This is a value for value post: see the explanation in the footer.
You can now pay Privex hosting bills with Lightning Network Bitcoin.
There's a new button on a Privex invoice:
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/brianoflondon/EouB8R5BocbEpJLjMa4a5tGE2mLfiSTib4DBc1TxZ92gBvBxsZyucirMkCd5SupY1tc.pnghttps://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/brianoflondon/23wCWdg5e4znZjd5V88pTQ54gfUVAETuWZVYKANMGf5ZMdAF9wNtskLp9Kh4S6qpGXZwe.png
That will take you to their Lightning Payment page. There's a
- copy paste link for a lightning invoice (the text which starts
lnbc...
); - a Pay in Wallet button and a
- QR code.
If you use any one of those, in a few seconds your invoice will be marked as paid!
I have the Alby extension installed in my browser so when I hit the Pay in Wallet button I get the popup to pay.
Paying with a mobile wallet is as simple as taking a snap of the screen. Couldn't be easier! Fantastic work over at @privex and it really shows how easy it is to accept Lightning if you're already accepting Hive or HBD.
You can pay invoices between 1,000 sats and 400,000 sats (which is 17c to around $68 at the current BTC price, I'm looking at lifting that upper limit. Currently the fees are around 0.8% + 200 sats but those may be going up very slightly soon. That fee is nearly always less than a full chain BTC transaction.
Back story
Yesterday I noticed a couple of test payments go through with @privex as the recipient. I use @privex myself for hosting all my servers which run my Witness Node and the various components of the @v4vapp service. I've used them because they accept payment in Hive and HBD natively and that's a big deal for me.
Following those couple of experimental payments, @someguy123 messaged me and within an hour or two he deployed Lightning payments live on their production system. This all uses the API I built exactly for this purpose.
The @v4vapp API is described in this Hive post. All @privex had to do was make a couple of calls to that service, ask for a fixed amount of Hive or HBD, and then show the resulting data as a QR and a link.
As soon as an invoice is paid, the @v4vapp service receives the Lightning and sends Hive as fast as it can (which is usually around 2s more details here.)
Privacy
The @v4vapp service konws nothing about Privex's customers from this interchange. Privex send a one time random string which is embeded in the Lightning invoice, when the invoice is paid that string gets sent back to Privex so they know who has paid. The v4v.app service doesn't have a clue!
What is Privex?
I've been using Privex for over a year now and I'm a happy customer! This is what they say about themselves:
We are Privex Inc. A small technology company that currently focuses on affordable privacy-minded infrastructure, primarily Dedicated and Virtual (VPS) Servers available in various regions of the world.
At Privex, our services are designed to protect your personal data, without breaking the bank.
We promise you'll be happy with our offerings, and if you're not, we'll give you a full refund*
Privacy Matters
Many companies handle your information as if it were their property; to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, or handed over to Government Agencies for their unlawful and invasive surveillance programs.
Unfortunately, the few companies that care about your privacy generally charge massively inflated premiums that many people can't afford, or they would rather sacrifice their privacy to save money.
We wanted to change that. Our two slogans are Privacy is Affordable and Privacy Matters, because we believe privacy is a human right; you shouldn't have to pay extra to keep your personal data safe.
What we offer
As of early 2019, we offer both dedicated and virtual servers (VPS) for a price comparable to "normal" hosting providers.
We accept various cryptocurrencies for payment, we don't demand a credit card or PayPal unlike certain other hosts, and we only ask for the bare minimum information required so that we can provide our services to you - a name and an email.
Privacy matters. Help us change the world by ordering from us.
Value for Value
For the last few months while building @v4vapp I was generously supported by the DHF. Going forward I have a much more modest support which covers direct server costs and a little of my time.
If you apprecieate the work I do on and around Hive, you can express this directly: upvoting posts on Hive is great. Also consider a direct donation (there's a Tip button on Hive or a Lightning Address) on all my posts.