Derek, can you post about how nodes are set up and what is involved? I agree with everything that you wrote, however I'm interested in encouraging people to set up nodes for specific purposes. Like, a business could set up a node and use it for customer service, a group could set up a node and use it for internal communications, a school could set up a node and use it specifically for their students to keep track of this that or the other thing.  I found a list of nodes and it identifies the location, but does geographical location really matter in a digital context?  Could someone launch a computer system into orbit where a node could "reside", maybe helping to relay communications to "Houston" and back.

Decentralization is here, but the development and evolution of the network is going to be amazing to watch. 

 geolocation matters for ping and response time. also, some relays are locked down by geo-IP address. for example, many Japanese relays only allow Japanese IP addresses to connect.

as for running a relay, we have many, many guides. this is an old guide that i used back in december 2022. it's still relevant. https://andreneves.xyz/p/set-up-a-nostr-relay-server-in-under

you can also run a relay on your Umbrel server if you prefer the point and click methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KahRH_u2UMA

@utxo the webmaster 🧑‍💻 also made a live stream video on how to install a strfry relay. https://flare.pub/w/naddr1qqrhwmmn2dfhwdgzyr3vea70ypqr70e2ff2mx28smca78p2c5l2lxd3jlk4wl3exc8ywkqcyqqqgtwckzlsr3 

 Looking forward to this being as easy to set up as IPFS Desktop. 😉  Someday. 

 One click install would be nice. 

 I hope someone's working on it on Github.