#byebye2023

Long time no see! It has been a while since I wrote a new blog and my posting on Damus has also been at a low level. I've been busy with work, had a little too much on my plate, and also spent some time with my family. But 2024 is here, the ETF has been accepted, the halving is close, and we are looking forward to a bright and positive future for the crypto world as well as the Nostr world. Exciting things are happening, and I would like to be a part of it.

Nostr relay#

So, about running the Nostr relay! I'm excited to start my relay. I managed to figure out how to run a Nostr relay, which actually is pretty easy. Just buy a Raspberry Pi, a HDD/SSD, SD card, some Pi casing, and install Umbrel on your Raspberry Pi. Please, please, please remember to use a new HDD/SSD or an old one that can be wiped!! I made the mistake of not reading the manual properly on the website umbrel.com, so I accidentally wiped my HDD and lost precious pictures on it. It was a stupid mistake, but thanks to some software, I managed to recover some of the data.

After installing Umbrel on the Raspberry Pi, I soon realized that you can do a lot of things with this Umbrel device. You can run a Nostr relay, a Bitcoin node, Plex, Tailscale, Immich, and all of them at the same time. Wow, that's a lot. However, the downside was that my Pi was running very hot, so I decided to buy a case fan. A couple of days later, the delivery guy dropped it off at my doorstep, and I installed it. But then, suddenly, when booting, my Umbrel ran into trouble.

It wouldn't boot anymore, the case fan was screaming like a guinea pig, and after lots of screaming, endless debugging, and smashing my keyboard, I decided to quit for a little bit. I will fix this later on and rest for a couple of weeks. 2023 has been a tough year.

Plans for 2024#

This year, I will try to be more active with Nostr and might start some small projects. But first, the basics: the NIPS, running my relay again, and a 'Hello World' post. I still don't have a step-by-step guide on what to do next, but I'll see where I end up next time :-).

That's enough for now, just a small blog this time. Again, if you missed my last blog, I am writing this as a personal journey into Nostr. If you have any tips or ideas, please do not hesitate to comment.

See you in the next one!