Guides

Run a relayer

A relayer pays gas and broadcasts shielded transactions so users never touch the chain in the clear. Run one to earn a share of relayer fees and help decentralize the network.

Preview

Relayer operation is testnet-first. The steps below are the target flow; join the community to run one on the incentivized testnet.

What a relayer does

Receives a signed shielded transaction from a user.
Pays gas and submits it on-chain.
Takes a small fee, deducted from the user’s shielded balance.

A relayer can only ignore a request — it can never read amounts, move funds, or deanonymize anyone.

1 — Stake to join the set

cowl stake 10000     # back the relayer/prover set with $COWL

2 — Run the service

cowl relayer start --rpc <url> --fee 30   # fee in basis points

3 — Earn

Relayer fees accrue as you serve traffic; a share of protocol fees flows to stakers via the fee collector.

Tip

Relayers are interchangeable. Users route around a slow or censoring one automatically — so uptime and a fair fee are how you win volume.