF FUND │ │ │ └── 14.17171699 BTC │ │ ├── Vitor Pamplona / Amethyst │ │ └── 5,000,000 sats │ │ │ ├── Martti Malmi / Iris │ │ └── 5,000,000 sats │ │ │ └── William Casarin │ └── 7 BTC redistribution role │ │ ⚠️ administered / redistributed capital │ ≠ personal compensation │ │ ├── 🟩 AOS / AND OTHER STUFF │ │ │ ├── ~ $10M upstream #startsmall contribution │ │ │ ├── White Noise │ │ └── Internet Privacy Foundation │ │ ├── $100,000 visible payment │ │ └── encrypted group messaging / MLS / Marmot │ │ │ ├── Verse Communications │ │ └── ~$400,000 visible 2026 slice │ │ │ ├── security audit work │ │ └── ~$91,333 visible │ │ │ ├── Soapbox family │ ├── Coracle-related work │ └── other Nostr / open-social development │ │ ├── 🟩 teamopen.tech │ │ │ ├── $5M upstream pool │ ├── substantial Nostr/open-social overlap │ └── ⚠️ entire pool is NOT Nostr-specific │ │ ├── 🟩 HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION │ │ │ ├── William Casarin / Damus │ │ └── $50,000 │ │ │ ├── Hodlbod / Coracle │ │ └── $50,000 │ │ │ ├── Vitor Pamplona / Amethyst │ ├── White Noise / Jeff Gardner │ ├── Soapbox / Alex Gleason │ ├── Iris / Martti Malmi │ ├── Snort / zap.stream / Kieran Harkin │ ├── Mostro │ └── 0xchat │ │ ├── 🟩 BTRUST │ └── Mostro contributor support │ └── ⬜ amount not public in current evidence │ │ ├── 🟩 OPEN SOURCE JUSTICE FOUNDATION │ └── Fundsolvr / Keystache │ └── ⬜ amount not public in current evidence │ │ ├── 🟩 PRIVATE / EQUITY CAPITAL │ │ │ ├── TEN31 / Hivemind / others │ │ └── Primal │ │ └── $1M seed │ │ │ └── Angor participants │ └── Nostria │ └── $30,000 pre-seed │ │ └── ⬜ COMMUNITY / USERS ├── zaps ├── direct donations ├── crowdfunding └── ecosystem-wide total unknown

🌱 WHAT NOSTR GOT

├── clients ├── mobile apps ├── desktop apps ├── relays ├── SDKs ├── libraries ├── signing infrastructure ├── key-management tools ├── local relays ├── messaging ├── encrypted group messaging ├── audio/video calls ├── long-form publishing ├── commerce ├── marketplaces ├── P2P Bitcoin trading ├── Lightning integrations ├── Cashu integrations ├── app stores ├── signed software distribution ├── video infrastructure ├── media hosting ├── AI / MCP infrastructure ├── email compatibility ├── group/community software ├── IoT work ├── relay monitoring ├── security audits ├── NIP audits ├── protocol implementations ├── DVM infrastructure ├── design / UX ├── localization ├── education ├── maintenance └── long-term developer support

🌿 SHARED TECHNICAL ROOTS

PabloF7z └── NDK └── downstream web clients / tools

Vitor Pamplona └── Quartz └── Amethyst + downstream Kotlin tooling

Hodlbod └── Welshman └── Coracle / successor apps

William Casarin / team └── NostrDB └── Damus / Notedeck family

hzrd149 └── Applesauce └── noStrudel / Blossom / other tooling

Yuki Kishimoto / rust-nostr team └── rust-nostr / nostr-sdk └── reusable Rust/Nostr infrastructure

🟪 REPEAT-FUNDING LAYER

Documented repeat / multi-funder families include:

├── Damus / William ├── Coracle / Hodlbod ├── Soapbox / Alex ├── Amethyst / Vitor ├── Iris / Martti ├── White Noise / Jeff ├── Snort / zap.stream / Kieran ├── Mostro ├── 0xchat └── others through renewals / LTS

Later official waves include renewals for projects including:

├── futr ├── Notedeck ├── npub.cash ├── Camelus ├── Damus ├── Nostromo ├── Nostroots ├── Jumble ├── Nostr Safebox ├── Coop ├── 0xchat ├── Dart NDK ├── nostr-relay ├── HAMSTR └── Zapstore

🟧 PUBLIC-COUNTER SAMPLE

15 projects

4,910,934,862 sats

= 49.10934862 BTC

Top 5: 34.07 BTC = 69.4%

Top 10: 46.16 BTC = 94%

Bottom 5: 2.95 BTC = 6%

🟧 UPSTREAM CONCENTRATION WE ALSO TRACKED

OpenSats 2024:

largest donor share: ~89%

top 3 donors: ~97.5%

minimum HHI: 7,954

OpenSats 2025:

largest donor share: ~63.3%

top 3: ~83.9%

minimum HHI: 4,232

🔴 GOVERNANCE / STRUCTURE QUESTIONS

Not accusations.

