We built this because our own community needed it.
TrustUp started in Kingston, NY — where our first lockers, kiosks, and displays run today. The problem was never that people didn't care. It's that the caring was invisible: someone across town had exactly what a neighbor needed, and neither of them could see it. Group texts overflowed, spreadsheets went stale, and the surplus that could have moved just sat there.
So we built the connective layer: circles of people who trust each other, and physical places where what they share becomes visible and pickable-up. First for our own block. Then for anyone's.
Two organizations, one goal.
A nonprofit keeps the app free and fair. A company builds and sells the hardware that pays the bills. Splitting them means the money side can never push the app around.
TrustUp, L3C
Builds the app, lockers, kiosks, and screens, and sells the hardware to the places that host it. It's a low-profit company on purpose — the "L3C" setup legally ties the business to its mission, not just to profit.
Post Scarcity Institute
Pays to build TrustUp so the app stays free, and covers hardware for places that can't afford it — food pantries, shelters, mutual aid groups. The idea behind the name: together, we already have more than enough.
What we won't bend on.
What communities share can be proudly on display. What people need stays inside a circle they chose — or is met quietly, with no one watching.
Circles are private groups of people who already trust each other — a block, a congregation, a co-op. Nothing is broadcast to strangers by default.
No ads, no boosted posts, no paying to be seen. Exchange takes whatever form a circle chooses — given, lent, traded, or paid, including community currencies — but reach is never bought.
One tap starts the exchange; the rest happens in real life. We measure needs met, not minutes spent.