Sidewalk is an open-source, civic reporting and accountability platform that empowers citizens to document local issues, track government response, and ensure follow-through—publicly and transparently.
Citizens can report problems like damaged roads, broken streetlights, flooding, waste issues, or public safety concerns, attach media and location data, and monitor progress from reported to resolved.
What sets Sidewalk apart is its Stellar-powered accountability layer. By anchoring civic actions on-chain, Sidewalk turns public complaints into verifiable records that cannot be ignored, altered, or quietly deleted.
If it’s on-chain, it can’t be swept under the rug.
Civic reporting tools already exist—but trust, incentives, and accountability are often missing.
Most platforms are:
- Centralized and opaque
- Easy to manipulate or abandon
- Focused on reporting, not resolution
Sidewalk is built around a different idea: Civic participation should be verifiable, incentivized, and impossible to ignore.
By combining community reporting with blockchain-backed transparency, Sidewalk transforms everyday civic complaints into durable public records and measurable performance data.
- Civic Issue Reporting – Report infrastructure and public service problems
- Media & Location Proof – Photos, videos, timestamps, and geotags
- Status Tracking – Follow issues from report → acknowledgement → resolution
- Public Metrics – Resolution time and responsiveness are visible to all
- Mobile-First Design – Built for fast, on-the-ground reporting
Sidewalk uses Stellar as a trust and coordination layer—not as hype, but as infrastructure.
Every critical civic action is anchored on-chain:
- Issue creation
- Official acknowledgement
- Resolution confirmation
- Time-to-fix metrics
Each report is associated with a Stellar transaction hash, providing immutable, timestamped proof. This ensures that complaints cannot be edited, hidden, or erased after submission.
Sidewalk introduces a community civic token on Stellar. Citizens earn tokens for submitting valid reports and verifying others. Tokens can be used to vote on priority issues or access local civic perks.
Sidewalk enforces accountability through time-bound logic. Missed deadlines trigger automatic escalation, and unresolved issues surface on a public Hall of Accountability.
Sidewalk is built as a scalable Monorepo using pnpm workspaces, with a clear separation between the API, mobile experience, and shared services.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React Native (Expo) |
| Backend API | Node.js / Express (Modular Monolith) |
| Database | MongoDB |
| Blockchain | Stellar (via @sidewalk/stellar package) |
| Tooling | pnpm, TypeScript, tsx |
sidewalk/
├── apps/
│ ├── api/ # Express backend (Modular Monolith)
│ └── mobile/ # React Native App (Expo)
│
├── packages/
│ └── stellar/ # Shared Stellar Service & SDK
│
├── config/ # Shared configurations
├── package.json # Root workspace config
└── pnpm-workspace.yaml # Workspace definitions
Follow these steps to get the development environment running.
- Node.js (v18 or higher)
- pnpm (Install via
npm install -g pnpm) - MongoDB (Running locally or via Atlas)
- Expo Go app on your phone (optional, for physical device testing)
Clone the repo and install dependencies using pnpm.
git clone [https://github.com/your-org/sidewalk.git](https://github.com/your-org/sidewalk.git)
cd sidewalk
# Install all dependencies for all packages
pnpm install
Before running the apps, you must build the shared @sidewalk/stellar package so the API can consume it.
# Build all packages
pnpm -r build
Set up the environment variables for the API.
# Create the .env file in the API folder
cp apps/api/.env.example apps/api/.env
# Update apps/api/.env with your MongoDB URI (defaults to local)
# MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/sidewalk
You will typically run the Backend and the Mobile App in two separate terminal tabs.
This starts the Express server in watch mode.
# Run from the root directory
npm run dev:api
You should see: 🚀 Server running on port 5000 and ✨ Stellar Service initialized.
This starts the Expo development server.
cd apps/mobile
npx expo start
- Press
ato run on Android Emulator. - Press
ito run on iOS Simulator. - Scan the QR code to run on your physical device.
Sidewalk is open-source and built for contributors who care about civic tech, transparency, and real-world impact.
- Fork the repository
- Create a branch from
main - Pick an issue or propose one
- Open a PR with context and screenshots
👉 Telegram: https://t.me/+gRA3CdyekZw3MWM0
MIT License