# Nostr Relay VPS — No KYC, Crypto, Dedicated IP | NulNet

> Serve your Nostr relay from a static-IP KVM: unmetered transfer, coin checkout, identity never requested. Live in ~60 s. No ID at signup. Crypto-only billing.

Source: https://nulnet.com/solutions/nostr-relay-vps/

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# Anonymous Nostr Relay VPS: Host Your Own Node with No KYC

![NulNet light KVM: racks and data flows into a black-hole void](https://nulnet.com/img/theme-vps.png) Run strfry or nostr-rs-relay on a no-ID KVM: 1 vCPU class fits a personal relay, Scout 2 GB ECC from $5.49, XMR/BTC/USDT checkout.

Published 2026-08-30 · Updated 2026-09-17 · NulNet Editorial

**Short answer** A relay is one small daemon: rent a no-ID KVM (catalog floor is Scout, 1 vCPU / 2 GB ECC, $5.49 list), run strfry or nostr-rs-relay behind TLS, and hand the websocket URL to your clients. You hold root; the host never touches the process.

NulNet: VPS from $3/mo and dedicated from $30.80/mo annual. The map spans twenty-one locations — Reykjavik (Iceland) and Zurich (Switzerland) among them, plus Singapore, Dubai, Cape Town and fourteen others. Signup is email plus a 12-character password, or token-only. No KYC. Checkout is crypto-only across BTC, XMR, ETH, BNB, SOL, LTC, TRX, XRP, DOGE, DASH, ADA, GRAM (TON), and USDT (TRC-20/ERC-20/BEP-20/SPL). No payload or guest traffic logs; connection metadata ≤24h. DDoS included. One SKN company, one crypto checkout. Deploy at https://nulnet.com/deploy/.

## Why self-host a Nostr relay

On a public relay you live under someone else’s config: events can be dropped, pubkeys rate-limited, the websocket closed on a policy change you never saw. A relay on a VM you pay for answers to your config file instead — NIP traffic lands on your disk, your retention rules, your allow and deny lists. The division of labor is the same as [anonymous relay infrastructure](https://nulnet.com/solutions/tor-relay/) or [other self-run nodes](https://nulnet.com/solutions/lightning-node/): the host sells KVM with root access and leaves the daemon to you.

The honest scope: a personal inbox relay, a small community, or a write-only outbox for your own keys. Clients only find you if you publish the URL, so discovery stays your job. Content must be legal — CSAM and attack traffic are AUP failures that end the account, relay or not.

![no kyc vps for nostr relay — chain lock for a self-hosted node](https://nulnet.com/img/photo-nokyc-1.jpg) VPS from $3* (fund $50+), storage 1–5 TB NVMe from $24/mo annual-eff, dedicated with IPMI from $30.80/mo. Crypto invoice, no KYC.

[Launch now](https://nulnet.com/deploy/?kind=vps&plan=business/)

## Requirements: 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM

A quiet personal or small-community relay fits in **1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM** provided the event database stays bounded — retention and limits live in the relay config, not in hope. The catalog has no 1 GB SKU, so the practical floor is **Scout**: 1 vCPU / 2 GB ECC / 40 GB NVMe / unmetered 1 Gbps at $5.49 list ($3.00 annual-eff), which absorbs the 1 GB profile with headroom. A busier public relay grows in two dimensions — RAM for connected clients and NVMe for the event store — so the next steps are Sentry (2 vCPU / 4 GB / 60 GB, $7.50 list, $6.00 annual-eff) and Ranger (4 vCPU / 8 GB / 120 GB, $12.50 list, $10.00 annual-eff). One list price covers all twenty-one locations, and nested virtualization is enabled if you containerize the daemon.

![no kyc vps for nostr relay — fiber light for websocket sizing](https://nulnet.com/img/photo-crypto-1.jpg)

## strfry | nostr-rs-relay via Docker

Two daemons cover most deployments: **strfry** (LMDB-backed, websocket on 7777 by default) and **nostr-rs-relay** (commonly 8080). Install Docker from the distro’s own packages, move your project tree onto the VM with scp or rsync, and build locally — no marketplace pulls, no pasted clone URLs into a root shell. Put Caddy or nginx on 443 in front of the container so clients get wss://.

```
`# strfry — build from the tree you uploaded. No registry or VCS URLs.
# Save as docker-compose.yml next to ./strfry/ and ./strfry.conf
services:
strfry:
build:
context: ./strfry
dockerfile: Dockerfile
container_name: strfry
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "7777:7777"
volumes:
- ./strfry.conf:/etc/strfry.conf:ro
- strfry-data:/var/lib/strfry
# a personal/small relay fits 1 vCPU / 1 GB once DB retention is set.
mem_limit: 1g
cpus: 1.0
logging:
driver: json-file
options:
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
volumes:
strfry-data:

# nostr-rs-relay: identical pattern — build locally, bind 8080, mount config + data volumes.
# docker compose up -d
`
```
The config file is where the policy lives: NIP support, event retention, accepted pubkeys. Write it yourself — no relay image ships with the server, and the defaults of neither daemon are a community policy.

