Set Up a Free Oracle Cloud Web Server

🔴 Hard

Oracle Cloud's Always-Free tier gives a real VPS (Ampere ARM, up to 4 CPU / 24 GB) that costs nothing monthly. Put a simple web page on it that proves it's yours. No proxy, no VPN — one web server, one page.

🔴 Laptop and SSH required. Do not attempt this task on a phone alone. Signup needs a card (small temporary authorization only — the tier itself is free).

You need: a laptop, an email address, and any card for the signup authorization (temporary hold only — the tier itself is free). Words you'll meet: SSH (secure login to your server), instance (your rented computer), curl (a command that fetches a web page). No SSH key yet? Generate one during instance creation.

Steps

1. Create an Oracle Cloud account at oracle.com/cloud/free.
2. Go to Compute > Instances > Create Instance. Choose an Always Free shape: Ampere A1 ARM, boot image Ubuntu 24.04.
3. Upload or generate an SSH key pair during creation, then create the instance.
4. Note the external public IP. If you get "out of host capacity", retry later or switch availability domain — a known Oracle limitation.

Setup

1. SSH in: ssh -i <keyfile> ubuntu@<external-ip>
2. Install the web server: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nginx
3. Publish your ownership page — it must contain the word satsboard plus your Nostr npub (or the name from your board profile):
   echo "satsboard npub1yourkeyhere" | sudo tee /var/www/html/index.html
4. Open port 80 in the instance firewall AND in the OS: sudo ufw allow 80
5. Test from your own machine: curl http://<external-ip> must print your ownership line.
6. Keep the server actively used so Oracle doesn't reclaim it as idle (a served page with occasional visits is fine).

What to Submit

In the notes field, enter exactly:

ip | your-external-ip
web | ok (curl returned my ownership line)

Plus 1 screenshot of your terminal showing the curl succeeding.

What success looks like

The admin runs curl http://<your-ip> and sees your ownership line. No login, no proxy dance — a public page that is unmistakably yours.

Rules

• Only one Oracle VPS per worker.
• The page must stay up at least 7 days after submission.
• Never share your private SSH key file.