That’s fine! As long as you have other sources to sustain the model. You offer value add services, so you are not exactly in scope for this. Many one time pay relays have gone already, at least 3 that I paid for so far
Discussion
I don’t think it’s fair to assume those relays went down because they couldn’t sustain the infrastructure with their one time fees. Many of the people who hosted these relays lost interest and left nostr. Many of them had no technical ability to fix a relay if it went down. Many of them were using nostream which didn’t scale well.
The longevity and reliability of a relay is more about who is running it than how much it costs. Good admins run good relays. Free or paid. The time commitment is more about passion for nostr than making money. I can’t see that changing in the near future.
People who enter this space to “make money quick” will exit extremely fast when they realize how little money is available.
Check nostr:nprofile1qqsdyuzrjfmfcgxk0g2nlfm6s4t6kpc77fa2ls5u766xlt6c9czetuspzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgtcpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5hs996usm , they cited the reason.
They were definitely an odd one. Wasn’t it free? And didn’t they have like 6+ regional nodes?
I also paid for probably a dozen or more relays a couple years ago when paid relays were just starting - most of which are no longer running. I knew at the time that the majority wouldn’t survive the year let alone my lifetime. Most of them were very cheap so I viewed them more as donations than a payment for a reliable performant service.
Sorry, I never got notified about this reply. Dug it out only just now.
The math doesn’t work when you required to inject capital into service to maintain it, while only new users pay to join. If you have other ways to subsidize the cost (you do) then it is reasonable. Otherwise numbers don’t add up.