Thank you very much.
If I have my own relay & even just connect to that, I miss all the threads because no one uses my relay. So I must always be connected to multiple relays. Is that right ?
Hey there. This is a bit different than the concept of say running a node to support the Bitcoin network.
A private relay is primarily a backup of your content. When you post on Nostr, you send your notes out to relays and hope that they keep them. It’s not guaranteed. In principle, you avoid censorship. In practicality, you avoid relays crashing or not having money to retain data forever. Having your own relay assures your notes are always safe and can be republished to other relays if needed.
Beyond that there are cool things that private relays can be expanded to do. One thing is an aggregator and a cache. Your relay would sit on a 24/7 server, gathering and organizing all your Nostr content. Then when you open your phone app opens, it connects to your single server. It’s faster, uses less bandwidth, and reduces the burden on all the relays.
I’ve got a project proposal for a relay that I’d like to build with even more ideas at https://mostlyapp.io.
Discussion
For now, your private relay is one of many in your relay list, yeah. When you post a note, it goes to all the relays in your list including your private one for safe keeping as a backup.
In the future, if your relay supports aggregation, then it is the one connecting to all the relays in your list and then you just connect to it, like a proxy. You’re connected to everyone while preserving bandwidth and computing resources.