Every time you open Waze, Google gets a live GPS feed of your location. Speed traps, traffic jams, road hazards — convenience, but also surveillance. I've built an alternative. And it goes beyond just traffic events. Roadstr: real-time road events on Nostr. Spot a speed camera? Publish a kind-1315 event tagged with a geohash. Other drivers see it instantly. Confirm it's still there with a kind-1316 event. Just signed events on relays. **Privacy by Design** 🔒 Ephemeral keys — new keypair per report, no identity linking 🔒 NIP-40 expiration — reports auto-expire (4h for police check speed traps, 30d for potholes) 🔒 Geohash precision — 1km² area, not your exact GPS for queries 🔒 No background tracking — you broadcast only when you choose to report Roadstr is working today: 🌐 Web client: cypherpunk.today/static/roadstr 📱 Android app available ( or zapstore) - integrates with OSMand 📋 Protocol spec: kinds 1315 + 1316 🔧 Developer guide for integration We're looking for the first independent client implementations. If you build a Nostr client, Roadstr adds road intelligence in ~200 lines of code. **Beyond Nostr, beyond road reporting** The NIP allows transformation into short data packet and back for reporting over MeshCore - local info, over the air and back (so if you hear it through MeshCore, you can broadcast the Nostr event!) Also - and this is key - there are many more map events that are useful. A dangerous person with a gun. Unsafe zone (natural disaster). When there's something happening around you, you might want to know about it and tell others. Very early demo. Available now. Web version: image Android (with OSMand integration): image

Replies (75)

Great idea. I. Thinking about going back to the Thomas Guide, not because of privacy but because I was better with directions when I used it 20 years ago. A print this page(like MapQuest) would be pretty cool. 🤔
So far it downloads and installs correctly. But without it being integrated into active mapping, it is not exactly what I'd consider useful yet. I'll try to remember to poke at it while I'm driving
How do I sign in? There's nothing in the settings on the android app. What npub is the default?
I very highly recommend adding signer support. I don't rawdog my nsec into anything. I do have a testing keypair that I'll likely use for this, but... I'd prefer to be able to use amber to sign events.
What is the numerical value for this slider? image Also, for those of us who prefer Freedom units, an option for miles per hour and burgers per second would be highly useful. I think that using a large space in the middle of prime real estate on that app for the keys button (and even the settings) is not the most useful use of screen real estate. The type buttons for the reports in the popup are small on high density screens. Maybe utilise the entire width of the screen? The icons are for, but need to be larger, too.
YESSSSS! Integrate this with a Nostr-powered map, and I can get away from all the spying location software.
Good job ! Can we sign Amber, or will we be able to do so soon? Thx
Ho lee phuck! This is the last piece of the puzzle to get out the Google ecosystem. I'm in!
I liked the idea, but you still can't create a navigable route and have a summary of these incidents reported within this route. Is this in the plans of this project?
Posting your own gps data to nostr feels like a bad idea. Relay deletion can't be trusted as it's non enforceable. And as long as public anyone can read/analyze them. You'll basically publicize your unique gps movement fingerprint. These can be used by google to link nostr npubs to google accounts. Against historical data.
Très intéressant (si pas de modifications imposées par la suite…) : « Chaque fois que vous ouvrez Waze, Google reçoit en direct les données GPS de votre position. Radars, embouteillages, dangers routiers… C’est pratique, mais c’est aussi de la surveillance. J’ai développé une alternative. Et elle va bien au-delà des simples événements routiers. Roadstr : événements routiers en temps réel sur Nostr. Vous repérez un radar ? Publiez un événement de type « kind-1315 » géolocalisé via un géohash. Les autres conducteurs le voient instantanément. Confirmez qu’il est toujours là avec un événement de type « kind-1316 ». Seuls les événements signés sont relayés. **Confidentialité dès la conception** 🔒 Clés éphémères — une nouvelle paire de clés par signalement, aucun lien entre les identités 🔒 Expiration NIP-40 — les signalements expirent automatiquement (4 h pour les contrôles de vitesse de la police, 30 j pour les nids-de-poule) 🔒 Précision du géohash — zone de 1 km², et non vos coordonnées GPS exactes pour les requêtes 🔒 Pas de suivi en arrière-plan — vous ne diffusez des données que lorsque vous choisissez de signaler un incident Roadstr fonctionne aujourd’hui : 🌐 Client Web : cypherpunk.today/static/roadstr 📱 Application Android disponible (ou sur le Zap Store) – s’intègre à OSMand 📋 Spécifications du protocole : types 1315 + 1316 🔧 Guide du développeur pour l’intégration Nous recherchons les premières implémentations de clients indépendants. Si vous développez un client Nostr, Roadstr ajoute des informations routières en environ 200 lignes de code. » **Au-delà de Nostr, au-delà des signalements routiers** Le NIP permet la conversion en paquets de données courts et inversement pour la transmission via MeshCore : des informations locales, envoyées et reçues sans fil (ainsi, si vous recevez un événement via MeshCore, vous pouvez le diffuser !) De plus – et c’est essentiel –, il existe de nombreux autres événements cartographiques utiles. Une personne dangereuse armée d’un pistolet. Une zone à risque (catastrophe naturelle). Lorsqu’un événement se produit autour de vous, vous pourriez vouloir en être informé et en avertir les autres. Démonstration très préliminaire. Disponible dès maintenant. » À tester prochainement :-) Via @npub1m2mv...r8p9 #NostrFr @npub1t4qg...09e7 - N’hésitez pas, si vous avez testé de vôtre côté, de nous faire un mini retour d’expérience et donc aussi, de vôtre opinion la communauté francophone. Merci à vous. View quoted note →
This is fun. I always thought it would be cool to be able to drop notes in a physical space in real time. As people pass they could get notified.
