Monetize Nostr relays with anonymous Bitcoin payments. A thought experiment.

- run nostr relay

- set up Cashu mint

- users of the relay add Cashu payment to note publish requests itself

- nostr relay operator gets paid for their troubles

- there is no list of registered pubkeys, fvck that

- users can use any pubkey they want, they can rotate to any key want, can use multiple keys

- if you don't want to use the mint anymore, take the remaining cashu tokens and withdraw them to LN

Why doesn't this exist?

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Discussion

guess because everything is so early still

so would need their own client too?

Could use a cashu library integrated to a web client or use NWC to pay from an external Cashu wallet.

Why indeed...

wallets become note making devices

note making devices become wallets

nostr:note1f3qxstd020x925y76kjhczzu467cmeqzmqxvzxnmxutgrgt70nss4yyl3e

why does the relay have to run a mint? cant it use other mints?

as far as i know the protocol does not allow additional fields. if cashu token gets inside the event other relays may see it.

one of my relays care about # of pubkeys per ip. so that may be a problem. it assumes spam when multiple pubkeys which has no followers start to send events..

Hey, could a DM you for some questions related to cashu ? I have some doubts that I would like to clarify, i thing I'm wrong with that because I saw the incredible ensusiasm to the protocol . thanks in advance

Sure, please use Matrix to DM me!

Agree with nostr:npub1nlk894teh248w2heuu0x8z6jjg2hyxkwdc8cxgrjtm9lnamlskcsghjm9c here. Could this be better achieved by separating the payment infrastructure from the relay? Could request a relay’s preferred mints and send ecash with note.

Basically just a fee for service model with ecash and could extend to many other services.

I had an idea as well for a Bitcoin transaction submission model that fits with e-cash that I am trying to mentally map out.

Say you don’t run a node and you want to publish a transaction but you don’t want to link it to you. You could send a request to specific relays or even just other nostr folks (like a mempool on nostr). You would pay e-cash to an individual using a burner nostr key and the service provider would submit it on your behalf. Could even somehow create a marketplace for people that listen out for transaction notes and submit them to claim funds (though it would need some sort of negotiation model).

And the relay can also trust tokens from other reputable mints for even less lightning transactions.

What's the best tutorial on how to install a nostr relay for a good technical linux guy?