Localhost Research is a Bitcoin-focused nonprofit research center co-founded by Mark Erhardt and Ava Chow to support open-source protocol research and development on the Bitcoin network. Localhost Research's Twitter Score is 26 out of 1000 as of October 2026, ranking #38,622 (top 10%) among 498,348 tracked accounts.
Localhost Research is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in Delaware, launched in October 2024. Its mission centers on fostering an in-person environment where contributors research and develop protocols critical to Bitcoin's functioning and growth. The organization supports Bitcoin developers, produces educational content, advocates for open-source principles, and publishes transparency reports covering its contributions to the Bitcoin free-and-open-source software ecosystem. Founding Donors Mark Casey and Wences Casares backed the organization at its inception.
Localhost Research revived FIBRE, the Fast Internet Bitcoin Relay Engine, a specialized Bitcoin Core patchset designed for high-speed, low-latency block relay and reduced stale-block races, and currently operates a public FIBRE network. Its team contributes code and review work to Bitcoin Core across wallets, networking, consensus validation, compact-block relay, MuSig2 support, transaction policy, and Bitcoin Improvement Proposals. The organization also established a Post Quantum Cryptography Group to research the risks that cryptographically relevant quantum computers could pose to Bitcoin's public-key security assumptions.
Localhost Research launched a Mining Unit in May 2026 whose contributors work full time on reducing centralization pressures in Bitcoin mining, with P2Poolv2 as its primary focus alongside continued FIBRE support. The Mining Unit is collaborating with P2Poolv2 lead maintainer Jungly on sharechain design, relay infrastructure, mining-management-software integration, and decentralized mining-pool payout mechanisms. Its third transparency report covers the period from August 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025, during which the team participated in Bitcoin Core research, development, review, education, and contributor events, and sponsored and organized the Socratic Village at TABConf 7. The organization also noted that Lightspark and Tyler Levine supported the visit of its first Visiting Scholar, Pol Espinasa, from August through November 2025.
Localhost Research has published 255 posts on the platform and has been mentioned by 18 accounts a total of 21 times.
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The accounts that follow Localhost Research include 105 founders, 9 angel investors and 36 influencers, among them Nic Carter, Tyler Winklevoss, Eric Wall, 0xMaki, Justin Drake and Hunter Horsley.