#badfeded — Public Fediverse posts

I Love Free Software Day 2026

Hardly anybody argues, that saying thank you isn't something nice. Saying thank you can be done in many ways. But no matter how you say it, the important part of this is that a 'Thank you' for the receiving person means being seen in the effort one brings along, being treated in a nice and respectful way. A 'Thank you' can come a long way to keep others motivated and to let them feel part of a community.

I Love Free Software Day

Since 2010 the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has been celebrating the "I Love Free Software Day". Each year on the 14th of February Free Software enthusiasts reach out to one another, to contributors, to maintainers, developers highlighting their work and thanking them for their commitment to software freedom. With 2022 the FSFE and its local groups started something different for this special day dedicated to Free Software and its contributors. Together they organised small get-togethers, dedicated events all over Europe. It started with one big event and since then there are now over 20 events in over 10 European countries. By now it is not merely the FSFE and the local FSFE groups, but new groups joining the party and taking up the challenge to organise a local event.

Those events are a great opportunity to share and discuss the hot topics around Free Software, to exchange thoughts, work on Free Software projects and to build bridges among each other to strengthen our ever-growing network. However, organising an event, very much like contributing to Free Software, takes time, energy and resources. With some of this, the FSFE tries to help as much as possible, but still the organisation relies upon a small group of dedicated people willing to take up this challenge and to make something truly special for all the Free Software fans in Europe.

Digital 'Thank You'

To highlight the commitment and to say thank you to those who are part of this and who want to let the community around Free Software spire ever more, we have long been thinking about a good way to do this. As for us the question is how we could possibly say thank you in a new and remarkable way. Many ideas floated around, we could be writing a blog post about the effort done by others, we could send postcards, write an email and share the work done by volunteers to bring together a bunch of people. But, we, Bonnie, responsible for the "I Love Free Software Day" at the FSFE and Damian, a dedicated Free Software advocate and volunteer for the FSFE, wanted to have a new and truly unique way of saying 'Thank you' to all the event organisers involved in the "I Love Free Software Day". Then the solution came to us with BadgeFed. A badge, which can be connected to your fediverse account.

The hands-on experience

So we went ahead and started to set up a new issuer on the instance, Damian, has been operating. We made three sets of badges, each issued in a different way. One for event organisers, which we issued manually to people responsible for the „I Love Free Software Day“ event in different cities. One for contributors, which they distributed by a unique URL organisers had, and one for participants which was supposed to be easy to collect and displayed as a QR code between presentations.

Because of how BadgeFed is designed the issuer can be migrated to a new instance, operated by FSFE. This allows us to keep to already issued badges. Only requirement for this is to have the proper set of keys. BadgeFed also supports RBAC, which is great, since you do not have to allow one user to access your other issuers. Smart design choices like this allow you to tinker freely and then the proof of concept works smothly and migrate without much pain.

Conclusion

BadgeFed is very easy to use and it is an amazing option to just let others know how much this person has done for the „I Love Free Software Day“, how much time the person has dedicated into organising something for the community, and to let them know your contribution has not gone by unnoticed. So, we invite you to create different badges yourself. We are still playing around with OpenBadges and will tinker with BadgeFed over the next years...so stay tuned for more badges.

You can read the article "I Love Free Software Day 2026" by @mapache here as well.

Introducing a Minimalistic ActivityPub Badge System: Decentralized, Verified, and Built for the Fediverse

In the ever-evolving world of digital credentials, we’ve seen centralized platforms like Credly dominate the badge and certification space. But what if we could flip the script? What if badges could be decentralized, self-certified, and issued directly by organizations in the Fediverse?

By reusing the social graph already present in the Fediverse, we can enable a seamless integration of badges into the networks people are already part of. Instead of creating new, siloed systems for certification, we can utilize the trusted connections and relationships within platforms like Mastodon to issue and verify badges. It’s about making the credentialing process as decentralized and open as the social interactions we have online today.

That's exactly what I'm working on with my latest project: a minimalistic ActivityPub implementation for badges, built using #dotnet.

The Problem with Traditional Badge Systems

It’s mind-blowing that major organizations—think Microsoft, Non-Profits, and educational institutions—spend thousands of dollars on badge providers like Pearson just to get a "verified" badge. These badges, while useful, are locked into centralized platforms that limit the potential for genuine, open verification systems.

What if badges could be as decentralized as social media profiles? Imagine organizations running their own badge systems—similar to the way social media instances like Mastodon operate in the Fediverse. Think about a domain-based badge system like badges.mozilla.com, or a school district offering badges at certifications.myschooldistrict.com. Even a podcast could issue badges to its guests, with the entire verification happening directly within the domain.

Why ActivityPub?

ActivityPub is already a powerful protocol for secure, decentralized communication between actors in the Fediverse. It enables us to create verifiable interactions and sign digital artifacts in a way that was previously the domain of a few centralized certificate authorities. With ActivityPub, we can extend this to badges, allowing people and organizations to interact with verified credentials in the same decentralized way that we share posts, follows, and interactions across Mastodon or any other Fediverse platform.

Think about how LetsEncrypt disrupted the centralized SSL certificate market. Now, with a decentralized badge system, we can enable a similar revolution for verified credentials.

The Project So Far

I’ve made some solid progress, and there’s now a functional proof of concept (PoC) in place. The project is live and can be found here: ActivityPub Badges on GitHub.

This fediverse actor, the badges issuer, isn’t a Mastodon instance, a Pleroma, or a blog—it’s an actor in a badge system. You can follow it on Mastodon, but its badges are not microblogging notes. Instead, think of it as a way to display verified credentials directly from a decentralized source.

Here’s the first badge I’ve issued:

First Badge: View on Mastodon

Simply copy and paste the URL and open it in your Mastodon client. The badge will show up as a note, and you can celebrate, comment, or share it within your ActivityPub network. This is how the badge system will work—just like social media, but with credentials!

A Decentralized Future for Badges

The ultimate goal is to create a decentralized badge system where different instances of badge issuers will recognize each other’s certifications. This way, even if a certificate issuer disappears, the credential is still secure and verifiable across the network. Imagine the survivability of certificates in such a system—if your issuer disappears, the credential still exists in a federated, decentralized space.

It’s an exciting future, and I’m just getting started. If you want to learn more about the progress of this project, follow me, or check out the GitHub repo. (Btw, I am not a Mastodon account, or a BadgeFed system, I am a static site).

Let’s create a future where verification is decentralized, secure, and open for everyone.

Early Adopter Badge: Who Wants One?

As with any new project, there’s always room for early adopters. If you’re interested in getting your own badge, let me know! Follow the progress and get involved as we continue to build this decentralized badge system.

Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, and comments. Badge up, own your credentials, and let the Fediverse showcase your achievements.

You can read the article "Introducing a Minimalistic ActivityPub Badge System: Decentralized, Verified, and Built for the Fediverse" by @mapache here as well.

Hello Fediverse!

You can read the article "Hello Fediverse!" by @mapache here as well.