Anyone who thinks nostr is free clearly doesn't run a relay 🫠
Discussion
Nostr is free because plebs run relays
No lies detected😅
Relay runners should charge annually. I’m a strong supporter of that. Although it probably still wouldn’t cover the bill..
For now, it works. Please don't spam my relays haha
What is your monthly cost?
Well I have a dedicated PC for the relay, my internet costs $150/mo to get it on 1gbps and I spend hours of time maintaining it and pay for backups...
If this was on a VPS it would be like $50-$100/mo for my tiny relay
Yeah I was figuring somewhere between $200 and $500 a month based on size.
Anyone who thinks that relay is easy to install and maintain is NGMI
For some it is easy. If it is profitable, that is another question.
#[4] spends ~$600 monthly on relay
And 24/7 dedicated to Nostr, he needs to be profitable somehow, or at least have enough runway. But anyone can run a relay for themselves practically for free on their home network, at least I could and probably will in future, monetize with services on top of it, upgrade once profitable
It’s easy to run and maintain a small relay without much traffic, I think that much is true.
Trying to run a busy high performance relay that is always online is a job, not a hobby.
If you use something g like umbrel or embassy yeah might be easy to click two times and get a private relay 😁
But on another part I agree and that’s why I’m thinking not even to spin it up back.
Just depends on your goals! Can be a fun learning experience and you can get something out of it even if your relay doesn’t end up being the biggest/fastest.
I think but public relays will need to keep adapting to stay free. Data retention (beyond short term) is not going to be a thing on most free relays (it already basically isn’t). In addition, they’ll likely need to control the REQ volume much more than they do so today or the performance will degrade over time.
What is a relay.
My relay only costs 8$/mo. That's how I can afford to keep it free. I'm not pointing 50,000 apple users at it though 😅
Do you know how many npubs use your relay? Is your vps only 1 vcpu?
I'll like to #grownostr and create relay(s). Do you have any information on how you successfully created your relay documented somewhere? I'm thinking of following the steps in the link below but not sure if it's up-to-date. Thanks.
https://andreneves.xyz/p/set-up-a-nostr-relay-server-in-under
It runs strfry. Unfortunately I don't know of a guide that's been written other than the readme on the GitHub.. we should maybe write one.
#[6] wrote this guide. I don’t think everything has to run inside docker, but it’s an option! nostr:note1dk95lp3yl7dgqcjtnfdcqg0g3ny46hup74nlqkx5ytlqpxvrralqufta83
Thanks for the super prompt response! If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to keep your cost of operation so low?
strfry is really efficient and contabo provides really cheap hosting
Contabo is great/very cheap. I will say one of the VPS I have with them in the US crashes more than any other provider I’ve ever worked with. Never had a single issue with the ones in Germany. They are a bit stingy on port speeds restrictions if that matters to you. The small VPS plans are capped at 300mb/s.
It's clear that for the network to scale a method of monetization definitly needs to be implemented. Once that happens I think we'll see an explosion of relays
By rightsizing I keep costs low for #[2] and donations have me almost breaking even. I understand the paid relay concept for easy spam prevention. But try to keep donations optional since personally not a fan of subscription models or pay-for-features.