Pay It Forward for a new Bitcoiner!

I would like to tell you a story... not long ago, in 2021. I did an experiment to see how nocoiners respond to Bitcoin kindness.
In 2021 I was running a Telegram group to help people with Bitcoin advice. Were mostly with members from UK. One of the members is/was running a coffee shop business accepting BTC over LN He even have shown prices in sats directly, no fiat!
So I said to him: man, let's do an experiment with some nocoiners. The first customer will enter in your coffee shop, tell her/him that somebody from thousands of km will pay for his coffee with Bitcoin, instantly, no intermediary. All set, he was just ready to send me the invoice.
So not after so long entered a lady into the shop. Nocoiner. Totally clueless what is Bitcoin and what is going on. She just wanted a coffee. Jake (shop owner) told her about our experiment and she totally agree. She even wanted to see how this new thing Bitcoin works.
So Jake made a LN invoice in his LN wallet, sent it to me by Telegram and I pay it. Done. In just few seconds. Lady.M was so impressed about the whole process that immediately she want to learn more about Bitcoin and joined to our Bitcoin Telegram group. Later I was helping her with all she needed for her business too (she's a chiropractitioner).
I told her: See? that coffee was paid, with sovereign money transmitted over any borders, instantly, without any intermediary, without any control from any entity, only me and the sender knows about it. Can you do the same with any other currency, right now? The answer was straight NO.

My proposal now

Let's do such experiment here on Stacker News! LIVE!
I know I am risking to be scammed with a new anon SN account. I don't want to know who you really are, I don't care too much. I care more for bitcoin adoption.
So... let's make an experiment - push it forward.

Conditions, requirements, steps to do

  1. If you are a cuban, salvadoran or any other place on this planet, where you want to see Bitcoin adopted by your local merchants, come and post here. Don't try to assmilk or scam. We will know it.
  2. Find a bar that accept Bitcoin, near you - see https://btcmap.org
  3. Ask to pay with BTC over LN for a beer/coffee. Don't push too much our kindness...
  4. Take a screenshot of the QR invoice, or share the LN invoice here.
  5. Record a video or at least some pictures of the whole process and share them here. also indicate the location of the bar or website or some contact. If you post them on a public social media I would like also to share them into my special article about places where Bitcoin is used at daily basis for payments.
  6. We will pay for your beer/coffee
  7. If the bar owner is new to Bitcoin, YOU will need to help them how to setup the LN wallet, if you are a bitcoiner that already know. Is up to you which wallet want to use, that is not important for this experiment.
  8. If YOU are the newbie and just want to help a bitcoin shop owner and bring him into this experiment, then please read first my guides, especially the one about LN wallets.
Let's show the world how Bitcoin works. Let's start that Bitcoin Circular Economy, right here on Stacker News! ENOUGH WITH COMPLAINTS THAT "I cannot pay a coffee with my BTC wallet, there's nobody accepting it." ENOUGH WITH USING VISA CARDS! Let's use Bitcoin!
This is a fantastic idea let me have my coffee get ready im running late (Cuz I spent little to many SATs there already if you know what I meanπŸ˜‰πŸ˜‰ saying hydrated) and lets try to onboard these non believers
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OK guys, MrM sent me a video about his tx to a lady in El Salvador, at the vegetables market. I pay it for him. Here it is: https://streamable.com/3nyqw6
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lmao, that swipe down from the other hand to refresh the transaction list
i can feel this so much since it reminds me of my parents xD
but yes, how should you know if you don't know. gestures (and other stuff) are just IYKYK
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Payment hash: 5d993c3c92045b2f0a6ef59bfe44d62c220fe967336e1342cf53e9d3d4ddb31f
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quick... the beer is getting warm
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Awesome Darth. Zapped you 10,000 sats to pay for someone's coffee.
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Thank you very much! Saw them and will use them wisely for this inititative, well I already use them :) But you can do it yourself too, just grab a LN invoice and pay it. Now I will do it for you. Anyways, this is open for anybody!
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Bitcoin is amazing and @Darthcoin always goes the extra mile to do it even better!
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I absolutely love this concept of Bitcoin is kindness. It not only promotes adoption but also showcases the real-world applicability and efficiency of Bitcoin transactions. It's initiatives like these that will help more people understand and appreciate the power and potential of Bitcoin. Looking forward to seeing the Force of Bitcoin grow stronger in the community. May the sats be with you!
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Please just go now to a near merchant that accept bitcoin and I will pay you a beer. Or better, go and onboard a new merchant into bitcoin ! I will be here for the next 10h today.
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Because of rain again? lol
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@ekzyis how about meeting and orange pilling a merchant to make use of this offer? Unfortunately right now there is no one near us who accepts Bitcoin.
