Opstan: Looking for feedback on my open-source Rust Proof-of-Work blockchain project

[OpstanGit]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

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Hi everyone,

I recently open-sourced Opstan, a Proof-of-Work blockchain project written in Rust.

The idea behind Opstan is to test whether a decentralized social network can be built directly on top of a blockchain, where public posts, channels, and reputation history are stored in an immutable way.

The project includes:

• a Rust blockchain node
• Proof-of-Work mining
• blocks and transactions
• public channels and posts
• wallet functionality
• basic P2P/network logic
• a simple GUI
• explorer/API components

GitHub repository:
https://github.com/OpstanGit/opstan

Website:
https://opstan.org

I am looking for technical feedback from the GitHub community.

In particular, I would appreciate feedback on:

• repository structure
• README clarity
• Rust code organization
• security or architecture concerns
• how to make the project easier for contributors
• ideas for good first issues
• suggestions for improving the open-source presentation

This is an early open-source release, so any honest feedback, code review, or advice is welcome.

Thank you.

[OpstanGit]

The main questions I had while reading were around long-term storage and moderation. Since posts are immutable, it would be useful to explain how spam, abusive content, and blockchain growth are expected to be handled. Even a short section in the README would help people understand the trade-offs.

Very interesting question — thank you for your interest.

In Opstan, spam is handled differently from traditional social networks. Users do not read a global feed controlled by the platform. They only read the public channels they personally choose to follow or add in their own application.

If a channel starts posting spam, abusive content, or anything a user does not want to see, the user can simply remove that channel from their local list. The content may remain in the blockchain, but it no longer has attention or distribution for that user.

This is also one of the reasons why immutable publishing matters. Reputation becomes important. In today’s internet, people often write something and later delete it as if nothing happened. In Opstan, public history matters, so what you write and how you behave becomes part of your reputation.

I agree that this trade-off should be explained more clearly in the README. Thank you for pointing it out.

[OpstanGit]

I had a look through the repo and the website. The project is interesting, especially the idea of storing posts, channels, and reputation history directly on-chain instead of building the social part as a separate layer.

For an early release, the README is already in a good state. It explains the main features, how to build the project, how mining works, and how to run the node. That makes it much easier to understand than many new open-source projects.

You are asking very smart and important questions, and I really appreciate your interest.

Would you be interested in taking part in the development of Opstan? We need all kinds of people — testers, developers, regular users, and anyone who wants to help the network grow.

Special technical knowledge is not required. Even feedback, testing, ideas, and discussion are valuable at this stage.