Nostr Web Client

Are Paid Relays a Shitcoin?

Last night on Nostr Spaces, we discussed potential implications of paid relays. I believe we Nostriches all understand that paid relays are needed for 1) to pay for the service that we're using as nothing should be free 2) relay operators need funds to pay for relay hardware infrastructure and 3) to thwart spammers.

#[0] said that he thought that paid relays were Shitcoins. What did he mean?

With a Shitcoin, anyone can create one. There is no Proof-of-Work in this process. The creator makes promises about their current offerings or future offerings. And lastly, they want payment and take user's money.

#[1] mentioned that he believed paid relays should operator on a Web-of-Trust model. What does this mean?

Do you know the relay operator? Do they have an older or well known Nostr public key? Did they previously run a free relay? Do reputable people use and recommend this relay? It's fairly easy now to form a Web-of-Trust with well known actors in this space and community.

As we move forward, we do need to watch for scams. A relay and operator could appear out of nowhere. A relay could promise the moon on speed and resources. That relay and relay operator could also disappear in a day or a week or a month, after they've reached their fund raising goal.

Right now, using Nostream to operate a paid relay at least requires a ZBD developer account. This is right now behind a gatekeeper. #[2] needs to approve relay API access. This will get easier in the future. In the future, Nostream will work with other providers and I would assume even end up working with your own node. In the future, we'll need to be more diligent when choosing paid relays.

Start building your Web-of-Trust now.

threeseries 2y ago

It's true that paid relays can lie, but I feel the market should sort itself out. It doesn't have the same allure as an altcoin because there's no concept of a relay going "to the moon." You just might get decent speed and low spam, which is actually quite boring and not something people will put a ton of money into.

Essentially what makes altcoins so nefarious is that there's a greater fool theory at work that can end up justifying any price. This isn't the case in most markets, including ones for relays.

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Discussion

Derek Ross 2y ago

It's not about mooning, it's about getting scammed, paying 20K sats to use a relay and then a week later getting rugged. This potential exists. We as a community need to not just add every single paid relay that pops up. They need vetted. We need to build our Web-of-Trust.

threeseries 2y ago

Yeah my point is that this is just how paying for stuff works. You don't always get what you pay for, and markets tend to sort these kinds of things out, especially when what's being sold is a commodity (relays are easily commoditized).

Reputation will build organically and risk of being scammed seems very low to me given the small price people will be willing to pay for spam filtering.