Running a Lighthouse
Every group runs their own lighthouse. This is the architectural decision that makes FreedomCore sovereign infrastructure rather than a hosted service.
What You Need
One small server. A Raspberry Pi. A $5/month VPS. An old laptop. One Go binary, one systemd service.
The lighthouse runs five services in a single process:
| Service | Port | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Nebula Lighthouse | UDP 4242 | Peer discovery |
| TURN Server | UDP/TCP 3478 | Relay for NAT failures |
| WebRTC Signaling | WSS 443 | Session setup |
| Browser Gateway | HTTPS 443 | Zero-install guest access |
| Orchestrator | Internal | Certificate management |
What It Costs
| Provider | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | $0 | Your hardware, your electricity |
| DigitalOcean droplet | $4-6 | Smallest size works |
| Hetzner VPS | $3-5 | European hosting |
| Old laptop | $0 | Runs on anything with a network connection |
FreedomCore operates public lighthouses (Toronto, Sydney) for bootstrapping and guest access. But in production, every group runs their own. FreedomCore cannot see, access, or interfere with group traffic.
Why This Matters
| Benefit | Why |
|---|---|
| Zero relay cost for FreedomCore | Each group handles their own traffic |
| Infinite scale | Adding a group adds zero load to anyone else |
| Privacy by design | FreedomCore has zero visibility into group traffic |
| No vendor lock-in | If FreedomCore disappears tomorrow, every group keeps working |
| Trust anchor | The lighthouse operator IS the certificate authority |
Revenue comes from directory listings, backup subscriptions, and federation — not from running infrastructure. This is why FreedomCore can scale to millions of groups without millions in server costs.
The Sovereignty Guarantee
Your lighthouse holds the certificate authority for your group. It signs certificates. It manages membership. It relays traffic when direct connections fail.
FreedomCore provides the software. You provide the hardware. Your data never touches a FreedomCore server. If FreedomCore vanishes, your lighthouse keeps running. Your group keeps working. Forever.
This is not a feature. It is the architecture.