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the place where the local bitcoin meetup took place did start to accept bitcoin iirc
i've tried to orange pill two merchants so far. i buy food there regularly so i wasn't just a random stranger who asked about bitcoin.
however, none of them were really interested in accepting bitcoin. one was more interested in fiat gains and now i don't go there anymore since it's awkward xD (i think i told you about it). the other one did not understand what i wanted to say i think. language barrier + trying to explain bitcoin xD
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Onboarding merchants is the toughest task even for an experienced bitcoiner. Sometimes myself I feel like I am some kind of alien, trying to explain time traveling to monkeys πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
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yes and trying hard to explain you're not trying to scam them, haha
but i hope even if they didn't accept bitcoin because of me, they will remember me and the next person may have more luck
i think if enough (100?) people ask the same shop about bitcoin in a short period of time (like a month?), they will surely start to look into it
That is the best way! Like Dr.Shift did, see bellow his comment #259254
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Yeah hahaha rain makes me more kind
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Excellent idea. I am giving 10000 sats because it's a great idea and because I learned the term "assmilk."
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Noooo, don't give the sats to me, grab the next LN invoice posted and pay it (ok, now I will do it for you) Is pay it forward, not Darth is paying forward... πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
I want every stacker to participate in this, not just me. Let's see the next ones. I am refreshing the thread.
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But you taught me about assmilk.
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you know what are tapas right?
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Oh no! Yes I do, and I like them.
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Hey Darth I will post an invoice for my German Kellerbier soon. The merchant lilienschaenke ( https://www.lilienschaenke-sportsbar.de) is accepting bitcoin. The invoice will be generated via the tpos extension froma self hosted lnbits.
We going to this spot once a month to meet up and talk about Bitcoin. Soon the owner noticed that we talking about Bitcoin and told us his story when he first owned bitcoin in 2012 and bought a "premiere" box to watch football live with it. Today this box is worth a few million dollars and he's still owning it. After that story we talked to him to accept bitcoin in his bar to earn a few sats to compensate his loss back in 2012 ^^
Would love to show his employes the power of bitcoin.
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Cool, I am here waiting to pay it. Will try to use SN wallet directly so I don't have to move them out first. Let's see how is going.
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paid! Well done man! You did the perfect process as it was explained!
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No! Thanks to you because you onboarded a new merchant! THIS IS HUUUGE.
This is why Bitcoin is powerful. Is changing people's mind totally.
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Payment hash: 6cb85def4ace82530bd4bb5385ec84f8281e3f2d8544a2622f60cce3566b3509
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Show!
I work in a Lan House and there are people who are 'digitally illiterate' every day
The most frequent service is a XEROX or printing a PDF file, will I be able to present the bitcoin to a client tomorrow?
it is now 00:42 (UTC -3) Universal Time 03:42
I'll open at 9am, if you're out there I'd love to do that, I really want to see their reaction
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Cool, I am here waiting for your invoice. How you are going to do it? So the nocoiner come to the shop and I will pay his invoice in sats to you? Please don't push too much. If you onboard him, I would like also to give some sats to him/her, not just paying to you his shopping.
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After payment, I thought about offering him an orange pill for free, and now that I've read your comment, specifically the part where you say 'I want to give him some sats' I can leave a message after the experience. ..
' Do you want to learn a little more about how to become your own bank and be a more sovereign and responsible being using bitcoin? '
If he answers yes, I install a wallet for him, create an invoice and send his substack for him to study.
In addition to my follow-up, until he arrives here within SN
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?? Question ?? Would anyone have any guides/info explaining the tax implications for the merchant? I know it's different in each country, so I'm not looking for financial/accounting advice; it's more of a general question. What do you say to a newbie merchant on reporting revenue via lightning? Or a discussion on how to hold and "sell" if and when needed.
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Bitcoin (sats) is cash money. That's it. In your accounting you will "declare" it as cash payments. No other bullshit crap.
And tell them to read my guides (see my bio). As I said many times: your life will be much easier if you read ALL DarthCoin's Bitcoin guides (are over 60).
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Thanks, I just started going through all your guides and am blown away by the level of detail.
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All my guides are proof of work. Were done after intense testing and experimenting with I described inside. Are 10+ years of learning and using Bitcoin.
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Love the movement! Keep it up everyone!
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Just threw some more zaps on the pile. let’s go!
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ohhhh man, no!
  1. I initiated this for everybody not just for me doing it.
  2. I already have the sats enough to pay some beers
  3. Let's wait first to see when the cubans are coming here... πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
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Great idea. Toxic kindness. I like it. :)
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hahaha you just invented a new term: "toxic kindness". Bitcoiners are not just psychopaths and toxic maxis, but also kind. I like it too!
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For what is worth, feel free to use it. :)
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Hopefully SN's servers can withstand this "SN hug" (reddit days). I will be waiting for an invoice to pay!
