Keypair identity
Sign in with Nostr or Bitcoin. You bring the key.
Open protocol · no token, no KYC, no owner
Proof of Work,
Proof of Work,
proven by work.
A free market for sovereign work. Identity is a keypair. Payment is Bitcoin. Reputation is yours.
148jobs settled
31attestations
0.00btc held by us
No KYC
No name, no nation, no permission.
Bitcoin & Lightning
Paid in sats. We custody nothing.
Public by default
Profiles and reviews are signed and open.
Manifesto
Rules without rulers.
Today a platform owns your account, your money, and your reputation, and can erase all three with one click. FORGE owns none of it. We are not a decentralized Upwork. We are the open settlement layer underneath one.
01 / PORTABLE
Reputation is yours
Signed by both parties, anchored to your key. Leave anytime, it comes with you.
02 / NEUTRAL
No owner of accounts
An account is a keypair you generate. We can't freeze what we never held.
03 / OPEN
Every line is public
Spec, client, escrow, relays, all AGPL-3.0. Verify, don't trust.
The protocol
Four primitives. No middleman.
🔑
1 · Identity is a keypair
Your npub replaces your email. Nick and avatar sit on top; the key is the root of trust.
⚡
2 · Payment is Bitcoin
Lightning for small jobs, on-chain for the rest. No fiat, no chargebacks, no custody.
🛡️
3 · Escrow is 2-of-3
Client, freelancer, arbiter each hold a key. No one moves the money alone.
🕸️
4 · Reputation is a web
Both sides sign the review. You weigh the people you already trust.
Escrow
2-of-3. The arbiter never moves money alone.
Key 1
Client
Funds it. Signs to release.
2 of 3 required
Escrow
Native Bitcoin multisig. No honeypot.
Key 2
Freelancer
Delivers. Signs to claim.
Happy path: Client + Freelancer · Dispute: Arbiter + one party · Arbiter chosen per-contract, never by us.
The thin line
Freedom, not a darknet bazaar.
A no-KYC market for labor must not become a market for harm. Our answer is structural, not authoritarian.
Stays free
- Neutral, uncensorable protocol.
- No identity check, no permission.
- Run your own relay or fork it.
- Self-custody, always.
Keeps it honest
- Radical transparency: harm hides in opacity, we have none.
- Moderation at the edge, not the protocol.
- Trust is the gate: no one signs or escrows for illegal work.
- Seeded with open-source bounties first.
Web of trust
Anyone can be an arbiter. The market remembers.
OPEN ROLE
Become an arbiter
Publish your terms and fee. Parties pick you, not a company.
PUBLIC RECORD
Every ruling is signed
Your full history is open, forever.
SKIN IN THE GAME
Reputation at risk
Strange calls and people stop choosing you.
Open source
Show the code, or it didn't happen.
AGPL-3.0 on purpose: run a modified version as a service, publish your changes. Fork it, audit it, run your own relay.
// sign a challenge to log in
const id = await forge.login({ scheme: "nostr" });
// lock funds in 2-of-3 multisig
const escrow = multisig(2, [
client, worker, arbiter
]);
// we never hold a sat.
Roadmap
Protocol first. Business model later.
Phase 0now
Manifesto & whitepaper
Publish the philosophy. Gather the first builders.
Phase 1
Identity & reputation
Keypair login, signed mutual reviews, read-only client.
Phase 2
Lightning & bounties
Small jobs over Lightning. Open-source bounty board.
Phase 3
Escrow & arbiters
On-chain 2-of-3, open arbiter registry, public disputes.
Phase 4
Federation
Many relays, no single point of control.
Support the commons
No ICO. No VC. Just sats.
No token, ever. If you want this to exist, drop a few sats. Donations are listed transparently.
bc1qf0rge…replace-with-real-address…0w8k7
⚡ forge@stellar-coordination.org