I've been thinking about what makes Nostr's architecture so powerful for censorship resistance compared to traditional internet services.

On the regular clearnet, running a service requires an IP address, which immediately creates a vulnerability. You need some form of KYC, and if someone complains, you can easily get shut down.

This led to Tor, where servers connect to directories, eliminating the need for incoming connections. But the trade-off for anonymity is significant latency and bandwidth limitations due to multiple hops in the routing.

Nostr elegantly solves this problem by having both clients and servers connect to a directory that also works as a relay. If I want to run a store server, I just need internet access - no fixed IP or open ports required.

By adding an easily swappable VPN in the middle, everything is encrypted and communications flow through the relay. Only the relay knows my IP (which is just the throwaway VPN's), and if someone really wants to cause trouble, at most they might find the VPS where it's hosted.

Getting an anonymous VPS is simple, especially when you don't need an assigned IP. The result is a system that's fast, secure, and remarkably resistant to censorship.