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If I don't pay it first. Announce your intention for it. Let's see when the cubans are coming πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
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Great! Someone who is at a place that takes bitcoin send me the invoice and the pic of the place's menu and what you ordered (beer/coffee) and I will clear the invoice on my end.
Much Love.
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πŸŸ πŸŸ£βš‘οΈπŸ“–πŸ«‘ 🐐 Superb idea, #bitcoin is #middlepath. #Bitcoin is #kindness
i will be selling my rolling paper soon...🫑
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Haus of Dawgs in Canton, Ohio. there is no one else around here. He even runs a node with a bluewallet!
2 coffee, 1 bratwurst for the dog!
lnbc502930n1pjsnw6npp5w8sjklf3pnnns6vhpwttsnczfq0apppv4ekdayza0ug74ag38yzqdqlxgsxxmmxvejjq2eqvfexzarhw4e8xaqcqzzsxqyz5vqsp5a4ad4vrhnawegmdygjaq8n03nrt88s6mtzevrah5890q37sr0tns9qyyssqcjczk8hue0h7ruyq74wvng6anyc8xlaplylsw47w7srm38rqzqgnuf4zzp9qqnjusnvyu2l5hegxnyc38s5mfr8d0nvyv0ypttafj9qp34rtmu
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Payment hash: 71e12b7d310ce73869970b96b84f02481fd0842cae6cde905d7f11eaf5113904
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Additional steps:

  • please ask the merchant to put a description in the LN invoice, let's do it nice. Put beers from Darth or whatever you want, or the name of the bar
  • Before you post your LN invoice, say some words about your story/case, so I can see your post coming and wait for the invoice. Explain what we are going to pay for.
  • wait for my confirmation that I pay it. I will do it once I got my confirmation from my wallet. I will try also to pay with sats from SN account.
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I remember that @JoeNakamoto did something similar when he visited us with Paco RunWithBitcoin at the first meetup held in Cuba. He gave a demonstration of how fast and efficient Bitcoin payments are. Many people were amazed because he hadn't placed the invoice in X and it was already being paid from an African country if I remember correctly. A very good initiative.
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Bullish on ditching visa.
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@DarthCoin, I know you don't need it (and probably don't want it), but I want to at least offer it:
Why don't you post a payment request yourself here and I'll pay it?
The saloon could become a real saloon where we pay for each others drinks, lol
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LOL people already sent me sats, no need to pay my drinks. I am paying for others drinks, still waiting their stories here. And I want everybody to participate, not just me.
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Fantastic idea! Only every comment here isn't a request for a payment and you need to have some notifications setup. Not sure if this is possible on SN.
Would a Matrix chat group (No telegram because of phone number) specifically dedicated for LN payment requests perhaps be a better idea? You can get notifications and respond more quickly.
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If you go to https://stacker.news/notifications you will see on top right the option. Also if you want to be kind, keep open the page and refresh it (like I did 9h yesterday).
I wanted to test SN not other apps for this experiment. Only like that we can improve the experience on SN. Also bring more stackers here.
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Ah like that. Interesting. That could indeed bring SN forward. I will test it on the progressive web app. Would be nice if I subscribe that I also get notifications.
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@ekzyis ? Can you give a better technical answer ?
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Mhh, you should get push notifications if you subscribe to a post or user.
But push notifications are wonky. So some might get lost for unknown reasons, but we added diagnostics in the last release to investigate this better. Push notifications rely on external services which are provided by every browser so we unfortunately don't have much control over them.
But we're probably doing something wrong which we can fix to make them more reliable.
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OK guys, I am going to sleep`. Will continue tomorrow if somebody will want to onboard a merchant/nocoiner and if this thread will still have interest.
I was waiting for your invoices for 9 hours, refreshing this thread every 3-5 min.
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lol, i wanted to make a post out of this video at some point like "be like this guy" (or the second guy)
a truly inspiring video
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I subscribed to this post now
I am also going to sleep now however, lol
Very nice idea! Also good field testing of the SN wallet to buy for stuff. Found some nice features we could easily add.
Tomorrow, I might ask my girlfriend if she wants me to buy her a coffee or piece of cake since where she lives, a bitcoiner owns a coffee shop and restaurant :)
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I am waiting here for her invoice to pay it.
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Oh, btw, she said she'll be in the city near the restaurant next week :)
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Just wrote her, even if she agrees (the bitcoin accepting places are on the other side of the city), the earliest is probably in 8 hours
Also, regarding the payment requests: how did people not only send you pictures of QR codes? You can't copy the payment request from the PoS to your device to send it to you and typing it manually is cumbersome. What am I missing?
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What am I missing?
That you can just scan the QR code, lol
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Awesome idea, sats rdy to deploy 🫑
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or could be you too! Just go to a near merchant and do it. Important is that WE MOVE SATS in a Bitcoin Circular Economy!
