diff --git a/go-peer/main.go b/go-peer/main.go
index 5ec66ab5..f1029a61 100644
--- a/go-peer/main.go
+++ b/go-peer/main.go
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@ var logger = log.Logger("app")
 // NewDHT attempts to connect to a bunch of bootstrap peers and returns a new DHT.
 // If you don't have any bootstrapPeers, you can use dht.DefaultBootstrapPeers or an empty list.
 func NewDHT(ctx context.Context, host host.Host, bootstrapPeers []multiaddr.Multiaddr) (*dht.IpfsDHT, error) {
-
 	kdht, err := dht.New(ctx, host,
 		dht.BootstrapPeers(dht.GetDefaultBootstrapPeerAddrInfos()...),
 		dht.Mode(dht.ModeAuto),
@@ -109,6 +108,10 @@ func main() {
 	nickFlag := flag.String("nick", "", "nickname to use in chat. will be generated if empty")
 	idPath := flag.String("identity", "identity.key", "path to the private key (PeerID) file")
 	headless := flag.Bool("headless", false, "run without chat UI")
+	bootstrapper := flag.Bool("bootstrapper", false, "run as a bootstrap peer")
+
+	var directPeers stringSlice
+	flag.Var(&directPeers, "directpeer", "reciprocal gossipsub bootstrap peers (can be used multiple times)")
 
 	var addrsToConnectTo stringSlice
 	flag.Var(&addrsToConnectTo, "connect", "address to connect to (can be used multiple times)")
@@ -198,8 +201,32 @@ func main() {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 
+	gossipSubOpts := []pubsub.Option{
+		pubsub.WithFloodPublish(true),
+	}
+
+	if *bootstrapper {
+		gossipSubOpts = append(gossipSubOpts, pubsub.WithPeerExchange(true))
+
+		if len(directPeers) > 0 {
+			dp := peerStrSliceToAddrInfoSlice(directPeers)
+			gossipSubOpts = append(
+				gossipSubOpts,
+				pubsub.WithDirectPeers(dp),
+				pubsub.WithDirectConnectTicks(60), // attempt to reconnect to direct peers every 60 ticks (seconds)
+			)
+		}
+
+		// // See https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.1.md#recommendations-for-network-operators
+		pubsub.GossipSubD = 0
+		pubsub.GossipSubDlo = 0
+		pubsub.GossipSubDhi = 0
+		pubsub.GossipSubDout = 0
+		pubsub.GossipSubDscore = 0
+	}
+
 	// create a new PubSub service using the GossipSub router
-	ps, err := pubsub.NewGossipSub(ctx, h)
+	ps, err := pubsub.NewGossipSub(ctx, h, gossipSubOpts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
@@ -304,8 +331,24 @@ func main() {
 	}
 }
 
+func peerStrSliceToAddrInfoSlice(peerStrs []string) []peer.AddrInfo {
+	var addrInfos []peer.AddrInfo
+
+	for _, addr := range peerStrs {
+		peerInfo, err := peer.AddrInfoFromString(addr)
+		if err != nil {
+			LogMsgf("Failed to parse multiaddr: %s", err.Error())
+			continue
+		}
+
+		addrInfos = append(addrInfos, *peerInfo)
+	}
+
+	return addrInfos
+}
+
 // printErr is like fmt.Printf, but writes to stderr.
-func printErr(m string, args ...interface{}) {
+func printErr(m string, args ...any) {
 	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, m, args...)
 }