catdad
on macOS, sign the app so that it does not get blocked from opening
found this to sign the app, but the only thing is you have to pay apple $100 a year for a license to sign with, also looks like its a manual process every time there is a new release.
https://pracucci.com/atom-electron-signing-mac-app.html
I already did quite a bit of research for this. electron-builder can already automate the whole thing, but the $99 per year is prohibitive for a small open-source project that doesn't make any money.
I guess the help wanted tag is a bit unclear. I'll create a looking for sponsorship tag instead to make it clearer. Unless users are willing to sponsor this or I start making a lot of desktop apps (especially commercial apps), then I don't see doing this any time soon.
Looks like Apple has a fee waiver program, though it is unclear if free open-source projects qualify for this. If I understand it correctly (and I very well might not, because it seems vague on purpose), you need to be a legal organization, which comes with its own barriers to entry.