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cool, but then it means it would expose the location? 🧐
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I am still waiting for your friend birthday present....
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She is spending time with family tonight, but we would meet during the weekend, let's see by then πŸ‘€
How about for my birthday.! next week, wink wink
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Could be enough a picture of your wallet and merchant wallet showing the tx done. No need for faces or exact locations. I don't care too much.
But also promoting shops that accept BTC is good. Sharing their links is OK if they want.
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lnbc5u1pjsntzzpp5j2g833letprvkneg7dhn89n6ypsf20evzl2fxp2fdnkg9sqsfmasdq5g9kxy7fqd9h8vmmfvdjscqzzsxqyz5vqsp5us2n5uartj2jdj30zjycghenur38cajhsgdd73xf72s97dcjes0s9qyyssqccw3j0mutsghyanzed2cvev36yv6ztnpfrfe5hsv7llqhn7wn90yalv0qgmu24egajehggk2qsycp8y9nw2wvhjdyd75sn4frmhkuxqqvmutxr
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.
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lnbc100u1pjs5x5epp578938ncj496q7cyygrvaj8x09acl306t5qmruu47v8jsckxsh2csdqggd5xjan0cqzzsxqrrssrzjqvphmsywntrrhqjcraumvc4y6r8v4z5v593trte429v4hredj7ms5rpeeqqqt9cqqyqqqqqqqqqqqqqq9qsp5n3ltws4wsp82rzst4xswa6f9vyk375a0y00ulvh4f96m66kzzavs9qyyssqmgn87275sncg49lzqg4ls40jx7ctnk4rzth5eqpt863ec7tkxwzznyy6f6s4tm5c92ffng9fk8pnenyv60z6s8k9wky7yken9dqvu6sphzmvwx
Pupusas from Paradise!!! other on onbord Thanks Darth you are doing satoshis work
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paid from my SN account. Worked nice this time. So you are onboarding merchants in El Salvador now? Send my regards to pupusas lady :)
@k00b can we have some more details for the payments from SN account? I know is not meant to be used like that and only as "withdrawals" but I would like to see it with payment hash for example. If is not too much for you to do it.
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We store it. Mind making a github issue with all the metadata you'd like to see?
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sure, will do it tomorrow after will finish with this crazy thread, to have a conclusion about how was going.
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wrong invoice man, maybe they show you the invoice for chivo dollars?
https://lightningdecoder.com/ says "invalid checksum"
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This thread is not only for me doing it. You can take any invoice posted here and pay it if you want. In few hours I will go to sleep so I will not be able to continue this today....
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One thing is to zap on SN for shitposting... zaping each others here for memes is not so productive. One thing is to pay it forward to onboard new merchants or help merchants that already accept it. This is very productive.
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Remember that zapping inside SN is like playing kids with tokens. Paying outside SN to REAL life shops is something else... Some of the payments I did today for this thread, I did from another wallets not from SN, because people were sending me pictures of the QRs instead of pasting here the LN invoice code. So I have to take out sats from SN and send them to other wallets. Maybe someday SN will be a lndhub account so I can use it easily form another app as wallet for payments externally.
With this thread I wanted:
  • to onboard new merhants
  • pay to some stackers a beer
  • show the world we can do it
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because people were sending me pictures of the QRs instead of pasting here the LN invoice code.
Mhh, adding a QR code scanner shouldn't be too hard and could thus be implemented faster than LNDhub
I'll create a ticket about this tomorrow if I don't forget. I'll also create one for the invoice details you mentioned if you didn't already create one :)
Maybe we should even name the options in the wallet send and receive instead of withdraw and fund?
@k00b, what do you think?
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If you want! (per the usual, prioritize it among things you think will be high impact for the site ... it may help to imagine the pitchforks will come for you too πŸ˜„)
Personally, I think stuff like this is a great 'good first issue' or a 'do this one with a buzz issue' for someone. You and I should probably focus on the stuff that requires deeper context to solve.
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Again
One thing is to send sats to a good cause initiated on SN, for something good that will have some practical end in life.
One thing is to zap 1000 sats for a meme, when you could just zap 10 or 21 or let's say 100 if you really like it. Yes memes are fun and we can create more engagement here. But that's not all about SN.
I think you get wrong my words: I am not saying that is wrong to zap on SN, but control your amounts. As you know, if you want a post/comment to be more visible, zapping one time 10 or 10k sats is the same for visibility. But if more stackers are posting 5 sats is more powerful than your 10k sats in one zap.
This is where many stackers still don't get it.
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Yes, I understand you. Keep in mind that are many users here that see those shitload of sats and they get angry why do not get them, thinking that SN is an assmilking place.
With high zaps you can create a false impression for them that they can get easy sats.
No. On SN must be proof of work in order to get sats.