I've been experimenting with relay selection and came up with this method for deterministically selecting an initial relay list for a given npub:
- Connect to some "bootstrap" popular relays.
- Query for random `kind=10002` and `kind=3` events.
- Build a big list of relays from the results (about 900 right now, takes 1 second).
- Hash every relay URL and the target/user's npub.
- Use Kademlia style XOR-distance to find the "closest" relays.
- Select the top 5 and use them.
This has the effect of distributing users over a large set of Nostr relays and reduces centralization pressure. Savvy users can always set their own relays, run their own relays etc. but I think this is better than hard coding "big" relays into apps. This algorithm has the additional benefit of being able to get a relay set for a participating user just by knowing their npub.
PoC: https://github.com/chr15m/nostr-dht
/ mccrmx
npub1m2…r54wn
2025-09-30 00:44:26 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…mpdy
Author Public Key
npub1m2f3j22hf90mt8mw788pne6fg7c8j2mw4gd3xjsptspjdeqf05dqhr54wnSeen on
wss://relay.mccormick.cxPublished at
2025-09-30 00:44:26 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "834cd63ab6f34884394062c9337797d5d26baacfc8418ce81b0a223abdce13a7",
"pubkey": "da93192957495fb59f6ef1ce19e74947b0792b6eaa1b134a015c0326e4097d1a",
"created_at": 1759193066,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
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"hodlbod"
],
[
"p",
"ee9d979e7e1418a9f7472baf82dc96082a0d4251b77bcb170a6ecec93fadff64",
"wss://theforest.nostr1.com/",
"Anthony Accioly"
],
[
"p",
"7cc328a08ddb2afdf9f9be77beff4c83489ff979721827d628a542f32a247c0e",
"wss://nostr21.com/",
"cloud fodder and 121 others"
],
[
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"content": "I've been experimenting with relay selection and came up with this method for deterministically selecting an initial relay list for a given npub:\n\n- Connect to some \"bootstrap\" popular relays.\n- Query for random `kind=10002` and `kind=3` events.\n- Build a big list of relays from the results (about 900 right now, takes 1 second).\n- Hash every relay URL and the target/user's npub.\n- Use Kademlia style XOR-distance to find the \"closest\" relays.\n- Select the top 5 and use them.\n\nThis has the effect of distributing users over a large set of Nostr relays and reduces centralization pressure. Savvy users can always set their own relays, run their own relays etc. but I think this is better than hard coding \"big\" relays into apps. This algorithm has the additional benefit of being able to get a relay set for a participating user just by knowing their npub.\n\nPoC: https://github.com/chr15m/nostr-dht",
"sig": "d7047bd62748c69bd24d22628d5b736424773b32cd09769e51c57ed7f78ae008374ea94fdfa037bfcafa3f932db15f669f5afafcc4b95ef36bafa24fdcfd7ba9"
}