🥁 The Matrix.org Foundation has published its first Public Annual Report! 📊
This report gathers useful information for a very wide group of users, starting with the current community but also others who may not know Matrix very well. Overall, the goal is to remind everyone what the Foundation is and why it exists, share the progress in the last financial year, explain how our funds have been used, give an overview of our finances and eventually provide a preview of our plan for 2026.
You can find the blog here and the report itself here. We hope you will find it a useful read! ☕️
Seven years after incorporation, we have eventually put together a proper Public Annual Report intended for the wider community and the rest of the world to read. It is not a mandatory artefact but one we've been keen to make available for transparency to our community. Obviously, as a Community of Interest Company incorporated in the UK, we have certain reporting obligations towards the government, which we have fulfilled appropriately since day 1. We have also been sharing progress, news and activities with the community through various blogs (like the seasonal Matrix Holiday Special), Matrix Lives, talks, etc, but so far there hadn't been a structured published report gathering detailed updates on the activities of the various teams in the Foundation, high level financials and the plan for the future.
So here we go, you now have in your hands the very first Public Annual Report of The Matrix.org Foundation for the financial year 2025! As a first edition the format may need some iteration, but we have written it with very specific goals in mind.
Today’s release of Matrix 1.18 brings a total of 16 MSCs to the protocol. Many of those proposals improve Trust & Safety in Matrix, introducing features like invite blocking, policy servers, account suspension & locking, and general quality of life improvements to the reporting APIs. This blog post covers those safety features in a bit more detail - read on to the full changelog at the bottom for full details of everything in Matrix 1.18.
Solidarity Social, a Bluesky community based on use of the Solidar App and Solidar personal data server (PDS), is combining the AT Protocol and Matrix open standards to offer Bluesky users an app with end-to-end encrypted direct messages. It intends to be a hub within Bluesky for people building solidarity and organising action for progress on social justice, human rights, human dignity and democracy.
The first 'Matrix Stammtisch Köln' will take place on 25.03.2026 at 19:00.
We will be meeting on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, starting from 7 pm at the Chaos Computer Club Cologne, Heliosstraße 6A, 50825 Köln-Ehrenfeld. Anyone who would like to join us in person is welcome. Curious enough? If you can't make it this March, follow the #matrix-stammtisch:koeln.ccc.de room to stay updated. Tell your friends and bring them along!
Today we have announced The Matrix.org Foundation's first trademark policy. You can see all details in the announcement blog post and the policy itself. We have also improved the branding guidelines area of the website and have plans to continue building it out.
Huge thanks to the Website & Content Working Group for their support getting us here! Any questions/suggestions please head over to #matrix-legal:matrix.org or email us.
Today we are publishing The Matrix.org Foundation’s first trademark policy. As a foundation we believe that everyone should have control over their own communications and that secure communication should be available to everyone as a free and open standard. We exist to act as a neutral custodian for the Matrix protocol and to ensure that it operates as an unfragmented standard, which benefits the whole ecosystem. If the Matrix ecosystem is thriving everyone benefits, from people using Matrix for their daily conversations to companies building products on Matrix.
A big part of our work as custodians is ensuring that there is clarity in sources of information and services, in which trademark protection plays a big role. Our aim with this trademark policy is to help people understand if a product claiming to be compatible with the protocol is actually compatible, and if a specific product or service is officially supported by the Foundation.
Join us in welcoming Pangea Chat as the latest Silver member of the Foundation! Pangea uses Matrix as the basis for their language learning via instant messaging app 🌍️ We love being part of an initiative spreading knowledge and build links between people 👏
Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals.
This week a number of MSCs were accepted. One notable entry is MSC4284: Policy Servers, which is a huge step forwards for moderation on Matrix.
In essence, while moderation is typically reactive in Matrix today - where someone posts spam and a bot catches it 5-10 seconds later - this MSC shifts it to be proactive. An event isn't sent into the room, or accepted by other homeservers, until it's run by a policy server.
And it doesn't stop there. Other MSCs are now building on top of policy servers to add more proactive moderation to Matrix. Hopefully the days of (briefly) seeing spam on Matrix is coming to a close. Huge thanks to the folks working to keep the public federation safe.
