Jack Dorsey's Block has launched Buzz, a free and open-source workspace that runs on the Nostr protocol. The company is positioning it as a direct rival to mainstream collaboration tools like Slack and GitHub. Buzz gives AI agents their own cryptographic identities, a move that ties the platform to the decentralized web ethos Block has been pushing.
What Buzz does
Buzz is built on Nostr, the same protocol that powers many decentralized social apps. Instead of a traditional centralized server, Buzz uses Nostr's relay system for communication. The platform is open source, meaning anyone can inspect, modify, or self-host the code. Block is offering it for free, likely hoping to attract developers and teams who want more control over their workflow data.
This isn't just another Slack clone. By giving AI agents their own cryptographic keys, Buzz creates a framework where bots and automated tools can operate with verifiable identities. That's a differentiator from existing collaboration tools, which typically treat AI integrations as add-ons rather than native participants. For the crypto crowd, it's a signal that Block is serious about building infrastructure for a decentralized internet, not just payments.
Block hasn't announced a specific launch date for a public beta or enterprise tier. The code is available now on GitHub for anyone to run. Whether Buzz can actually pull users away from entrenched platforms like Slack and GitHub remains to be seen — but it's the most direct product challenge yet from the Jack Dorsey camp.
