Running a Tor relay is too hard and complicated for many people who may want to help Tor.
Why there is no click-to-run method for running a Tor relay?
Like Tor Browser
Especially for Windows users
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I tried to address this by writing a guide on how to get started with hosting a tor relay using docker, but that is primarily target linux users. If you are able to have your Windows computer running for a number of days at a time, then it may still be worth it to enable Hyper-V (if your OS supports it) and use Docker for Windows, or have a Virtualbox Linux VM running. Like JSEvans said, it not yet at a one-click launch state, and i think there’s a very good reason for that.– BirbCommented Jan 6, 2020 at 21:22
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1 Answer
The short answer is that it could be. It is open source and anyone can write their own tool that could automate a one-click solution.
The longer answer is because Tor isn't simple. The truth is that making an "easy" button is actually kind of a bad idea. A good relay operator is a well-informed relay operator. That means spending time learning the things that make Tor hard and complicated. There are lots of tutorials out there that will take you through the process. Here is the Tor Relay Guide and here is the information on joining the Relay operator mailing list.
If you would like to help fellow Tor users in countries where the internet is heavily censored but don't have the time to dedicate to setting up a relay, check out Project Snowflake.
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Another risk of a click-to-run relay is that it could encourage having many relays running on a small number of VPS hosts, thus centralizing the network further.– tao_oatCommented Jan 7, 2020 at 14:15