This is a value for value post: see the explanation in the footer.
Support Proposal 265 on PeakD
Support Proposal 265 with Hivesigner
Support Proposal 265 on Ecency
Vote for Brianoflondon's Witness KeyChain or HiveSigner
A New DHF Proposal
In a few days my existing $40 per day proposal will come to an end. That proposal started out with a much higher ask to complete some complicated work to decentralise V4V.app. That remains a long term goal of mine, but I wasn't funded for that work so I switched to asking for a more modest amount to keep running it. I did a lot more than just keep it running.
- Right now I've been charging 200 Sats + 1.5% for exchanges.
- If I'm funded again I want to drop that to 100 Sats + 1.0%. In addition I'll drop the minimum transaction from 1,000 to 500 Sats.
The last 6 months of v4v.app
Before numbers, I'd like to say I don't have a single customer complaint (at least nobody has told me!). There have been a tiny number of occasions where I had to make manual refunds or fix something, I believe I did these faster than any of the users expected. If anyone has any complaints please post them here! If you were one of more than a hundred who used the service, let me know that too!
Both @privex and @ausbitbank have been using the V4V API to accept Lightning payments as Hive. Privex has received a good number of payments this way since turning on the system.
This is a guide to how much the service is being used and how much of the value my system retains. I'm not being completely obsessive about tracking my own off-system trades to try to keep the balance between Hive and BTC.
The net flows are still from Hive into BTC so I have to keep topping up the BTC on my Lightning node. This involves buying Bitcoin and transferring it into the Node via opening channels and other means.
Costs
I'm still running a number of systems to keep this going. In my last proposal #244 I compared keeping this all going to keeping spinning plates in the air. The effort needed to keep this all running has remained similar.
The costs of running the Lightning Node have gone up. I had to move to a more powerful server account which tripled the base cost and the recent "Mempool Apocalypse" with Bitcoin Ordinals driving the chain fees from 1 sat/vB up to over 40 sats/vB. This has a direct impact on the costs of moving Bitcoin on and off my Lightning node because every time I need to put Sats back onto my node after I send them out, costs me an on chain fee.
All in all I'm running at around $180 HBD per month for servers just for V4V.app and some software subscriptions I need for other services. As you can see, without the DHF funds, running this kind of bridge isn't really sustainable.
Fortunately the witness I run does run at a net profit so that helps subsidise my work and I write and curate on Hive too.
Development
Learning Vue and teaching too
As you may have seen I'm publicly learning Javascript and Vue with the Quasar framework and sharing every step with the community. I had thought to put in a proposal for this as I think I could genuinely ask for some compensation for this but I think it fits better within this maintenance proposal.
Repeat subscriptions to Podcasts or Hive accounts
The goal I'm working toward with the rebuild of v4v.app is a subscription service on Hive which will allow you to subscribe for an amount you decide to any value enabled Podcast or Hive account.
The repeat payment system which we got a couple of hard forks ago is being upgraded in a way I ask for and when that goes live, I hope to be able to run a service soon afterwards.
You'll select a Podcast or a Hive account, set an amount in Sats, Hive or HBD a donation message, and a frequency and the number of donations. My site will show you everything you've got set up and you can stop and start or change donations at any time.
The point here (which nobody in Lightning knows how to do) is that the funds are in YOUR wallet with YOUR keys and only via you signing a transaction with your Active key, are you setting up what is a smart contract. It's not a very complicated smart contract as we see in Eth but on the other side, it's simple to understand and very reliable.
This is what I'm building.
Other projects
Podping
I'm still monitoring and keeping an eye on Podping. As recently as last week Adam Curry again stated how important Podping is to the future of Podcasting. There is a new use for the underlying Podping system which is in the works, but if it looks like we're going to move forward with that, I will craft a dedicated proposal.
I know Podping seems relatively unknown, but all I can do is tell you that behind the scenes it is achieving a level of dependence which puts Hive right at the centre of one of the most important parts of the "free speech stack". Podcasting is still independent and Podping on Hive is helping it stay that way.
Extras
I hope that, in addition to the tangible work, you recognise the effort and work I put in promoting Hive outside of Hive.
- I use my newly reclaimed brianoflondon Twitter account to good effect to promote Hive. I'm paying for Blue Checks on that account and the v4vapp I use for more dedicated crypto and Hive stuff.
- You may not know this but the brianoflondon account is followed by some pretty huge accounts and whenever there is a reasonable chance of success I do ask for retweets and often get them.
- Web 2.0 accounts are just a funnel to build Hive up in my view.
- I try to help out wherever I can answering questions about Hive and especially helping out developers.
- Hive is involved in Podcasting 2.0 pretty much entirely through my efforts.
- I'm active and watching core dev topics even if I'm not able to write core code.
- I run a witness in the top 50.
- I'm working on the #cryptoclassaction which one day could make a lot of money for everyone on Hive (or at least make Hive famous).
What's the cost?
My last proposal was #244 and asked for 40 HBD for 6 months. That proposal was unfunded for a few weeks at the beginning.
I'd like to ask for 75 HBD for one year ($27,000 after the DHF fee) which is to cover ongoing costs, my time and development work moving it all forward ($17,000). This is also as compensation for the ongoing release of my "how to build an entire Hive dapp" in Vue". I'd value that part alone at around $10,000.
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 appreciate 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.
Support Proposal 265 on PeakD
Support Proposal 265 with Hivesigner
Support Proposal 265 on Ecency
Vote for Brianoflondon's Witness KeyChain or HiveSigner
The new DHF proposal to cover the ongoing costs, development work, and compensation for the efforts in maintaining and improving V4V.app, a service that facilitates Lightning payments as Hive, it demonstrated the worth and the positive effect within the network.
