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Offshore Hosting for a Paid Nostr Relay
Paid Nostr relays charge users (typically in sats over Lightning) for write access. Payment funds operations and provides Sybil resistance against spam. Building a paid relay requires Lightning integration alongside the relay itself. This page covers hosting a paid Nostr relay on an Anubiz offshore VPS, including the Lightning side.
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Paid relay architecture
Relay daemon (strfry or nostr-rs-relay configured for paid mode), Lightning node (LND or CLN) or LNbits instance, payment verification service that updates the relay's allow-list on payment confirmation. Many operators use BTCPay Server or a hosted LNbits to simplify Lightning ops. The relay logic and the Lightning logic can co-locate on one VPS or split across two.
Sizing
4 vCPU 8 GB RAM 160 GB NVMe covers a paid relay with thousands of users plus a small LND node. For higher LN channel capacity or large relay traffic, scale up. NVMe matters: Lightning databases prefer fast disk.
Anubiz binding
Anubiz offshore VPS plans from $17.90/mo. Iceland and Romania recommended. Pay your hosting bill in BTC or Monero; users pay your relay in Lightning sats. Internal links: /en/hosting-for-nostr-relay-offshore, /en/hosting-for-bitcoin-lightning-node, /en/anonymous-vps.
Operational considerations
Paid relays must keep their Lightning node alive and well-channeled. Plan for LND/CLN maintenance, backup of channel state, and recovery procedures. Some operators outsource Lightning to a hosted LN service to reduce ops burden at the cost of trust assumption. Decide which trade you prefer before launch.
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