I’ve been using LNbits for a day now and I’m in love. LNbits just works.

It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it is easy to use.

The fact that this project is in beta makes me extremely bullish on the future. If this is the level of quality from lightning software this early in the game, then just think what the future can bring.

I love LNbits so much that I’m already thinking of ways to use the other extensions it offers.

After all, setting up the QR code in the sidebar only uses one of about 20 extensions currently available. There is a ton of room to explore.

Let’s do a quick review before we go further.

Yesterday, I retired Plebpay paywalls and upgraded to LNbits, an open-source platform focussed for now on payments applications for wallets running on Lightning. LNbits uses LNURL protocols to do magical things.

With the click of your hand-operated rodent, or just a finger depending on the device, you too can finally become the DJ you always wanted to be and livestream your performance for sats.

LNbits makes everything awesome.

Amazon is pretty screwed if they don’t integrate lightning.

In my wanderings around this fun little corner of the cutting edge, I found a number of interesting places.

Here is a fantastic article that explains what LNURLs are, and it has a bunch of fun little digital trinkets demonstrating the power of lightning: 🚰

Here is a clone of that site: 🕺🏽

The audacity. Bravo!

I definitely tipped this person.

Here is a list of 10 videos of awesome LNURL implementations that will give you a sense of the power of this technology. It’s clearly the future of payments.

This is my favorite video of them all:

But I also like this one because the music is one of my favorite songs since the start of the pandemic:

Alone, by Emmit Fenn, featuring the Bleskomat

Sometimes it helps to see a real world use case of a technology in action to understand it.

Here’s a man buying a beer with a name tag.

And here’s a guy paying to turn on some misting machines so he can cool off:

Speaking of video content. . .

Here is an entire LNURL-based video platform that operates on a pay to play basis: lightning.video

Right now there’s a lot of NSFW content on there courtesy of @BTCSexWorkers

Lightning.video could easily grow into the next onlyfans.

My main question now is: is there a LNURL-powered ticktock, and, if not, who is going to build it?

I think I’m starting to see one of the more obvious consequences of this technology: get ready to be surrounded with QR codes.

Here are some possible headlines from a nightmarish QR codified world:

• Man falls to death while straining to place LNURL QR code on ancient cave paintings
• LNURL QR code face tattoos take off in Miami
• The design of the new commuter city of LNURLtown will will be a grid pattern with zoning limits on building heights decided on a per acre basis. At sunset, as the taller buildings will cast their shadows in perfect city block squares across urban tundra. The city will resemble a QR code from above, allowing people to purchase any good or service made in the city from space.

Do you see how wild this could get?

Coming back to LNbits, I think I’m going to make a project of trying to implement some of the other extensions on this website. I could learn to DJ live for sats. I could put my DJ tracks on spotify and play them with the jukebox extention. I could post the recordings of my DJ sessions on Lightning.video. I could sell tickets to my live sessions with the events extension. I could be a lightning star.

I also have a 3D printer. I noticed someone had hooked a 3D engraver up to the internet in one of the videos on that list of 10 awesome lightning implementations above. I bet I could hook up a 3D printer to an LNURL payment system and then people could make it remotely print designs they buy with sats. That may be my next side hustle.

One downside of LNbits is that security is not great. As far as I can tell, if someone figures out the URL of your wallet, they can access it. There is no signup process, and no authentication process, unless I have misunderstood how the system works, which is entirely possible since I’m a complete noob regarding LNbits, and lightning in general.

Another thing I still have to figure out is this: if I close the tab my wallet is one without bookmarking it, how do I access it again?

I’m excited to play around with all of this stuff more. There’s so much potential for making cool things.