It's been a few too many weeks since my last real update where I teased the imminent arrival of the Lightning to Hive service which will match the Hive to Lightning gateway lnd.v4v.app I already have running.
So what happened?
Development happened. For those of you who aren't developers (can I call myself a developer yet? I think so) I'll try to cast some light on this mysterious dark art.
I knew from the start I wanted to be able to have a simple link which any Hive front end can put in a front end and that will pop up a window which will show a QR Code and any of the mushrooming Bitcoin Lightning wallets can snap and send Sats direct to a Hive user.
I actually did get this working involving a @privex server in Sweden talking to the Umbrel Lightning node I have at home via a super secret hidden port and forwarding API calls through my own self-written API gateway. But whilst it mostly worked, I could see how unreliable this would be at scale.
The goal was a link like this one which will pop up a live QR code and let you send 3333 sats to me as Hive. And yes I know there is a problem with the page not showing the Hive or HBD value right now... anyone who wants to help me out and knows javascript, Vue and specifically the Quasar Framework get in touch!
The big deal
Just to remind you: receiving Lightning today involves having a Lightning node online 24/7 and able to producer a Lightning Invoice. There are ways to send unsolicited amounts of sats but these also involve having an online 24/7 presence to receive.
This is why it's so easy to receive Lightning as Hive because your Hive account is kept working 24/7 for you by the witnesses and the operators of all the various DAPPs you use.
What I changed
So this week I made a critical policy decision to move from using a Lightning Node I have at home running software called Umbrel on a Raspberry Pi. This served me very well developing and learning Lightning, but it's just not reliable enough. I just had a two day problem which appears to have been caused by a simultaneous failure of an external SSD case and an SD card and to figure that out I had to buy the correct HDMI cable so I could plug in my Pi and actually figure out what was wrong!
I'm now using a cloud Lightning service (called Voltage) so my node's hardware is properly online 24/7 and managed by other people. I still hold all the keys, they have no power to move my sats, but of course they can delete the node which wouldn't be good.
There is any way for me to recover funds but it's one heck of a tortuous series of hoops to jump through. One of the reasons I'm using Voltage is in the hope that they have better disaster recover capabilities than I do. This is one of my fundamental problems with Lightning's decentralisation not being as decentralised and trustless as it should be IF you don't want to build your own data center with redundant networks and backup power supplies!
Testers wanted
I'm not formally launching this yet but the link above does actually go to my development site which is working right now. If anyone really wants to test it, get in touch with me, leave a message here or on Telegram and I'll give you more details.
If you want to start experimenting with the API to generate Lightning payment invoices going to Hive accounts, also let me know. That's pretty much ready right now.
March 20th
This Sunday I hope to be participating in the SPK Network's Live claim drop show so look for me there to give a demo of what I'm working on.
And finally, as ever, thanks for all the support, it really means a great deal to me!
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Impressed by your command on Blockchain knowledge and skills hive is future and your efforts are really appreciated I hope this project becomes one of the best :)
This is really amazing and a job well done to appreciate in the blockchain which we can definitely testify your hardwork and commitment in enhancing the blockchain to another level.
The good news is, it is working like you said and every efforts been put to it is achieved. I am really impressed and excited about it, keep up the good work @brianoflondon
It seems you are taking steps forward. Such is the nature of development.
Slowly but surely.
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Sounds like a lot of work on the backend, Brian. 💪🏻
And if you are not considered a developer I don’t know who should be one. I bet you know the blockchain and it’s mechanisms better than most people and constantly drive to make use cases out of it.
Regards and have a nice weekend ☀️
Thomas
Very interesting steps forward.
Question is will bitcoin degens see the value it offers :)
I will called u a developer Brian for the Nice project you putting lightening into hives blockchain and I can't wait for it to be launch to put it into practice
You are doing a great job. Giving the possibility to transform Sat into HIVE is great. Thank you very much and keep adding value to Hive. I made the test and sent myself 15000 Sat transformed into HIVE and everything was very fast.
!hivebits
!PIZZA
I woke up and saw your transaction. Glad it went through easily. I'm hoping I can release this live very soon!
Really awesome way to get more people interested in Hive. I'm not into BTC though. Switching to Dash will save you lot more trouble & fees than getting involved with Lightning IMHO. But if more people get to learn about our 0 Tx fees on Hive - we are gonna have a really good future :)
Sending !LUV & !PIZZA
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@d-zero(1/1) gave you LUV.
H-E tools | connect | <><
!LUV the work as always.
i would love to test your site and look at the API but I am busy this weekend and would not be able to test until Monday/Tuesday.
If that works let me know.
I don't have you on telegram :(
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@simplegame(1/4) gave you LUV.
H-E tools | connect | <><
You can always contact me on Hive!
https://t.me/v4vapp support
That's the support link I've set up.
I'm not a fan of Discord but I guess I'll set one up if I have to.
Great news and nice to see that you adapt pretty fast to the problems you are encountering and also looking for a scalable solution and not just one that would do the work. Setting a good foundation will help later on!
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This is amazing. You have succeed in getting it to work usind the privex server. You can scan the qr code, it's so convenient. You are improving on it all the time. No one else if putting this much effort into this lightning hive service !
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
I think, we can have some funding from a proposal to cover this and should not be a big deal ?
I have been wondering how to move my lightning BTC.
Would be nice to see you tomorrow....it would also be nice to to hear the things you've been working on.