Very interesting!
I briefly looked into running a private relay to backup my notes. Good to know that the staff usage would be low 🤜🤛
Discussion
Given the way nostr relays work at the moment (text only) the data and traffic is relatively low. As NIP 95 is being implemented and enabled, which allows for storing of pics and video data on relays, the data/traffic will increase.
There's been a big debate on nostr between Damus and Amethyst developers about whether NIP 95 is a good idea. In the end it will depend on the relay runners to enable it or not.
Still early and most relay builds don't support the NIP yet. Will take a while I would expect.
Do you know what’s the benefit of storing images and videos on a relay vs on nostr.build (or other services similar) ?
I understand that the media would be linked to the public key. It could be verified who did post when what picture as an example; the picture would get is own Nostr note id and can be searched for etc. Currently, the pic is uploaded to a "simple" media server that provides the URL to the pic, but nothing more.
The NIP 95 discussion has many aspects of the block-size discussion in BTC. More files on relay increase hardware requirements, which can make it less feasible for people to run a relay. On the other hand media can also become more censor resistant.
There are pros and cons.