0xRelay-Finder: Here's Why Nostr Needs This

The missing layer between apps, relays, and trust.

Every Nostr app you use connects to relays. But nobody knows which relays are good, which are broken, or how to tell. We built the tool to fix that — and it's available now.

https://0xrelay-finder.shakespeare.wtf

The Problem Nobody Talks About#

Nostr runs on relays. That's the entire protocol. Every message, every reaction, every zap flows through them. Your client picks a relay list. You hope it works.

What happens when a relay goes down? Slow? Blocks your events silently? Starts lying about which NIPs it supports?

You find out when your DMs stop arriving. Or your zaps vanish. Or your followers count jumps because the relay dropped half your posts.

Current reality: every app hardcodes its relay list. Users can't compare relays. Operators get zero competitive pressure. Bad relays survive because nobody has a way to show they're bad.

It's a blind market. And blind markets always produce bad outcomes.

What 0xRelay-Finder Does#

0xRelay-Finder is the first open-source relay evaluation platform that actually tests what relays do — not just what they say.

Live NIP Verification#

Relays advertise their NIP support in their NIP-11 info document. That's self-reporting. Anyone can claim anything.

0xRelay-Finder opens an actual WebSocket connection and sends targeted tests:

• NIP-01: Send REQ → expect EVENT or EOSE
• NIP-13: Send event with nonce tag → check PoW validation
• NIP-15: Send REQ → expect EOSE marker
• NIP-42: Check if relay sends AUTH challenge
• NIP-45: Send COUNT → expect count response
• NIP-50: Send search query → expect no error
• NIP-67: Check EOSE completeness hints
• NIP-77: Send NEG-OPEN → check negentropy support
• NIP-86: Probe management API

Results are three-state: Verified (works), Failed (claims support but breaks), or No test (can't auto-test). No fuzzy ratings. No "operator discretion." Real binary truth.

This alone changes the game. When a relay claims NIP-45 but returns garbage counts, the community sees it immediately.

Auto-Discovery From the Monitor Network#

Most relay directories require manual submission. A human fills out a form. That's slow and incomplete.

0xRelay-Finder consumes kind:30166 events from all NIP-66 monitors across the ecosystem — nostr.watch-style monitoring networks that continuously probe relays. Every relay the monitor network has health-checked gets auto-imported with its real NIP-11 doc, RTT, geohash, and feature set.

No forms. No gatekeepers. If a relay exists and responds, it appears.

Transparent Health Score#

Every relay gets a public, auditable score out of 100, broken down by component:

Component	Weight	Source
30-day uptime	25 pts	NIP-66 monitor probes
Average latency	15 pts	RTT measurements
NIP-11 completeness	10 pts	Name, description, contact, software, icon
Community trust	10 pts	WoT-weighted votes + NIP-32 labels + NIP-85 assertions
NIP support breadth	10 pts	Count of supported NIPs
Operator verification	10 pts	NIP-11 pubkey, NIP-66 presence, website, ToS
Membership features	5 pts	NIP-43 roles, invite system
Advanced protocol	5 pts	NIP-67, NIP-77, NIP-86
Directory age	5 pts	Time in the directory

Full breakdown visible on every relay page. Anyone can audit the math.

Multi-Source Trust#

Trust isn't decided by one entity. Three independent systems feed together:

1. NIP-32 Labels (com.0xrelayfinder.trust) — community moderators assign 0-100 trust ratings
2. NIP-85 Assertions — trusted providers (like nostr.band) publish kind:30382 relay trust scores
3. Web-of-Trust Scoring — follows from kind:3 lists weight recommendations from known operators

Multiple inputs, none single-point. Same model that makes Nostr itself resilient.

Visual Geography#

The /atlas view maps every known relay onto a dependency-free SVG world map. Green = healthy, yellow = slow, red = offline. Click any marker for full details.

No tile servers. No API keys. Just pure geographic signal on relay health. Useful whether you're debugging latency or just curious where the network lives.

Why This Matters For Builders#

Every Nostr app builder faces the same decision: which relays do I connect to?

Without a tool like 0xRelay-Finder, builders either:

• Pick relays arbitrarily (user experience varies wildly)
• Copy other apps' relay lists (herd behavior, no optimization)
• Build their own monitoring (expensive, narrow scope)

With it: data-driven decisions, continuous improvement, competitive intelligence on operator reliability.

Apps can also embed status widgets, recommend relays to users based on geographic proximity, and alert when their chosen relays degrade.

Why This Matters For Operators#

Relay operators usually have zero feedback on performance. They know if their server crashes. They don't know latency trends, NIP compliance drift, or how they compare to peer relays.

0xRelay-Finder provides:

• Automated health dashboards (their relay, scored over time)
• Competitive benchmarking against similar operators
• Early warning when a specific NIP they claim starts failing
• User-submitted reports and community labels

Plus: NIP-86 integration lets operators manage ban lists and moderate events directly from the interface. Self-service moderation. No CLI required.

Why This Matters For Users#

Users just want their messages to arrive. Fast. Without censorship or loss.

0xRelay-Finder helps users choose relays by:

• Seeing real health scores, not marketing copy
• Filtering by country (reduce latency) or by feature set
• Checking if their favorite relay is actually reliable
• Finding privacy-focused relay options (membership gates, payment walls)

The /sets pages group relays by use-case: fast general relay, DM-optimized relay, zap-friendly relay, membership relay. Practical curation, not random lists.

Built Under 0xPrivacy Principles#

MIT licensed. Zero-tracking frontend. No API keys. No rate limits. Query the directory directly:

["REQ","sub",{"kinds":[30078],"#t":["relay-submission"],"limit":50}]

Data stored as signed Nostr events on dedicated relay instances (wss://relay.0xPrivacy.online, wss://0xPrivacy.nostr1.com). Community-relayed through standard Nostr infrastructure. Fully decentralised.

What's Next#

The roadmap includes:

• Own NIP-66 monitor (self-sovereign liveness data)
• Relay changelog tracking NIP-11 drift over time
• Embeddable status widget for third-party apps
• Multi-relay replication verification via NIP-77

The directory already covers 29+ seed relays with automatic enrichment from the full monitor network. New monitors automatically expand coverage.

Try It#

If you're building a Nostr app: pick your relay list with confidence, not guesswork.

If you run a relay: see how you stack up, improve what matters, compete on merit.

If you just use Nostr daily: make sure your relay isn't losing your messages.

All tools free. Open source. Zero compromise on decentralisation.

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Built under 0xPrivacy. Privacy / Decentralisation / Bitcoin + Nostr.