Start accepting Bitcoin Lightning Network payments as a business or as a freelancer

Posted about 3 years ago by LN+

Bitcoin LN payments became very popular recently because they are easy, instant, extremely cheap and provide a good level of privacy compared to other traditional payment methods. Whether you're selling a product or you're a freelancer accepting payments from clients, you should consider accepting payments over Bitcoin's Lightning Network.

In this post I will discuss 3 options with various levels of difficulty and set of features. In later posts I will go into greater detail on how to set up each option.

All 3 options support the following features:

For online stores: Generate invoices dynamically for products and services
For freelancers: Generate payment requests with a specific amount
Rich reporting of invoices and transactions and their status
Invoices can be paid with Bitcoin (on-chain) or Bitcoin Lightning (off-chain)
You can transfer your revenue into your own safe hardware or other trusted wallet

Custodial Services

Speed, Neutronpay, and OpenNode are excellent payment processors that provide a rich set of features for businesses, who wish to accept Bitcoin LN payments. This is your easiest option for implementation, however it comes with some limitations.

Advantages

Easiest implementation using an embed code and a template for basic payments
Easy implementation of payments using APIs
No need to manage a Bitcoin Node or Lightning Network channels
Easy and fast transfer of Bitcoin earnings to on-chain or off-chain wallets you control
No server costs of any kind
You don't have to worry about downtime
You can convert Bitcoins into dollars if you want

Disadvantages

Requires trust with a third party
Some of them require KYC
No full control over your Bitcoin Node
You may pay a small fee on transactions

Non-Custodial Cloud

Voltage is a very reliable service that provides Bitcoin LN nodes and BTCPAY servers in the cloud. With Voltage you can re-create your own OpenNode like setup. The initial setup is somewhat harder, but you gain more control over the payment system. You will need to buy two things from Voltage: A Bitcoin Full Node with Lightning and a BTCPAY Server. Once they are running you can integrate the BTCPAY server to create an easy to embed code, use the API to connect your website, or issues payment requests right from BTCPAY server.

Advantages

No need to physically setup your own hardware locally or build it in the cloud yourself
Spinning up a Bitcoin + LN node and a BTCPAY server takes literally seconds
You don't need to wait to download the Bitcoin blockchain
You can easily connect your Bitcoin LN node to your BTCPAY server
You get 100% of your revenue
You own your private keys
You can connect to your node with any Bitcoin or LN app
You don't have to worry about downtime
No KYC of any kind
Flow by Voltage makes it easy to create incoming liquidity
Voltage will give you a free 500K SAT incoming channel

Disadvantages

You still partially rely on a third party (Voltage) to run your node
You are not downloading and vefirying the blockchain yourself
You have to pay a monthly fee of $27 (Bitcoin LN node) + $7 (BTCPAY server) per month

Non-Custodial Self Hosted

There are several options to completely self host and operate a Bitcoin LN node together with a BTCPAY server or an LNBits wallet. This option is similar to the above Voltage solution, because you're running your own servers at home at your office. With this option you go one step further on being independent from any third parties. This is the best option for sovereignity and control, but it comes with responsibilities of managing your servers, which is an important consideration.

The most popular option is Umbrel. With Umbrel you have to build your own Raspi Pi server or use a Linux computer. With an Embassy node, the hardware is prebuilt for you and you're still running it at home.

Advantages

You have 100% control over your setup
You own your private keys
You can connect any Bitcoin or LN app to your setup
You get 100% of your revenue
No KYC of any kind
You download and verify the blockchain yourself
No monthly or transactions costs of any kind

Disadvantages

You need buy the hardware which can be several hundreds of dollars depending on your preferences
Takes time to build the hardware in case of Umbrel
Takes a bit of time to learn how to install the Bitcoin LN and BTCPAY server nodes
Takes time to download the Bitcoin blockchain
You have to worry about downtime in case your power is cut
You need to take care of backing up your private keys and LN node
You have to create incoming capacity for your LN node

Conclusion

So, which option should you go for? It depends on your situation.

You have no time or inclination to learn how to setup your own servers: go with OpenNode or Voltage.
You're technically savvy and not afraid to learn new things, go for Voltage or Self Hosted.
You're going to accept a lot of payments and need very robust setup: go with OpenNode or Voltage.
You're going to accept a lot of payments and you don't want to manage incoming capacity: go with OpenNode.
You want to keep 100% of the revenue: go with Voltage or Self Hosted.
You want to have 100% self sovereignty: go with Self Hosted.
You don't have good electricity or internet: go with OpenNode or Voltage.
You need dollars not Bitcoin: go with OpenNode.

If you need help with any of these setups, feel free to contact us and we will help you with advice.

Note: Remember not to trust anyone with your private keys or setting up wallets for you, because that will compromise your security and will result in loss of funds. Double check every advice from multiple sources, and do everything yourself as much as possible, or use well trusted parties.

Photo credit: David Dvoracek