Questions.

Who funds whom repeatedly?

Who becomes LTS?

Who reviews grants?

Who approves grants?

Who is both recipient + infrastructure maintainer?

Who authors standards?

Who controls default relays?

Which apps rely on the same SDKs?

Which projects survive?

Which projects merge or die?

How replaceable are shared technical roots?

How many different project names map back to the same humans?

⬜ THINGS WE STILL DO NOT KNOW PERFECTLY

├── every unique human recipient ├── every recipient-level payment date ├── every private donor ├── every zap / community payment ├── exact personal compensation ├── exact amounts for many LTS awards ├── full ecosystem human-level HHI ├── complete technical dependency HHI ├── full hosting concentration └── every grant transaction ID

RULES OF THE AUDIT

Funding ≠ control.

Project funding ≠ personal income.

Project count ≠ unique human count.

Concentration ≠ corruption.

Unknown ≠ zero.

Announcement ≠ allocation.

Allocation ≠ payable.

Payable ≠ paid.

Project counter ≠ payment ledger.

Role overlap ≠ wrongdoing.

THE QUESTION

Not:

“Is Nostr decentralized?”

Too easy.

The questions are:

Who funded it?

Who got funded?

Who got funded repeatedly?

What did they build?

Who depends on what they built?

Where did the money concentrate?

Where did the infrastructure concentrate?

And is that changing over time?

Follow the sats. Follow the humans. Follow the code. Follow the dependencies.

🌳

#FollowTheSats #Nostr #Bitcoin #BTC #btc

And then

Can the internet give individuals a voice, an identity and money that no company or government can take away? 🐦⚡

JACK DORSEY — NETWORKS, MONEY AND PROTOCOLS

Jack Dorsey is a programmer and entrepreneur whose work repeatedly returns to one idea:

How can people exchange information and value directly?

His earliest fascination was not social media.

It was dispatch systems—the real-time networks cities use to coordinate taxis, couriers and emergency vehicles.

Every participant had a location.

Every message changed the network.

That idea eventually helped shape Twitter:

A worldwide public conversation built from short, immediate messages.

Twitter gave millions of people a voice—but it also exposed the limitations of centralized platforms.

One company still controlled:

🔐 Accounts

📣 Distribution

🧮 Algorithms

🚫 Moderation

🏢 The entire underlying network

Dorsey also co-founded Square, now Block, which made digital payments accessible to small businesses and helped bring Bitcoin into mainstream financial tools.

He increasingly shifted his attention toward open protocols:

₿ Bitcoin for permissionless money

⚡ Lightning for rapid peer-to-peer payments

🪶 Nostr for portable identity and communication

🧑‍💻 Open-source development that no single company owns

Through #startsmall, he donated $10 million to OpenSats in 2023, including $5 million dedicated to Nostr.

In 2024, #startsmall contributed another $21 million—including another $5 million for the Nostr Fund.

THE GIFT:

🌐 Jack helped millions of ordinary people publish and exchange value through simple digital tools.

He later used his money and influence to fund protocols that do not require him—or any other CEO—to remain in control.

THE SHADOW:

🏢 He also helped demonstrate how quickly a tool for public conversation can become centralized infrastructure with enormous power over speech, attention and identity.

Supporting decentralization does not erase that history.

It may represent an attempt to learn from it.

In the portrait:

🗺️ The dispatch map represents his original fascination with cities communicating in real time.

🐦 One blue bird dissolves into many free birds—one platform giving way to an open network.

🔗 The relay constellation represents Nostr.

🔑 The keys represent identity and custody belonging to the individual.

⚡ The golden paths represent value traveling directly between people.

◼️ The black block represents the company he still leads—and the unresolved tension between corporations and protocols.

Jack Dorsey’s story is not simply about building companies.

It is about discovering that the most powerful network may be the one its creator cannot own.

REFERENCES:

Block — Leadership

https://investors.block.xyz/governance/leadership/default.aspx

OpenSats — The Nostr Fund

https://opensats.org/funds/nostr

OpenSats — $10 Million from #startsmall

https://opensats.org/blog/opensats-receives-additional-funding-of-dollar10m-from-startsmall

OpenSats — Additional $21 Million from #startsmall

https://opensats.org/blog/opensats-receives-additional-funding-of-dollar21m-from-startsmall

#JackDorsey #Nostr #Bitcoin #LightningNetwork #OpenProtocols #OpenSource #FreedomTech #DigitalIdentity #Twitter #Block #OpenSats #TechHistory