podcasting 2.0 Archives

Earning sats for the first time is a magical experience and NewsBTC is here to guide you through it. The Lightning Network gave bitcoin real micro-transactions with extremely low fees. That opened up new avenues for the bitcoin network to expand through, avenues that the world is just beginning to explore. In the following text, we will present seven projects that pay their users or allows them to get tips from the community. In sats, using the Lightning Network.

Unlike most altcoins, bitcoin is truly scarce, has a hard total cap, and wasn’t pre-mined. The rewards that the following projects offer are low compared to million-dollar NFT collections and unreal 20% yields. However, you will earn real bitcoin by exploiting your hobbies. Cross your fingers, let’s hope this first guide has something for you.

Before advancing, though, let’s quote Stacker News’ FAQ for a definition of sats AKA satoshis. “Sats are the smallest denomination of Bitcoin. Just like there are 100 pennies in 1 dollar, there are 100,000,000 sats in 1 Bitcoin.”

1.- Earn Sats Playing Games With Thndr

Go to Thndr, download and play classic games, like Snake, or new and original ones like Turbo84 or Bitcoin Bounce. Because of Android App store’s restrictions, the company can’t give you sats directly. You can earn them, though. “Each ticket you collect is an entry into the daily prize draw. The more tickets that you collect, the more chances you have to win the bitcoin jackpot.”

It certainly beats playing retro videogames and not getting paid for it.

Thndr → https://www.thndr.games/

2.- Get Tips For Your Pictures With Starbackr

Publish your pictures and videos and get rewarded by the community on Starbackr. Tips in sats might not be the ideal way to support creators, but then again, maybe it is. Let’s experiment and see what the market says. And speaking about experiments, it seems like this service is just the first stage and not Starbackr’s final form. The company’s About Us says:

“We build the platform of choice for digital content creators with instant payments, low friction, and free of moral censorship. Building on the Bitcoin Lightning network allows us to deliver a content monetization platform that is dramatically less expensive, faster, and more creator-friendly.”

So, don’t lose faith if you’re not a photographer. We might hear from new services from Starbackr again in the not-so-distant future.

Starbackr —> https://app.starbackr.com/

BTC price chart for 09/01/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
3.- Get Sats For Your Content In Stacker News

Stacker News is a bitcoin-focused Hacker News clone that rewards content curation and production. The way it accomplishes this is the fundamental difference between the two sites, “Rather than collecting “upvotes” that are not redeemable or transferable on Reddit or Hacker News, Stacker News users earn sats that can immediately be spent anywhere,” their FAQ says.

Each upvote or comment that your content gets rewards you with 1 sat minimum. Publishing is not free, though, it also costs 1 sat. This is one of the most evolved projects on the list, so there’s an economy around it and the team has developed new functionalities. For example, you can pay to boost your content and users can boost their upvote by rewarding more sats.

Stacker News –> https://stacker.news/

4.- Cut Clips From Your Favorite Podcasts In Fountain

Fountain is a Podcasting 2.0-enabled app that distinguished itself from the crowd by allowing users to earn sats. You can listen to sponsored content and advertisement. Alternatively, you can comment or cut clips from your favorite podcast. If users like those comments or clips, you get a cut. Plus, the satisfaction of aiding in the promotion of your favorite podcast.

Mind you, another possibility that Fountain and similar apps provide is that you can produce a podcast and get rewarded by the community under the Value-for-Value model. The barrier of entry is much higher, sure, but podcasting might be your calling.

Fountain → https://www.fountain.fm/

5.- Trade Derivatives In Sats Through LN Markets

If technical analysis is your forte and fundamental analysis excites you, LN Markets offers an easy way to play the markets. “Trading is done directly from any Lightning wallet and enables super fast access to derivatives markets. Open a position by making a Lightning transaction, close the position and receive the money directly in your wallet,” their FAQ clarifies.

Open a trading position only if you know what you’re doing, though. At least watch a few NewsBTC Daily technical analysis episodes to kickstart your learning process. Or use LN Markets in testnet, which is also possible. Whatever you do, remember that playing the markets comes with inherent risk and that even the most experienced traders suffer devastating losses. Don’t use money that you can’t afford to lose.

LN Markets → https://lnmarkets.com/

Before closing, some of these services assume that you already have a Lightning Network-specific wallet. Go and learn how to set one up before interacting with them. This closes NewsBTC’s first guide to making money through the Lightning Network. If you want more content like this, tell us through NewsBTC’s social media channels.

