There are two downsides of using too many/low quality relays.
Paid relays are paid because they (ideally) put effort into speed/spam filtering/reliability. They can also aggregate from other relays on your behalf. Using a low-quality relay may result in a low-quality experience.
Secondly, notes are downloaded from every relay you're subscribed to. This is the good part of decentralization/censorship resistance but it can also mean using 7x (when using 7 relays vs 1) bandwidth or things loading much slower/out of order.
If someone who is not publishing to any relays you're subscribed to interacts with you, you may not [immediately] see that interaction.
One of the largest genpub obstacles here is that the pure Nostr experience requires effort and curation.
dwhite /
npub1my…amzap
2023-03-14 15:20:36
in reply to nevent1q…32q2
Author Public Key
npub1myxefzpycnxm4f0ndk7esp508m00rrzxvh3x443xajkrgyz78vpqtamzapPublished at
2023-03-14 15:20:36Event JSON
{
"id": "b87593eb1ebca95fb81a15215902bca966a8410d220ce9c3ce749a627aa3b68e",
"pubkey": "d90d948824c4cdbaa5f36dbd98068f3edef18c4665e26ad626ecac34105e3b02",
"created_at": 1678807236,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"dadf885e87c90c1602d4dafa556ff66123b0577354da7c6ade86b7066547da8e"
],
[
"e",
"91732a4512521147f2779f801d0a376fa27eeceb3b3f197de87b5664acfbc088"
],
[
"e",
"69a0c8fcebaa2f1e31118ab9626397999e0e0719dc45a49fcd8420feef5f4092"
],
[
"e",
"46af40f5b54b6b217f444659075a0d0f1b3a3c635ba33295afb21eae7a2ab9cf"
],
[
"p",
"1f3a335b09a24b763e263c3f874d8cdfaf6318ba1769ff1f9cbff6d4b77eedf6"
],
[
"p",
"c6e2ca9f4bb209a0497679603192a0662af23e4481017ed33166bcebcf0a549d"
],
[
"p",
"80f48f5e58c5d0d9774856ebf7f619da347b1546fc0115dbcb6511de9d4a9e3c"
]
],
"content": "There are two downsides of using too many/low quality relays.\n\nPaid relays are paid because they (ideally) put effort into speed/spam filtering/reliability. They can also aggregate from other relays on your behalf. Using a low-quality relay may result in a low-quality experience.\n\nSecondly, notes are downloaded from every relay you're subscribed to. This is the good part of decentralization/censorship resistance but it can also mean using 7x (when using 7 relays vs 1) bandwidth or things loading much slower/out of order.\n\nIf someone who is not publishing to any relays you're subscribed to interacts with you, you may not [immediately] see that interaction.\n\nOne of the largest genpub obstacles here is that the pure Nostr experience requires effort and curation.",
"sig": "95f7c0892a3b516ad2ab0fee3b5b9c883060e4eda94a4e7037aaa128d02011cbd69b90774a434b8466ecca4c9e9efcf9e28911afe429fdcd2add08e8fe3f7aea"
}