Alright folks, it's been a while since I last poked my head around this neck of the woods but I hope you have all been keeping healthy and out of mischief!
I've been working on integrating Bitcoin payments on my music website thanks to CoinCorner's WordPress plug-in and @v4vapp which allows you to use HIVE or HBD to download my tunes direct!
Perfect if you wanted some background drum & bass or trance music for writing your blogs, playing games or, if you're feeling adventurous, cleaning your room, you messy blighters 😃
The V4Vapp is a value-for-value service created by @brianoflondon as a bridge between HIVE & Bitcoin using the lightning network - I've been testing it out over the last few months in general and for my website and it works really well!
Here's how you'd use it if you wanted to download my tunes with HIVE/HBD - or if you are already familiar with lightning, you can start browsing my tunes here and let me know how you get on!
Before You Start
You will need:
- To open the V4Vapp site - click here to open it up
- Have liquid HIVE or HBD available in your Hive wallet
Step 1 - Fill Your Cart With Tunes 😜
Not much point in trying to use the V4Vapp if you have an empty shopping cart is there?!
Browse the catalogue here and add to the cart whatever takes your fancy!
Step 2 - Checkout
Once happy with your selection, head to "My Cart" and then click the "Checkout" button to see the screen below:
- Fill in your first name and email address
- Select "Bitcoin Checkout" and click the Terms and Conditions box
- Click "Place Order"
Step 3 - Copy & Paste The Lightning Invoice to V4Vapp
The next screen will display your order with a QR code (the lightning invoice).
Under the QR code, copy the long sequence of letters and numbers...
...and paste them in to the "Lightning Invoice" field on the V4Vapp website:
Step 4 - Pay In HIVE or HBD
After you have pasted the lightning invoice in, V4Vapp will convert it into a price in HIVE & HBD:
Click either HIVE or HBD (whichever you want to use) and sign the transaction with Keychain or HiveSigner. You will see the message that it was sent successfully:
Note: Any excess change leftover from the V4Vapp transaction will be refunded to your Hive wallet:
Step 5 - Download Your Tunes!
Go back to your cart on my website and click the orange buttons to start your downloads!
Enjoy the tunes!
Feedback
Let me know how you get on with this - I tried it out a couple of times and the whole process was done in a matter of seconds, which was really cool!
Hopefully you find it as slick to use as I did!
Thanks for all the support on my music after 4 and a bit years of sporadically sharing my tunes with you here!
Many more to come once I get some IRL things settled and more tunes added to the site :)
Nicky
P.S. shout out to @brianoflondon and the V4Vapp team for creating this service!
AHHHHHHH Awesome, thanks for that introduction! We need this solution for the @hivelist store and @blocktunes! I have regular chain Bitcoin payments set up through Coinbase commerce, but this is a cool solution for lightning and the V4V app.
Unfortunately we don't have a good Hive payment method, only HBD and other SWAP stablecoins, but this could be that solution.
Good stuff, this just adds to my tool list!
Let's talk. I have a new api call that makes showing a lightning invoice and receiving hive drop dead simple.
Yeah, you can hit me up on Twitter ‘thelogicaldao’
Thanks man! Yeah you will save a lot more on fees as well using V4Vapp although BTC mainchain fees are lower these days, you still have to wait for the block confirmations but lightning is instant. It took me far longer to write this "how-to" than it did to actually do the transaction 😂
I'd say this is probably the best solution for you with HIVE to BTC in that case. If you have a Muun wallet set up that can generate the lightning invoice, you can receive sats there from any HIVE/HBD purchase on Hivelist/Blocktunes - not sure how that can be automated though, a bit beyond my technical knowledge!
With Coinbase Commerce there isn’t any fees to use it so I come out pretty good there. But yeah I will look into it, but with the way the industry is shifting, I am liking the focus on stablecoins in commerce, just so much easier.
