We Fund Privacy, We Do Not Just Sell It
PikaSim is built for the crypto and privacy communities, so we give back to the infrastructure those communities depend on. We run free public services that anyone can use, no account, no payment, no strings attached. A Tor relay donating bandwidth to keep the anonymity network fast and resilient, and a Nostr relay for censorship-resistant social.
Why We Run Free Infrastructure
Privacy is not a feature you can buy off a shelf. It only exists because real people and organizations donate the servers, bandwidth, and time that keep the networks alive. We accept Monero, we publish a Tor hidden service, and we never collect your email or run KYC. Operating public nodes is the natural extension of that: contributing the same infrastructure we ourselves rely on.
You do not need to be a PikaSim customer. These services are open to the whole community, no account or payment required.
Our relays do not keep request logs that could be used to link you to your traffic. The same no-logs principle behind our eSIM service applies here.
Our relays are published on community-maintained lists so the people who need them can find them and verify they are real.
We run our own Monero and Bitcoin nodes for payments and publish a Tor hidden service. Contributing relay capacity back to those same networks is the natural extension of that.
Tor Relay: Donating Bandwidth to Anonymity
The Tor network keeps millions of people safe, journalists, activists, researchers, and anyone who simply refuses to be tracked. It runs entirely on volunteer-operated relays. We run a relay that donates bandwidth to the network, helping route traffic faster and more reliably for everyone who depends on it.
Bandwidth for the Network
Our relay forwards encrypted Tor traffic between other nodes. Every relay added makes the network faster and harder to deanonymize through traffic analysis.
Listed on Tor Metrics
Our relay PikaSim is published on the official Tor Metrics directory with its nickname, uptime, and contact info. Verifiable proof we contribute, not just a claim on a webpage.
We Already Speak Tor
PikaSim runs a Tor hidden service so you can reach us anonymously. Operating a relay extends that commitment from our own site to the wider network.
Long-Term Commitment
Relays are only useful when they stay up. Ours is funded and monitored as permanent infrastructure, not a weekend experiment that disappears.
Verify Our Relay
Our relay is live. Look it up on the official Tor Metrics directory by its permanent fingerprint:
0EFB7322FFE2EA4174965687C368D322B8170E7D
Live, nicknamed PikaSim. View it on Tor Metrics. New relays take a few hours to first appear and a few days to carry full traffic.
Nostr Relay: Censorship-Resistant Social
Nostr is a simple, open protocol for social networking that no company or government can shut down or control. It is the native social layer of the Bitcoin and privacy communities, and it runs on independent relays that anyone can operate. We run a public relay so people have one more place to publish that does not answer to a platform.
Free and Read-Open
Anyone can read from our relay, no account and no payment. It is open to the whole Nostr network, not just our customers.
Spam-Resistant Writes
Publishing requires a small proof-of-work (NIP-13). That costs a spammer real computation while staying invisible to normal users, so the relay stays clean without an allowlist or gatekeeper.
Lightning-Native Community
Nostr is where the Bitcoin and Lightning world already lives, including zaps. It is a natural home for a service built on self-hosted crypto payments.
Open Source, Self-Hosted
We run the open-source strfry relay on our own hardware. No third-party relay provider, no analytics, just bandwidth and storage we donate to the network.
Add Our Relay
Add this relay URL in your Nostr client (Damus, Amethyst, Primal, snort, and others):
wss://relay.pikasim.com
Live and read-open to everyone. Writing is free for PikaSim customers, or open to anyone via a small Lightning payment or proof-of-work. See how to get write access, or find us on nostr.watch.
Talk Is Cheap. Infrastructure Is Not.
Plenty of companies put "privacy" in their marketing. Far fewer actually spend money on the networks that make privacy possible. Here is the difference between saying it and doing it:
| Privacy Commitment | Most "Privacy" Brands | PikaSim |
|---|---|---|
| Accepts crypto | Via a third-party processor | Self-hosted BTCPay Server |
| Accepts Monero | Swapped to BTC by a swap API | Native, full node, no swap |
| Donates to the Tor network | No | Yes, runs a live relay |
| Runs a public Nostr relay | No | Yes, free and open |
| Reachable over Tor | Rarely | Tor hidden service |
| Collects your email | Almost always | Never |
| Warrant canary | No | Yes, updated monthly |
Free Infrastructure FAQ
Do I need a PikaSim account to use these?
No. We do not have accounts at all, and our public infrastructure is open to everyone. Just add our Nostr relay in your client, or use our Tor relay simply by using Tor. No sign-up, no identification.
Do you log traffic through your relays?
No. Our relays do not keep request logs that could link your IP to your traffic. A Tor relay cannot see both ends of a circuit by design, which is exactly why the network is built the way it is.
Do you run your own Monero node?
Yes, for payments. A fully synced Monero daemon runs on our own BTCPay server and validates every transaction independently, so we never rely on a third party to confirm your payment. It is not a public remote node.
What kind of Tor relay do you run?
A relay that forwards traffic inside the network and donates bandwidth to keep Tor fast and resilient. You can find it on the official Tor Metrics directory by its fingerprint.
How do I verify these services are real?
Both are listed on independent, community-maintained directories: the Tor relay on Tor Metrics, and the Nostr relay on nostr.watch. You do not have to take our word for it.
Why give this away for free?
Because the privacy and crypto communities are built on shared infrastructure. We benefit from Tor and Monero every day. Contributing back is how the ecosystem stays healthy, and it is the kind of company we want to be.
Privacy You Can Actually Use
Buy an anonymous eSIM with crypto, pay in Monero, reach us over Tor, and use the relays we share with the community. No account, no email, no trace.