Parahub

Self-hosted P2P infrastructure for communities to trade, govern, and communicate — without middlemen.

parahub.io — live instance · Docs · Mesh firmware

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Why

Platforms extract 15-30% from every transaction (Amazon, Upwork, Uber). Parahub replaces them with direct P2P infrastructure that communities self-host. No platform fees, no escrow, no data harvesting.

What's Inside

Trade — P2P marketplace, multilateral barter (2-7 party cycles via graph DB), P2P contracts with cryptographic audit trail, debt tracking with clearing

Govern — Liquid democracy with transitive delegation, participatory budgeting, Web of Trust identity (3+ verifications as Sybil defense)

Communicate — E2E encrypted messaging (Matrix/Synapse), video conferencing (Jitsi), email (Mailcow), git hosting (Gitea)

Navigate — Map with real-time presence, business directory, public transit schedules (GTFS/GTFS-RT), community events, carpool, geocoding

Secure — Client-side PGP (keys never leave the browser), non-custodial Lightning payments, OpenTimestamps audit anchoring, privacy by design

Stack

Layer	Tech
Backend	Django 5 / Ninja, Python 3.12
Frontend	Nuxt 4 (SSR), Vue 3
Database	PostgreSQL 18 + PostGIS + TimescaleDB
Graph	Neo4j (barter cycle detection)
Cache	Redis
Chat	Matrix Synapse + Element/Cinny
Maps	MapLibre GL + Martin (vector tiles) + Pelias (geocoding)
Routing	MOTIS (transit) + Valhalla (car/bike/walk)
Video	Jitsi Meet
Tracking	Traccar (GPS fleet)
Email	Mailcow
Git	Gitea
Containers	Docker Compose

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+ with pip
• Node.js 20+ with npm
• Docker with Compose plugin (docker compose)
• PostgreSQL 16+ with PostGIS and TimescaleDB extensions
• Redis 7+
• Neo4j 5+
• OpenSSL

Setup

git clone https://github.com/parahub-io/parahub.git /opt/parahub
cd /opt/parahub

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Bootstrap: generates secrets, creates .env, configures services
./install.sh

# Flags: --skip-docker (if services run externally)
#         --skip-frontend (backend-only dev)
#         --force (overwrite existing .env)

The install script will:

1. Generate all secrets and create .env
2. Generate OIDC and VAPID keys
3. Start Docker services (Neo4j, Synapse, Traccar, Jitsi, Gitea, etc.)
4. Run Django migrations and create admin user
5. Build the Nuxt frontend

Run (Development)

# Start dev servers (keeps production running if deployed)
./0restart-dev

# Backend: http://localhost:8001
# Frontend: http://localhost:3001
# Set cookie parahub_dev=1 on your domain for nginx routing

Run (Production)

Set up nginx and systemd services (see nginx/ for example configs), then:

./0restart    # Build + restart all services

Architecture

Browser ──► Nginx ──► Nuxt SSR (:3000)
                  └──► Django API (:8000) ──► PostgreSQL/PostGIS
                                          ├──► Redis (cache/sessions/CQRS)
                                          ├──► Neo4j (barter graph)
                                          └──► WebSocket (real-time)
              └──► Docker services
                    ├── Matrix Synapse (E2E chat)
                    ├── Jitsi Meet (video)
                    ├── Traccar (GPS tracking)
                    ├── Gitea (git hosting)
                    ├── Martin (vector tiles)
                    ├── Pelias (geocoding)
                    └── Mailcow (email)

Key patterns: ULID identifiers, CQRS (high-freq reads via Redis, writes to PostgreSQL), JWT + session dual auth, native Redis pub/sub for WebSocket messaging.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. The project is large but modular — each system (barter, governance, transit, etc.) is relatively self-contained.

1. Run ./install.sh to set up your environment
2. Use ./0restart-dev for development (never touches production)
3. Test data: python3 manage.py seed_test_users && python3 manage.py seed_test_items

License

MIT