"No fees" is always good - it's what I seek out lol 😃
Fantastic idea Nicky. Having dabbled a little in music production, and even DnB using Cubase back in the day, I know how much time, effort and artistry goes into creating great electronic music.
You deserve to make a living off it mate, and I hope that the store takes off and who knows, when the crypto revolution comes 😂 maybe you'll be among one of the first and most famous liquid DnB BTC superstars 🤞
All jokes aside, I rate your music very highly m8 🙂
P.s. I wanted to ask @brianoflondon a quick question.
Does the V4Vapp allow for direct swaps of Hive or HBD into BTC to be stored on a lightning network wallet? Like if I downloaded a lightning network wallet could I cash out some of my hive to BTC using the V4Vapp?
Sry if this is a dumb question, or if it has been answered before, I'm a bit slow on the uptake with development stuff on hive as I stopped keeping up with it a while ago to focus on my writing. If there is a post that explains what I'm asking please do drop it and I'll figure it out myself 😉
Thanks a lot for the kind words Rowan! One step at a time haha, who knows where this might lead but now it's all set-up in case people do want to support the music!
Would love to be able to live off it all, just have to keep grinding out tunes and mixes and give people the option to sponsor if they wish!
Yes you can do this by any lightning wallet. I've done it with Muun (which is a self-custody one) but there's others like Blue, Wallet of Satoshi, Breez that you can do this with.
You generate a lightning invoice in the lightning wallet, copy and paste it in to the V4Vapp, I think the limit is up to 150k sats at the moment...
V4V.app is specifically for sending Hive/HBD and getting sats in a Wallet!
If you want to experiment on the desktop try using Alby: https://getalby.com/ as a browser plugin that lets you hold a few sats in a custodial wallet.
On mobile, Wallet of Satoshi is a really simple custodial solution.
The non-custodial solutions for sats are all a bit more complex and problematic for small sums and infrequent use.
I've used Muun wallet with the V4Vapp and not had a problem with it. Wallet of Satoshi works fine as well and even exchanges like CoinCorner that have lightning deposits/withdrawals can be used without an issue so far. It's only the 0 sat invoices that cause a problem I think...?
Muun (and Breez) both work but behind the scenes these two apps (I dislike the term wallet) are doing some very special stuff in order to make them largely non-custodial.
Whilst this is a great aim, I think it's largely overkill for $50 worth of sats moving in and out. There's no getting around the fact that running a ⚡️Lightning Node is a bit of a maintenance mess behind the scenes in terms of keeping liquidity and sats in the right places.
I have a direct channel to Wallet of Satoshi and Alby and this means that fees moving in and out of both their custodial solutions are zero or nearly zero.
Thanks for all the info Brian :-)
Yeah Alby is a good tipping app for sats as well, got that set up on our websites. I do have Wallet of Satoshi too so might start using that a bit more. I like that it allows LNURL, Muun doesn't offer that yet but I guess that's part of the complication of being a non-custodial lightning wallet.
I think WoS is a 0.15% fee if I remember from my calculations of using it last month which is next to nothing to send but I don't have a direct channel to it
Thanks for all the info Nicky :-)
Hey! Happy to see you're still at it :) Hope all is well old friend. Take care
Ah, bonjour le meuf foxy! How have you been! Still trying to make tunes when I can but free time has just vanished over the last 2 months. Hope you're keeping well :)
I've been doing great! So happy to hear from you :D Amazing that you are still making tunes, I'm glad you are still at it. What's been keeping you so busy? I am definitely doing good and health is doing good as well. I'm even down 50lbs! How'sthe family doing?
A lot of things offline have taken over so I've not been as on the blogging as I'd have liked - I'm doing what I can to keep healthy! Glad you are feeling well and congratulations on the healthiness!
Family is all ok thanks! Great to see you back and kicking butt :)
Glad you are keeping healthy and family is doing good ^_^
Thank you! Gotta keep the work going :D