Jack Dorsey Invests 10 Million in Open-Source Development Collective
Jack Dorsey is back in the spotlight with the launch of two new apps—BitChat, a Bluetooth-based messenger that works without the internet, and Sun Day, a UV exposure tracker. These projects fall under a new nonprofit development collective called and Other Stuff, which Dorsey is funding with 10 million from his StartSmall foundation.
The group focuses on open-source initiatives, including potential consumer social media apps and development tools. Many of its members originally connected through Nostr, a decentralized social networking protocol Dorsey has previously supported. The collective aims to help Nostr evolve from an experimental project into a widely adopted ecosystem by providing funding and collaboration opportunities.
Beyond Nostr, and Other Stuff plans to explore tools built on protocols like ActivityPub, which powers Mastodon, and Cashu, an e-cash platform. The team includes Cashu creator Calle and Evan Henshaw-Plath, Twitter’s first employee.
So far, the collective has developed several projects, including heynow, a voice note app, White Noise, a private messenger, and +chorus, a social community platform. They also created Shakespeare, an AI-powered tool to help developers build Nostr-based social apps.
Dorsey has long advocated for open-source protocols. In 2019, while leading Twitter, he established a team to develop a decentralized social media standard, hoping to eventually transition Twitter onto it. That project later became Bluesky, spun off as a public benefit corporation in 2022. Dorsey left Bluesky’s board last year, criticizing its approach and claiming it repeated Twitter’s mistakes, including implementing moderation tools—which he views as a corporate constraint rather than a necessity.
In a recent podcast with Henshaw-Plath, Dorsey reiterated his belief that Twitter struggled under corporate and advertiser influence, a challenge now facing X under Elon Musk. He argued that social platforms should function as open protocols rather than companies, enabling businesses to build sustainable models on top of them.
Dorsey remains critical of Bluesky’s structure, preferring Bitcoin’s fully open, unowned protocol model. He sees similar potential in Nostr and intends to focus his efforts on decentralized, community-driven projects rather than corporate-aligned initiatives—even those structured as public benefit corporations.
With and Other Stuff, Dorsey continues pushing for an open, protocol-based future for social media, free from centralized control. His latest investments reflect his commitment to decentralization, aligning with his broader vision for a more transparent and user-owned internet.
