Subnostr

Got my first relay set up using relay.tools by nostr:npub10npj3gydmv40m70ehemmal6vsdyfl7tewgvz043g54p0x23y0s8qzztl5h . Woot!

Relatively easy to set up. I love the configurability. Some of the options include:

- public or private

- free or paid

- keywords, tags, and pubkeys to include or block

Validation: I see there are at least ~ 30 searchable paying customers so far.

Here’s what I’m trying to figure out. For this to be a profitable business, who will be the customers? Businesses running RaaS (relays as a service)? Or everyday plebs?

If I wanted to run a RaaS, looks like this would be a super easy way to get it up and running quickly. So that seems a feasible model. Although I wonder how many customers like that exist. Probably not a lot. Enough to sustain relay.tools as a business? Maybe not.

As a pleb … why would I want this service? Maybe to have a guaranteed backup of the stuff I want. Nice to have. But do I NEED it? Not really.

So here’s the question: How do we turn a service like relay.tools into something every nostr user MUST HAVE?

cc:

nostr:npub12zqf55l7l9vsg5f6ssx5pq4f9dzu6hcmnepkm8ftj25fecy379jqkq99h8

nostr:npub1manlnflyzyjhgh970t8mmngrdytcp3jrmaa66u846ggg7t20cgqqvyn9tn

cloud fodder 1y ago

I have a *lot of thoughts on this 💫 Here are a few:

Relay.tools software is kind of like CPanel from the 2000s. It's something that any server operator can install, and then re-sell their server as relays, to others that don't have the time or skills to get one setup. These customers of the "hub" are usually looking to get going quickly and easily. They save time and are able to spend that time vetting their nostr idea, developing, trying things out. When their project takes off, they can 'graduate' to being a server admin themselves, or they may be satisfied to continue to use the "hub". So the #1 value of the service is simply, saving valuable time.

There are 3 tiers in a relay.tools hub. There's the server admin(s). There's the relay owner+moderators. There's the users. Each tier has a chance to monetize or subsidize the existence of a relay. The users share a relay, enabling them to have a low-cost 'homebase' in which to interact with the larger nostr community, and the owner+moderators monetize their value by curating, promoting, and generally giving the relay a purpose. The server admin(s) monetize their value by providing a quality service and dealing with all the stuff that comes with running the servers themselves (paying for them, keeping them running smoothly). This tiered system gets us going at a cost level that should be affordable and worthwhile to all parties.

There are soooo many reasons to run a relay. It can make your head spin. There are private inbox relays to support better DMs and groups. There are community relays, there are relays that allow specific kinds that other relays won't allow. Being discoverable. Not getting throttled. Doing client testing. Hanging out with friends. Just to name a few.

Based on my calculations, running a relay hub can be in profit fairly quickly. As long as you don't overspend on servers. For myself though, I spend a lot of time developing the software so my business plan is a combination of a lot of factors, it is an opensource business plan and as nostr grows my value is in providing my services or knowledge to those that will need relay expertise, want a feature developed for relay.tools, support for their hubs, work with clients or etc.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

david 1y ago

But suppose I’m just a lowly pleb, not a dev or a builder. How do you convince me to pay for a personal relay? Without appeal to abstract principles like censorship resistance? What will I be able to do with a personal relay that I can’t do without one?

Or perhaps you’re not necessarily targeting lowly plebs or devs, but somewhere in the middle: regular business owners who want to run a relay for their business and need to customize it and want to make it as painless as possible. Not sure I see the need for that but maybe I just need a little imagination. Pretend I am running a restaurant. Will I some day have a need for a customized business relay?

I ask bc I see web of trust as an answer to the question: I will want a personal relay to keep track of my grapevine WoT scores. But maybe there is more that I don’t yet appreciate.

cloud fodder 1y ago

The usecase for someone like this could be a few things. WoT is for sure applicable. Being able to store larger lists is a bonus. One real-world example I see is that we have all these DVMs, but those DVMs are unusable unless you add these special DVM relays right? The DVMs cannot interact on the public relays as they get too throttled and cannot perform their functions via limited relays. So someone might pay to subscribe to a DVM relay. They might pay to subscribe to a relay that's main focus is WoT, large lists, profiles, etc so that they don't get rugged posting a list. Things like this. I do not really see the one relay per person model as a focus, although there has been some demand for this (as backups). At some point I may offer a relay plan that is simply for backups/personal relay, but I have mostly been focusing on more community aspects of relays so far because I like the idea of organic growth and community. When you have a community relay, it contains data that is valuable to you as a client of the relay (your friends profiles, their lists, their comments, their ability to contact you).

ManiMe 1y ago

Yup. Personal relays to host private communities. That’s the big use case for private relays.

nostr:note1qr5drexg7afs8eqmfu4vnlw3m3sncm24ck5lwpsjvn34m4nj744quj4wjc