If you're a new Nostrich, you've now learned about relays, but you may still have questions, such as what the hell are paid relays?
Most paid relays only accept payments of Bitcoin via the Lightning network. Lightning is a fast, cheap and scalable solution for Bitcoin that makes paying for goods and services extremely easy. Wallet of Satoshi is probably one of the easiest options available for mobile users. If you're using a desktop computer, Alby is a great choice here. If you're looking for something a bit more advanced, you can try Phoenix Wallet, Mutiny Wallet, or Zeus. These three mobile options are best if you're looking to take full custody of your bitcoin.
Here are a couple recommended paid relays:
wss://eden.nostr.land
wss://relay.orangepill.dev
wss://nostr.milou.lol
wss://nostr.wine
wss://relay.bitblockboom.com
wss://relay.nostrplebs.com
Once you know which paid relays that you're going to try out or use, you'll want to visit their website, pay the admission fee, and add their relay address to your profile. Be sure to enable both read and write capabilities and then save or post the changes. That's it. Please note: The Nostr Plebs relay needs to be purchased via registering a nostr address at https://nostrplebs.com.
A list of paid nostr relays can be found here: https://relay.exchange
Why use a paid relay?
Spam mitigation
How do you get less spam on a paid relay? Many clients allow you to pick which relays to populate your global/universe feed. This essentially gives global/universe a pay wall, restricting content to paying users. Generally, paid relays have much less spam.
Pay for a service that you're using
Paying for a service just feels right. Infrastructure and server resources cost money. The people that run these pieces of nostr's infrastructure need to be paid for their work, time, and effort. This helps to keep nostr running and sustainable.
Should you only use paid relays?
I recommend using both free and paid relays for the best experience. This allows you to find and engage with new users as they join nostr. I also recommend not adding more than 12 relays to your profile. After that, your experience may start to slow down and you may experience other issues, depending on your client. The saying "less is more" applies here.
if using paid relays is reducing spam then using free ones brings it back so I am sort of confused on the advantages of either approach.
And I support the comment on centralisation.
Having a network of relays prevents censorship. Anyone can start a relay but whats' the point of nobody else is using it? I could post my heart out but nobody will see it until I won't use one of the big ones.
There seem to be something inherently broken with this approach.
without open relays, you would have far too little content and reach. the open relay users would wither away in their pay relay bubble. the payd relays spill out of the open relays and pour the content into a kind of cache. altruists welcome. without them, it's just nitchewoooh...
