The Hive ecosystem has patched together a set of amazing free tools for payments. Among these, two excellent mobile wallets, Hive Keychain and the Ecency app.
But one stands out by its cleverness, https://v4v.app
It offers any shopkeeper with a payment terminal that is connected to the internet and can run a browser a light "point of sale" (PoS) that can accept fro free HBD and Lightning sats, with great ease.
First, it needs to be underscored that v4v.app is actually ... not an app! So shopkeepers do not need to install anything on their terminals. v4v.app is a mere website (a "web app") where one can navigate with any web browser.
Second, it offers a PoS where prices can be quoted in almost any currency (for instance € in the screenshot below), and the conversion rate between crypto and the selected fiat currency is calculated on the fly.
Third, it generates a QR code that can be read by most modern photo cameras in addition to the dedicated QR code scanners of ecency app and Hive Keychain, for HBD. And a LN compatible code that can be read by most Lightning Network wallets.
Fourth, but surprisingly not the least, it's fast and its graphic feedback (the green checkbox and the little confetti animation) are much appreciated by the shop owners.
In the short video, published on the decentralized SPK network, you can see v4v.app being use to facilitate a Lightning payment. Fast and with very low fees.
The "switch" to Lightning sats is done in athis v4v.app screen
Benefits of using Bitcoin Lightning sats over HBD:
- More people have LN wallets than Hive wallets
- Bitcoin is extremely popular - in terms of marketing, being able to accept bitcoin payments (through lightning) can bring important marketing benefits for the shop
- If the shop owner does not need to convert the sats into fiat, he can over the long term benefit from Bitcoin's appreciation
Benefits of using HBD instead of sats:
- Stablecoin with no transfer fees at all
- No "Hanyecz anxiety" for the customer (paying with Bitcoin today can lead to "10000 BTC for 2 pizzas" regret ten years later)
- If the shop owner does not need to convert the HBD into fiat, he can put HBD in savings and benefit from the 15% APR currently on offer
- If the shop is whitelisted, the customer can use distriator.com to claim cashback
Same video uploaded to YouTube in case the SPK network (still at its beginnings) is temporarily inaccessible
Also, FYI, I have seen that if you are paying with sats to a business that has a hive account and is registered in @thedistriator you can claim discounts on purchases too. (although this has had some bugs that @sagarkothari88 is working on fixing) - it should work by paying your invoices with either HBD or Sats. (the Sats payment has to come from another V4V app, not from wallet of satoshi)
Yes, that is the thing here: people with Lightning usually know and use WoS. It's about trust in the app.
Paying with sats from v4v is something only a tiny, tiny minority would do- if you know about v4v.app you know about Hive. And if you know that you can pay in HBD, why would anyone pay in sats and risk becoming the next Laszlo Hanyecz ?
People who pay in sats come from an ideological rather than practical angle. They are usually despising all other cryptos outside Bitcoin and are extremely unlikely to have ever heard about Hive. Hard to imagine them loading sats to KeepSats rather than WoS.
Bitcoin lightning is a Dead end
I tend to agree, but apparently it has a lot of fans still, so, who am I to deny them the possibility of using non-bank payment rails?
It's fabulous isn't it! it just works!
And the news is spreading, probably since we had a MP and member of the city Council that visited and posted on LinkedIn!
Yesterday the owner told us that a random guy working nearby came for lunch and asked to pay with Bitcoin Lightning!
Wow!
Lightening is great, what wallet do you use, I've hit on MUUM which works just fine on my phone.
I'd just like to see the V4VAPP service on a bit more of a proper footing I think Brian is kind of subbing it ATM.
I use Wallet of Satoshi. I've tried Phoenix which is, in my opinion, a scam. I wrote an article about it a few months ago. I must admit I'm not a big fan of Lightning and not very interested in it tbh. But since other people seem to be, I wanted to form an informed opinion.
This V4Vapp by @brianoflondon is really helpful as a Bridge between Hive ecosystem and the Bitcoin one.
En colombia vi que pusieron algo así
I don’t know about the app but I can tell that it is reasonable
It’s helpful