I woke up early today, determined to finally get Nostr up and running and join the network. After all, ChatGPT—my AI guide for most things—told me everything would be fine and estimated it would only take 30 minutes to an hour. You're probably thinking it should have taken 15–20 minutes tops. Well, I’m self-hosting everything.

Little did I know what self-hosting everything really involves.

Remember, I’m not a coder, network engineer, or anyone working in the computer industry. I have some basic computer knowledge and skills, but I’ve been branching out more with the help of AI. I’ve written about it many times on my blog and social media. I’m learning, but I have to be careful—not to get too absorbed. Before I know it, the whole day is gone. Like today.

Today came with its share of challenges, because when I start something, I want to finish it—and finish it properly.

I like using Portainer with my Raspberry Pi, along with Docker and Docker Compose, but that setup seems to come with some unique hurdles. For example, it took me quite a while to get a simple verification file—just 12 lines long—working the way it was supposed to. Then came the relay setup, which took up the rest of the day.

After some trial and error, I got it running on my setup. I even had to compile a version myself to work with my environment—something I’ve never done before. Definitely a first for me.

In the end, it’s up and running. ✅

The last piece I’m working through is understanding why Amethyst for Android shows everything as verified and functioning, while Snort.social and Iris.to don’t reflect that. Also, my private relay doesn’t appear online on those platforms yet, so I still have a bit of troubleshooting ahead.

The Nostr network shows promise—it reminds me of Bluesky and the early days of Twitter. Two days left in my long weekend… let’s see what I get involved in tomorrow!

#SelfHosting #Nostr #RaspberryPi