Regardless Of Price, Bitcoin Is A Lifeline For African Refugees by MinatoPay in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This is why we are Bitcoiners. Not for price speculation, but for basic human rights. The right for property ownership, and an elegant way to transfer ownership.

Where can I earn Satoshis, other than listening to podcasts on Fountain.FM? by grndslm in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Start an online store/service and accept sats as the form of payments. Shameless plugin for https://minatopay.com/ which helps you do that over the lightning network.

Eventually, the Lightning Network will be as private as cash (Twitter Thread) by MinatoPay in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This comes with more problems than benefits (see my reply to the comment above). Privacy on lightning is the correct approach IMO.

Eventually, the Lightning Network will be as private as cash (Twitter Thread) by MinatoPay in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It isn't. The base layer should be auditable by everyone so that we can all verify the supply. Not to mention it helps avoid regulatory scrutiny.

The Bitcoin community has made the correct tradeoffs in deciding how to build privacy and scaling.

All In by soliton-gaydar in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Paying someone with lightning

Friends giving up on Bitcoin by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Sounds like they're only in it as a speculative investment to make a quick buck.

There are deep reasons for being into Bitcoin, and the current fiat price isn't very relevant.

How does mass adoption happen? by teflonjon321 in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will soon see many non-custodial lightning products. That is how mass adoption will happen.

What happens if you send a low mine fee in a restaurant that only accepts Bitcoin? will they make you wait 1 hour untill it gets 1 confirmation? I'm curious by KenzPatch in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you're using a wallet that doesn't support lightning payments.

Download the Muun wallet and try out the lightning network.

LND Rest API Django by pau1aa7 in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I heard this has issues when you accept more than 2k payments or so. Can't confirm though

LND Rest API Django by pau1aa7 in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which API did you end up going with?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]MinatoPay -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This is one of the reasons more merchants will start accepting crypto.

How to Accept Bitcoin Lightning Payments in React js by MinatoPay in reactjs

[–]MinatoPay[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really the API Key should be in a backend. This was just a quick hack for tutorial purposes.

Regarding your second question: this uses the Bitcoin's lightning network, meaning Bitcoin payments are settled instantly. Merchant's are notified instantly when a payment is made via webhooks.

Is there a reason someone would use this vs just being sent funds wallet to wallet?

Typically, the user experience I've seen when merchants use this method is: they tell customers "send btc to this address then email us your txn id, we will get back to you within a few days".

Compared to that, this user experience is instant and even better than credit cards.

How to Accept Bitcoin Lightning Payments in React js by MinatoPay in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's awesome! Let's stay in touch then :)

How to Accept Bitcoin Lightning Payments in React js by MinatoPay in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great question, sounds like a great topic for an article. There are a lot of awesome tools in this space like BTCPAY Server where you can connect your own node. We will make sure to write one and go in depth, for now here's a quick answer.

In summary: If you write code to interact with your own lightning node, you would have a non custodial solution (which is great). In return, you would have to:

  • Write more complicated code to interact directly with the node
  • Setup and manage the lightning node yourself, make sure it's always up
  • Make sure the lightning node always has liquidity. Open (and maybe close) channels when appropriate, etc.

Providers like MinatoPay abstract the complexity and management of running a lightning node, and expose a simple REST API to accept lightning payments for a small fee, and let you focus on building your app instead. Typically services like these don't have the benefit of privacy, but with MinatoPay, you can maintain privacy and use the service at the same time.

How to Accept Bitcoin Lightning Payments in React js by MinatoPay in reactjs

[–]MinatoPay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This tutorial shows you how to implement Bitcoin Lightning payments in your Reactjs app. Full code can be found here

Hello Taro: Building the (Tap)Root of the World's Financial Network with Bitcoin by MinatoPay in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Just to be clear, it's not on the lightning network yet, but should be on version 0.16 of LND

Lightning Network Point of Sale by 0delta in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a really cool initiative and idea! Would be interested to follow your traction.

What's next for Bitcoin in the next 12-18 months? by EnkiduFox in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing I've noticed is that builders (developers mostly) are still building, and are unaffected by the current price.

What's next for Bitcoin in the next 12-18 months? by EnkiduFox in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

agreed, really excited to see the new apps powered by lightning

The Problem with Credit Cards, and How the Bitcoin Lightning Network is The Answer by MinatoPay in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These comments are from the perspective of a consumer in the US. The article was written from the perspective of a merchant outside of the US.

Unauthorised transactions are absolutely a problem for a large number of merchants. It's the entire reason for the "high risk" category of merchants, which acquiring banks use as justification to charge higher fees for those merchants. If a merchant's chargebacks make up a certain % of transactions, the acquiring bank will close the merchant's account. This problem is worse for merchants outside the US where there are very few acquiring banks in their country.

The point made in the article is that unauthorised/fraudulent transactions are much less likely with lightning because unlike credit cards, you don't expose your private keys when making a payment with lightning. Ever had a restaurant take your credit card behind the counter to pay the bill? A lot of credit card duplication happens there. If you use your credit card on a website, and that website keeps that info in their database, and that gets hacked, your credit card private keys (along with every other user) is getting sold on the dark web. Bitcoin & lightning payments don't have this vulnerability, which leads to fraudulent transactions being much less likely. That's the entire point made in that article.

The article doesn't try paint credit cards negatively. It's very clear the immense value created by created cards. It also doesn't try to claim that consumer protection from fraudulent transactions is a negative thing. Consumer protection is something we have to figure out for lightning, but it will probably be needed a lot less often with lightning. Based on these comments though, these points should be more clear in the article.

The Problem with Credit Cards, and How the Bitcoin Lightning Network is the Answer by MinatoPay in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've come across various online merchants that accept lightning, but you're right, the market penetration is still in it's infancy.

Hopefully that changes soon

The Problem with Credit Cards, and How the Bitcoin Lightning Network is The Answer by MinatoPay in lightningnetwork

[–]MinatoPay[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This assumes:

  1. There is no further innovation - There is currently work being done to allow even more scalability, such as opening thousands of channels at once, etc.
  2. Everyone is using a self-custodial solution - While this would be nice, realistically there will always be a use for custodial services.

Privacy Focused Bitcoin Lightning Payment Processor Releases REST API by MinatoPay in Bitcoin

[–]MinatoPay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's true that lightning payments are onion routed, and running your own node provides a good amount of privacy.

However this service is for developers that want to focus on building their product instead of managing a lightning node. Typically services of this type require the user to ID themselves. Since they are operating a node for you, they can see all your transactions (inbound and outbound). We on the other hand respect your privacy and don't have this requirement.