Waku Monthly Update - August 2025

Every month, we’ll bring you the latest highlights and progress from the Waku team. To receive these updates directly in your inbox, consider subscribing to our newsletter.

If you want to get involved with Waku or integrate reliable, privacy-preserving p2p comms with your project, read through our documentation and join our Discord to get started.

August saw exciting progress and announcements, from the Waku team publishing an early proof-of-concept for service incentivisation to Safe integrating Waku into its tech stack to power decentralised on-chain multisig operations on Harbour.

Below are the highlights from Waku for August 2025.

Safe integrates Waku for on-chain multisig operations

One of the biggest headlines from the last month was Safe’s announcement that it is using Waku to coordinate on-chain multisig operations for its Harbour platform.

Harbour aims to make multisig transactions decentralised and permissionless by moving the queue process entirely on-chain, and Safe uses Waku to help achieve this goal.

Instead of coordinating multisig operations over centralised services or APIs, Harbour allows signers and validators to communicate directly over Waku’s p2p comms protocol. By plugging in Waku to facilitate this communication, Safe improves its security and decentralisation by removing unnecessary reliance on centralised actors.

Read more about how Waku powers Safe Harbour’s decentralised multisig operations in our blog post.

Technical updates

Waku incentivisation and Mixnet

August saw the team publish Waku's first steps towards infrastructure incentivisation and successful dogfooding of the proof-of-concept for micropayment-based service incentivisation. 

Local testing of the test token contract advanced with new minter-role functionality, while an early pre-spec document for store service incentivisation included payment protocol design considerations and a detailed requirements analysis.

The libp2p mix integration continued with a successful presentation of the chat2 application, demonstrating integrated mix functionality. However, progress remains dependent on implementing reply-path SURB (Single Use Reply Block) functionality in nim-libp2p.

Analysis of mix implementation requirements for browsers was completed, clarifying whether full implementation in js-waku will be necessary for web-based applications.

ChatSDK and end-to-end reliability

Significant progress was made on the Chat SDK, including rate limit management backed by SQLite, state persistence improvements, and tested segmentation features for reliable SDS integration. Work also began on upgrading encryption and drafting specifications for private messaging protocols.

On reliability, Scalable Data Sync (SDS) testing progressed with retrieval hints implemented in both Nim and Go bindings. Status integration confirmed reliable message delivery in macOS communities, though further work is needed to extend support to Windows and mobile.

Sharding work for Status Communities moved forward, resolving conflicts and adding tests to support more efficient routing as communities grow. Mixnet integration continued with successful demonstrations in the chat2 application, although full deployment remains dependent on reply-path functionality in nim-libp2p and clarity on browser requirements.

JS-Waku and web apps

JS-Waku SDK v0.0.34 was released, bringing faster peer exchange, continuous peer queries, and improved local peer discovery. Global network metrics were expanded to include shard-level data, and LightPush v3 continued to evolve with new error codes and peer support detection.

Waku’s web applications also progressed last month, with the forum proof-of-concept adding Ethereum and Bitcoin wallet support, ENS verification, Bitcoin Ordinals, and improved feed design. 

Compatibility updates across Qaku, Trollbox, and Lope ensured these applications align with the latest protocol improvements.

Nwaku and maintenance

Maintenance remained a strong focus as the team prepared for the nwaku v0.37.0 release, which includes dependency upgrades, DNS discovery fixes, and deployment simplifications. 

For js-waku, fixes addressed protobuf bugs, message handling, and peer selection, alongside API revisions and improved interoperability between shards. 

Progress on nim-ffi laid the groundwork for a more modular and reusable architecture by introducing protobuf-based automatic marshalling and repository restructuring. These changes promise simpler integration for developers using Nim across Waku projects.

Maintenance and architecture improvements aim to strengthen stability, performance, and developer usability across the Waku stack.

First steps towards incentivising Waku

August saw the Waku team publish the first steps towards a model for incentivising Waku.

Waku’s Sergei Tikhomirov published a detailed blog post that describes the early design for an incentivisation model for the Lightpush protocol.

This proof-of-concept model is based on individual micropayments for each edge node request, with plans to support bulk payments or credit systems in future for scalability.

It also marks the first step towards creating a Waku Service Marketplace, which could allow Waku protocols to operate as part of a decentralised marketplace for privacy-preserving services.

For a breakdown of the proof-of-concept, read our blog post. 

Waku vibe coding livestreams

Last month, the Waku team regularly tried out AI-assisted vibe coding to explore use cases built on the Waku stack.

These sessions were livestreamed on a weekly basis and included guests from within Waku and others interested in building with scalable and reliable p2p comms.

Check out a few of the Waku team’s vibe coding sessions below:

• Vibe Coding in Rust with @SionoisRP
• Vibe Coding on Stellar with Franck Royer
• Vibe Coding Pictionary over Waku with Danish
• Vibe Coding a Meme Board with Franck
• Vibe Coding on Miden with Václav Pavlín 

Waku and Codex DevRel Guru also built an on-chain feedback exchange and management platform using Waku, Codex, and the Status Network gasless L2 blockchain.

Waku events

The Waku team was well represented at several Logos Circle events around the world last month, along with contributors from other Logos projects and like-minded developers and activists interested in joining the Logos movement.

August saw Logos Circle events held in Los Angeles, Lisbon, and Brno, and we look forward to attending and helping to host many more in future.

We also published a summary of what we learned from the recent Waku virtual offsite on our blog, outlining the key highlights and outcomes across each sub-team.

Looking ahead, Waku plans to host a P2P Privacy Hacker Lounge event in Buenos Aires in November. The event will blend learning, casual hacking, networking, and open discussions. More details will be announced soon—stay tuned for updates!

Follow our socials for the latest news from the Waku team and announcements on where we’ll be heading next.

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