I've just supported the new proposal based on the highlighted points.
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You have my vote anyway but in terms of a business model i would hope that you don't drop the cost to use.
Not if you are still receiving funding from the DHF. At some stage that would be great if you can increase the user base and it starts to cover itself but IMO the end goal for any project should be self sustaining and help to grow the hive eco system.
You are right about the self sustaining but I think that only happens with bigger scale on both the Lightning side and Hive. Right now this is like a super cheap VC supported project and the VC is all of you who vote on the DHF.
I see you talk about Hive a lot of times. You are really promoting it. That is a good one.
Your proposal is great and i love for the fact you're learning a new skill in addition to what you've got. Great job👌🏾
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So the revenue is between 70-130 bucks per months with profit of a couple of dollars? For such a good service?
Will have to double check but am sure I voted your proposal. Fingers crossed the plan of making podcasting/Podping another big use case for Hive will turn out well. 🤞🏻✊🏻
No, the revenue is around $4,000 but the profit is 70-130.
Ah ok. Then there seems to be the labeling of the legend on the right confused, no? Or I had a too long day and didn’t get it because of that. 😜🫣
One can spend a lifetime trying to format graphs properly in Python....
😅 I guess so 🙌🏻
Your service is the most useful service created lately on HIVE, and it solves many problems while connecting HIVE and BITCOIN, I hope you maintain it alive for a long.
Fully supported
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The #265 is now also supported. The other one I already had voted for was the old one.
Keep up your good work, Brian! 💪🏻
Greetings from Germany
Thomas
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Supported! Thank you for everything you're doing for Hive
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I voted for you!
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Can I use v4v api to accept my payments on fiverr?
I'm not sure, does Fiver allow you to accept Lightning or any other crypto payments? You certainly can ask for people to pay you with Lightning and receive Hive. If you have a website I can help you set this up and if you tell someone your lightning address is [email protected] that will come to you as Hive.
What is benefit to accept hive direct to my address @rocksg and with the address you gave?
Hive direct is better, but you can accept Lightning via the address I gave.
Ok.
I definitely believe that this proposal will be approved
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I voted for the proposal - thank you for all the hard work you do !
I know it's cheeky to suggest adding to your workload, but as someone who has never used the Lightning Network before, could I suggest adding an FAQ page or a link to some basic instructions on how to set it up and step-by-step operating guide ?
It's one of my hobbyhorses that anything made for Web3 rarely comes with instructions, and relatively non-technical ordinary user types (like me !) can get easily frightened off by the complexity of it all.
I've got a ton of explaining and documentation and videos I want to do. I absolutely know I'm deficient in this. You're right to point this out.
I am really surprised with the high cost involve to continue with your project but I still believe there's other service that will still help to continue with a cheaper rate.
Your an inspiration for other people to learn from and I appreciate your effort and contribution in the hive blockchain.
Supporting this as well! Excellent work!
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Supported! Keep the awesome work and you know how to reach us for any help.
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I am EXTREMELY interested in the Hive-based podcast recurring subscription concept.
Me too 😀 that's why I'm building it!
If you require any user feedback or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out! I am happy to provide whatever help I can in the process. You are doing the lord's work, Brian
#hive #posh
Voted for you, I suport your great work
I've used the v4vapp many times and haven't had a problem with the service - I had to switch to a different lightning wallet as you were having issues with Muun but that's worked since I changed over. Any refunds have been sent quickly so I've supported the new proposal 👍
You do a lot of quality work for hive. I shall check regularly in case you have new proposal, so i can vote for you !
So if I understand, you have a Lightning Network node open so people can swap Hive to BTC or vice versa. Where is the link to DAPP that I might be interested to use?
Https://V4v.app
Supported, keep up all the good work.
Supported you man!
you are doing great job!
The way we see you have been working day and night on this for a long time and we all want you to get paid for it now so that you can get it ready quickly and people can use it. , because you have worked hard on it and we are all working together to make this platform popular around the world so that new people can benefit from it and them too.
Dropped by to say I started messing around with Lightning. Finally. Another pretty steep learning curve.
Lost a lot in the exchange. As in fees etc. And rates because of fluctuations. Bound to happen as I only learn by doing.
Visited your app site but it's a bit above my knowledge level right now. Can feedback that it could be better developed for mobile and navigation but that's the dressing.
What I do understand (originally my only basic understanding opinion and now confirmed in practice), is that what you're doing is a total game changer for Hive.
Brilliant work 👏🏻
With a solid understanding of where this whole crypto thing is going. Big up.
I'd love to see this in an easy app version of a lightning wallet with automatic exchanges between crypto for micro payments AND fiat. Imagine! 👀
Sounds like a valuable service to me. You have my (modest) vote. A few questions (and I don't really view this as critical, just curious) in order for this to be sustainable, you'd need to drastically expand your pool of participants, right? Have you done any calculations on the number of participants you'd need to operate sustainably without the DHF? What would it look like with different levels of fees charged? When would you personally consider the project financially successful? What is your target userbase/income?
Numbers seems very low, even compared to not funded beeswap which seems to have 10-100x higher volume. Tho it's hard to compare looking at the chart provided above.
Does it means this application makes 60-140$ profit for a month?
Very good stuff... Hive to bitcoin lighting payment , I heard your proposals of that earlier, good its being used and making profits and good you are able to make money to fund your work!! I should try it sometime, its very good your involving BTC with hive here... that's always a hit!!