## Pay crypto, stay anonymous

Checkout is a live-rate crypto invoice across sixteen coins: XMR, BTC, USDT on four networks (TRC-20 / BEP-20 / SPL plus the base asset), ETH, SOL, LTC, TRX and the rest — no passport, selfie, or phone number anywhere in the flow. Signup takes a 32-character token alone or an email plus a 12-character password; the token-only path keeps an inbox off the account entirely. Paying in Monero does not rewrite the AUP, and it does not change who operates the relay: you do.

| Topic | Anonymous VPS relay (you) | Public relays |
|---|---|---|
| Censorship | Your config and process. Clients you tell the URL to. | Operator policy: mute, rate-limit, or drop events without notice. |
| Logs | Relay and event logs sit on your own disk; the published privacy policy, not a promise, defines host-side metadata (24 h connection metadata, no payload logs). | Third-party operators; you do not control their retention or subpoenas. |
| KYC | No ID at NulNet checkout. Crypto invoice or prepaid balance. | Free public relays abound — you are the product, not a named customer, and you still trust their stack. | Launch on Scout if 1 GB RSS is the plan; settle in XMR when the hosting bill should not sit on a transparent chain.

## Operating notes: discovery, NIP-05, backups

Three chores decide whether the relay earns its keep. Discovery: the URL has to reach clients — a NIP-05 identifier on your domain points at the relay, and DNS is the one layer no hosting invoice cleans up. Backups: the event store is a single directory; a nightly dump to the [NVMe storage line](https://nulnet.com/storage/) (1–5 TB from $24/mo annual-eff) or an offsite pull keeps a disk loss from becoming a history loss. Monitoring: websocket accept latency and DB size are the two numbers that say when Scout is done and Sentry is due — upgrade by metrics, not by vibes. If a workload outgrows shared slices entirely, the [dedicated line](https://nulnet.com/dedicated/) puts the relay on whole cores with IPMI.

What is a no-KYC VPS for a Nostr relay? A KVM you rent without any ID step — token or email plus password, then a crypto invoice — on which you install strfry or nostr-rs-relay yourself and publish the websocket. The host never operates Nostr for you.

Is 1 GB RAM enough? Yes for a personal or small-community relay with bounded retention in the config. The catalog floor is Scout at 1 vCPU / 2 GB ECC — more than the 1 GB profile needs — and Sentry doubles the RAM when the community grows.

Can I pay with Monero? Yes. XMR sits on the live-rate invoice beside BTC, USDT on four networks and the other coins in the sixteen-coin catalog, with no KYC attached to any of them.

Which ports does a relay need open? Only the websocket port — 7777 for default strfry, 8080 for nostr-rs-relay — preferably behind TLS on 443. Inbound firewall policy on the VM is yours; the host does not filter outbound.

How do clients find my relay? You publish the URL — in a NIP-05 identifier on your domain, a profile post, or wherever your community lives. Self-hosting changes who runs the policy, not the mechanics of discovery.

What happens if someone posts illegal content? The AUP still applies to your relay's traffic: CSAM and attack traffic end accounts. Run the allow/deny lists, answer abuse mail, and keep retention bounded so review stays feasible.

## Related guides

- [Minimum-data no-KYC checkout](https://nulnet.com/guides/anonymous-vps-crypto-no-kyc/)
- [Buy a VPS with crypto](https://nulnet.com/buy-vps-with-crypto/)
- [No-KYC VPS: requirements and limits](https://nulnet.com/no-kyc-vps/)
- [Pay with Monero](https://nulnet.com/monero-vps/)
- [Offshore VPS](https://nulnet.com/offshore-vps/)
- [VPS vs dedicated bare-metal](https://nulnet.com/guides/vps-vs-dedicated/)
- [Best no-KYC VPS 2026](https://nulnet.com/best-no-kyc-vps-2026/)
- [FAQ: crypto VPS](https://nulnet.com/guides/faq-crypto-vps/)

## Checkout facts

- **Price** VPS from $3/mo. Dedicated from $30.80/mo.
- **Identity** No KYC. Token-only (no email) or email plus a 12-character password. No passport, phone, or card.
- **Payment** Sixteen ways to settle, none of them a card: XMR and BTC lead, ETH, SOL, LTC, BNB and TRX follow, then XRP, DOGE, DASH and ADA, GRAM (TON) for Telegram-adjacent rails, and USDT on four networks — TRC-20, ERC-20, BEP-20, SPL. Live-rate invoice.
- **Logs** No payload / no guest traffic logs. Billing and panel actions retained. Connection metadata ≤24h.
- **Platform** KVM on ECC and local NVMe. DDoS filtering included. Facilities in 21 cities across four continents — the locations table lists each one's tier, uplink and governing law. Need Iceland or Switzerland plus no KYC? Those two carry a published premium (+20% / +35%); every other flag stays at base list. Pay BTC, USDT, XMR, BNB, XRP, GRAM (TON) or 10 more. Open deploy to pick a plan.

## Ready to launch?

Build the box — VPS, storage or bare metal — create the password, pay the invoice that follows.

[Launch now](https://nulnet.com/deploy/?kind=vps&plan=business/)[Dedicated](https://nulnet.com/dedicated/)