So as someone who is part of the problem with my PirateWeather.net API, I feel this, and wish there was a better way. The issue is that the cloud makes so many things possible (in my case, downloading and processing 500 GB/day of data), which is awesome, but also can’t just be wide open, since the bill would be outrageous. One thing I’m toying with is using email addresses as an API key with some sort of verification process afterwards, since this might be easier for people to use and still prevent abuse. Long term, the way forward is to reduce download and processing requirements to make self hosting feasible. It’s a tricky problem to solve though.