What keep the relay’s memory from filling up immediately?
Discussion
It's usually stored on disk
But how does that not fill up? How much storage to do I need to run a relay, and what do I do when it fills up? How do I decide who's notes to delete?
Cloud fodder is correct. Relays are only storing text so even a small capacity (to todays standards) hard drive space will be plenty of room.
If you set up your own personal relay (which is awesome and i recommend it) it will store what you post (text only). All of the other relays you are connected to also store that text. When you post a picture- it is being hosted somewhere else and the noster note is just linking to where that image is stored.
As a rough estimate, assuming plain text with no formatting or special characters, and using a common encoding like UTF-8, one megabyte can store roughly 500 to 1000 pages of text, depending on the length of the pages and the average length of the words.
Thank you. That helps a lot. I think there’s a path forward for a data storage server in every home where relays are run, BTC and LN nodes are hosted. You will own 100% of your data and store it securely. Restricted access will be granted on a need to know basis, such as medical records to doctors, photos to your family members, kid’s special needs to schools. Never have to fill out an application, ever again. Just scan a QR, select the info you wish to share, tap ‘send’.
Storing 100% of your data yourself is incredibly risky. It's much better to have it distributed, redundant, and encrypted. There are altcoins working on this, and we could end up with a side chain #drivechain with this capability.