Why should note hosting be commoditized? Can it even be commoditized? Compare it to renting servers. There isn't a single market price to host a web app. Every host has its own features, pricing structure, free tier etc.
Same with relays. Why standardize income source? The default might be to pay to have your notes hosted, but you could just as easily have a format where a relay invests in scouring and indexing all kinds of posts, and users pay to have a curated feed of the best posts of the day, or maybe even a personalized feed. You could see relays that charge for notes on demand you can't find elsewhere where you give the note ID and pay them to get the note back. I even imagine there will be relays that hold on to notes that people request to delete and will charge to see them like a paid wayback machine.
Even in the most common case where relays charge to host your notes, they will differentiate on many factors such as $/storage, $/bandwidth, uptime, speed, hosting location, redundancy, censorship resistance etc. Hosting is not something that can be commoditized.
One thing for certain though, and it's biggest difference between your concept is the ad funded relays. I don't believe this can ever gonna be a significant part of Nostr and the best thing about it. It will be a thing when there is a company that builds out a full stack with a client that works with their own relays but even then it's not necessary for any standard protocol to pay for it.
The client side decides what the users see. It always has last say in that field. Therefore, any attempt to fund a relay with ads will be fought off by client side filters if it ever gains significant market share.
hamsi / Karadenizli
npub15r…t7dpl
2025-04-20 01:27:14
in reply to nevent1q…0f7j
Author Public Key
npub15r9hp5eq3a0heantnja4sth3ug277nhse9f3scu937mxfh0mpw8snt7dplPublished at
2025-04-20 01:27:14Event JSON
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"content": "Why should note hosting be commoditized? Can it even be commoditized? Compare it to renting servers. There isn't a single market price to host a web app. Every host has its own features, pricing structure, free tier etc. \n\nSame with relays. Why standardize income source? The default might be to pay to have your notes hosted, but you could just as easily have a format where a relay invests in scouring and indexing all kinds of posts, and users pay to have a curated feed of the best posts of the day, or maybe even a personalized feed. You could see relays that charge for notes on demand you can't find elsewhere where you give the note ID and pay them to get the note back. I even imagine there will be relays that hold on to notes that people request to delete and will charge to see them like a paid wayback machine. \n\nEven in the most common case where relays charge to host your notes, they will differentiate on many factors such as $/storage, $/bandwidth, uptime, speed, hosting location, redundancy, censorship resistance etc. Hosting is not something that can be commoditized. \n\nOne thing for certain though, and it's biggest difference between your concept is the ad funded relays. I don't believe this can ever gonna be a significant part of Nostr and the best thing about it. It will be a thing when there is a company that builds out a full stack with a client that works with their own relays but even then it's not necessary for any standard protocol to pay for it. \n\nThe client side decides what the users see. It always has last say in that field. Therefore, any attempt to fund a relay with ads will be fought off by client side filters if it ever gains significant market share. ",
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}