Featured Image: Bitcoin Bounce screenshot from Thndr Games | Charts by TradingView

Will podcasting 2.0 be the next use case for the Lightning Network? The statement might induce skepticism, but Kevin Rooke presents a surprisingly good case. Prepare to receive the gas you needed to start your own podcast. The technology is just getting started, and the people are just getting comfortable with it. However, the logic behind Rooke’s argument stands.

Related Reading | Spiral BTC Releases Lightning Development Kit. Jack Dorsey’s Puppet Promotes It

He starts with a statement that will surprise no one. “The Lightning Network’s architecture allows creators to earn directly from their biggest fans, in new ways that aren’t even possible on a fiat payment system.” That much we can admit. We know that closed platforms provide convenience and a sizable audience. However, “Apple takes a 30% fee on in-app payments, YouTube takes a 45% fee on ad revenues, and Facebook keeps all their ad revenue without paying their creators a penny.”

On the other hand, “Email, websites, podcasts, and Bitcoin are all examples of open platforms.” They don’t offer an already captive audience, but, “anyone to plug into fully-formed networks of content and users with full interoperability between competing products.” This helps a lot. However, creators using these open platforms, “still rely on closed monetization platforms like PayPal, Amazon Affiliates, Patreon, or Google Adsense to earn income.”

The Lightning Network Comes To Save The Day

You already know this, the Lightning Network allows for micropayments that are almost free. Anyone can use it, and it’s approaching mass adoption by the minute. “Not only can creators now plug into an open monetization platform with hundreds of millions of users, they can even access a new type of monetization that was never before possible.” Those new types are, “real-time payment streaming, micro-tipping, and other monetization strategies that simply aren’t possible on fiat payment rails.”

So far, so good. “Real-time payment streaming” via the Lightning Network is what Podcasting 2.0 is all about. However, it’s easy to miss why that is important. Crucial, even.

“Advertising is directly at odds with other monetization strategies like paid subscriptions. If only a small fraction of your listeners are willing to pay subscriptions for your content, any gains made from subscription revenues will cannibalize your ad revenue, as your total listeners fall by 95% or more.”

That’s the problem with Patreon or similar services. You can monetize your biggest fans’ support, sure, but advertisers won’t pay for that small audience. Podcasting 2.0 provides the best of both worlds.

BTC price chart for 12/11/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
We’re Still Early. The Dawn Of Podcasting 2.0

Let’s check the stats out. That’s always fun.

“There are 4,434,920 RSS podcast feeds on the internet today, but only 2,947 of them are on Lightning today. Put another way, only 0.07% of all podcasts on the internet can earn Lightning tips right now.”

And, of course, only early adopters and people in El Salvador are using The Lightning Network. And from that group, only a few people will tip or pay in real-time for the content. However, “there is zero downside to enabling Lightning tips, and the upside can be a meaningful contribution to total revenue. It’s only a matter of time before the other 99.93% of podcasters figure this out.”

And that’s not all, the Lightning Network enables a type of interaction that was not possible for the podcasting medium. Creators can know the exact moment that their listeners decided to tip them.

“Podcasting 2.0 apps also let listeners send messages and tips to creators while listening to a show, providing direct feedback with timestamps attached to every comment. This innovation represents a shift to a more social podcasting experience.”

And ok, that feedback was already possible in YouTube livestreams. However, besides the blatant censorship, YouTube is a closed platform. The feedback stays with them and isn’t available for people consuming the podcast through other apps. That’s not the case with Podcasting 2.0.

“Since RSS and the Lightning Network are both open platforms, comments are also interoperable across Podcasting 2.0 apps, so any creator can receive feedback from any listener using any app.”

Conclusions About Podcasting 2.0

Another advantage that this new standard provides podcasters is that they can truly be platform agnostic.

“Since RSS and Bitcoin are complementary open standards, podcasters don’t have to risk alienating their existing listeners or worry about migrating their content to a new platform.

All podcasters need to do is flip the switch and their Lightning tips and messages will seamlessly integrate with their existing RSS feed.”

Kevin Rooke closes his masterclass with this:

“As Podcasting 2.0 apps continue to build easy interfaces for listeners to tip their favorite podcasters, Lightning tips could even become a primary revenue source, without cannibalizing or interfering with a creator’s existing ad revenue.”

Related Reading | Lightning Speed: Eight Mind-blowing Facts About The Lightning Network

Do you see it now? Or is he exaggerating? In any case, the Lightning Network doesn’t have to provide a “primary revenue source.” If Podcasting 2.0 provides a secondary one that wasn’t possible before, plus audience interaction, that’s more than enough.

Featured Image by CoWomen on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView