Self-hosting overview
Summary. Goblin’s public infrastructure (the
goblin.stname authority and the defaultrelay.floonet.devrelay) is all run-your-own. Wallets reach relays over a Tor exit (not an onion) whenever Tor routing is on, so there’s no separate onion service to run, just make sure your relay accepts Tor exit traffic. None of it is a hard dependency: you can point a Goblin wallet at your own name authority and your own relay, and build the app from source.
Why self-host
Defaults are conveniences, not gatekeepers. Running your own pieces gives you:
- Independence: your community isn’t reliant on one operator for names or relaying.
- A smaller metadata footprint: your users’ name lookups and messages stay on infrastructure you control.
- Federation: your name authority issues
name@yourdomain, and Goblin can be told to treat it as home.
The pieces
| Service | What it does | Guide |
|---|---|---|
Name authority (goblin-nip05d) | Issues names, resolves NIP-05, NIP-98 auth | Run a name authority |
| Relay (a Floonet package) | Carries the encrypted payment messages | Run a relay |
| Tor reachability | Nothing to run; just make sure your relay doesn’t block Tor exit traffic | Tor and your relay |
| The app itself | Build for desktop / Android | Building Goblin |
Pointing a wallet at your infra
- Name authority: Settings → Identity → Name authority → set your domain. Bare names then resolve against it.
- Relays: Settings → Nostr Relays → add your
wss://…and save & reconnect. There’s nothing to configure for Tor: every wallet dials your relay over a Tor exit automatically, so the only requirement on your side is not blocking Tor exit-node traffic (see Tor and your relay).
These docs keep deployment generic. Adapt paths, domains, and certificates to your own host; don’t copy another operator’s production specifics.