Promoting Decentralisation--Nostr Relay's Early Incentive Plan

Relay is the soul of the decentralized Nostr network. In previous articles, we discussed who would bear the ongoing operational costs of Relay. To ensure a thriving storage network, Relay needs to be incentivized. In order to achieve better decentralization of media, YakiHonne has launched the Relay's early incentive plan to support the development of 50 Relays for a period of 6 months.

The details of the grant program are as follows:

• Grant amount: A total of $50,000, with each grant ideally being $1000.
• Application period: From May 15, 2024, to December 31, 2024.
• Applicants: Existing Relay node hosts or new hosters, with a funding ratio of 20 existing Relay nodes and 30 new Relay nodes.

Relay operational requirements:

1. The minimum requirements for Relay deployment are according to [1]:

• 1.1. High performance Intel
• 1.2. 1 vCPU
• 1.3. 2048 MB Ram
• 1.4. 50 GB NVMe SSD
• 1.5. OS Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

2. There are no restrictions on storage service providers, and you can choose any stable provider.

3. There are no restrictions on the location of Relays, but it is recommended to have geographical diversity to maintain a balanced distribution of Relays.

4. Relays need to operate continuously for the next 6 months with downtime not exceeding 30 minutes.

5. You can choose from the already existed relays implementations: nostr-rs-relay based on Rust, nostr-ts-relay akk nostream using Typescript, or strfry using C++.

6. Relay models can be of any type: thematic Relays relying on keyword filtering for specific topics, invitation-only Relays that restrict publishing permissions through public keys, or paid and free public Relays corresponding to paid publishing and fully open modes, respectively. However, to maintain a balanced incentive, the proportion of paid and invitation-only Relays will not exceed 20%.

7. Monthly reports on Relay stability and availability need to be shared to maintain good operational status.

Application process:

You need to submit a proposal including whether you are already hosting a Relay, the name of the existing Relay, specifications of the Relay hosting service, possible service provider choices, Relay development environment, Relay model, and more details to help you secure funding.

Submission: npub1yzvxlwp7wawed5vgefwfmugvumtp8c8t0etk3g8sky4n0ndvyxesnxrf8q

Grant Evaluation and Disbursement:

Within one week of receiving the application, we will provide feedback on the grant decision. The grant amount will be disbursed in two installments, with 50% being provided initially and the remaining 50% being disbursed after 3 months.

Rewards:

In the early incentive program, nodes that contribute consistently to improving Relay performance, expanding functionality, and ensuring stability will receive special rewards and have the opportunity to earn more income.

The goal of this incentive program is to further decentralize Nostr, enhance its performance, and promote the development of Relay functionality. Through the early incentive program, we aim to explore sustainable incentive models for Relays and lay the foundation for their sustainable development.