You could spoof loads of traffic on your route to clear the roads. Prob need some geo web of trust
CoMaps does this already. To get updates for speed cameras would be brilliant but you'd need data turned on.
Yeah but comaps is a little off with it's map data. I keep having to use osm site because the info is off.
Anyway to tap into the data of Google to.make this useful without critical mass of users?
You can cycle keys if you don't want to log in, as your concerns are very valid. Some of us are on degoogled phones so we aren't worrying about that issue, but, the reports could be anonymized at the client level, though, the relays would know too much to make most people comfortable. Rotating, random keys would be the just best thing. 🤔
Default is just an ephemeral one time key. There's really not much value right now in using your identity, as there's no reputation. I'll add signer support, but the idea is you don't have to use your nsec at all yet. In the future, reputation and zaps would be cool.
Yes. But right now there's no traffic reporting. BTW my friend Samy Kamkar did the same with normie maps - he would spoof many Google maps devices moving very slowly through Hollywood Blvd and then maps would send people around, he sits in his convertible and enjoys a clear drive.
I see that now. That's smart. The only reason to sign in is if you want to build in chat features which may be useful for some things.
Neat. Would love to see integration with Organic Maps or CoMaps.
Still, if you're the only active user in your area at first, rotating keys won't help much.
Oh, I see it now. You can generate a new key for every single one. That's really cool.
I wanted to do that first, but they don't support plugins. So the only way to go it is fork the apps
It uses ephemeral keys for each event. And queries don't use any identity at all
You don't need to, it uses randomly generated nsecs for each event
There's a way to programmatically query Waze and replicate its events. You would have to run it for an area you are interested in, but that would be a way to seed it and use network effects of Waze
Yes, there's pywaze and other ways to do it. I hope some anonymous dev does it 😁
Bt wouldn't work with cars, but there's at least the MeshCore part
I used google as a proxy of someone might interested in analyzing it. Obviously it could be anyone or any government as well, foreign or domestic.
It doesn't use your npub. Generates random ephemeral key for each event.
Osmand can do navigation, but reporting so far no. You need to zoom out and see what's along there. I don't think there's a way to do it with osmand and I don't want to write and maintain a navigation app.
That's good. Still skeptical about the public posting of individual gps data, that's never privacy friendly.
Yes, but I think we are quite far from any kind of attacks. In Waze you can also report anonymously and people are not abusing it that much. I prefer not to overengineer and rather release sooner. We'll deal with sibyl attacks when they come.
Once simple way is proof of work. There's a NIP for that. You can have the client mine the event for like, 1 second, 5 seconds, whatever. If it runs in the background people won't even notice, but it'll slow down spam. However this doesn't solve the problem of people throwing up random non-existent reports. But what if you just used consensus instead? This only applies once there's a serious network effect, but you could only show items that X number of people have reported/agreed exist. That's probably what waze does anyway.
Would it be possible to create a bridge between Waze or similar and roadstr?
Yes, but you'd have to run it for your area. I've done some preliminary research and I think it's possible. There are several Python modules that can get road traffic data from Waze programatically. If someone wants to give it a shot and vibe code it, point it to the nip in roadstr repo and it should work. Would be cool. Maybe I'll get back to it soon, but it's a nice vibe coding side project for anyone who wants to give it a shot.
Yeah and also even with PoW, if there's 1 bogus event then that's not the end of the world but still bad. Might make someone take a different route for instance. Someone needs to invent PoL (proof of location)
image Just installed the latest update and got this nice little piece of Google interference.
#2 image 1. Every cancer patient should get cured 🙏🏻 View quoted note → 2. Linux is the OS of freedom 🖥️ View quoted note → 3. Waze without the centralized tracking 😍 View quoted note → 4. Nostr is just for plebs who likes freedom 👇🏻 View quoted note → 5. Love and kindness is still exist on Nostr ❤️ View quoted note → 6. A huge difference between the communities of Nostr and X 👇🏻 View quoted note → 7. A nice life lesson from a nostrich 📖 View quoted note → 8. What do you think? 🤔 View quoted note → 9. Let’s help him to test and build Powr 🫱🏻‍🫲🏿 View quoted note → 10. Is Clave on App Store? 😍 View quoted note → 11. Do you think so? 🫵🏻 View quoted note → #community_nostr_recap
That’s really cool! We have something called Saphe.com in Denmark. This could be a replacement (if there are enough users ofc)