Thanks for the question and reading. Very happy to be here! I agree, 2025 will be an amazing year!

Well, Q1 is going to be about stabilising our current tools and the release of our self-custodial wallet. I can't wait for this already, as it will be a completely new type of wallet, and the best integrated for earning through Flash and for subscriptions.

We have new groundbreaking things planned following Q2 for which we already have build Proof of Concepts. Too early to talk about in details but it's about unlocking true pay per click experiences, via automated micro transactions in full self-custody.

See my answer above. We're the first to leverage the direct-debit functionality in self-custodial bitcoin.

Well, that's what we're trying to change. Although bitcoin was created only as a push payments network, ~1.5 years ago, Bumi from Alby developed a great new tech called Nostr Wallet Connect. This brings pull payment functionality to bitcoin. Which is truly groundbreaking, because it unlocked direct debit in self-custody. I think this is a game changer that will allow users developers amazing use-cases, while never holding user funds, thereby going around all current regulations, and using bitcoin the way it was meant to be used: peer-to-peer and in full self-custody. At Flash, we're trying to build the strong use-cases that leverage this and can mimic the payment experience of direct debit in fiat. We offer recurring payments for subscriptions for example. We automate our fee capturing thanks to this too.

Hey Miranda, it's nice to meet you!

KYC indeed sucks. Both for you and for your users depending on what your platform also does. Happy to help you understand this better for your business and see if maybe we already some tools that can help at Flash. If not, happy to try to find a solution together :) Please write an email to me directly and we can take it from there: pierre.corbin@paywithflash.com

Hey! Go for Javascript! Particularly take a look at these libraries:

Also, make sure to code with a tool like ChatGPT - will make the learning process more pleasant and definitely will speed up your work!

Good luck and reach out if you need any help!

Hmm yeah that's pretty bad indeed, and definitely lacks clarity. We plan on doing research around local laws around the world for accepting bitcoin payments and managing accounting + taxes. Look out for that, as we want to release it in Q1 :) I hope we'll be able to answer these questions for a lot of people!

Thanks for the feedback on the web app! We're about to upgrade it even more to walk the user through the full setup and land on exactly the right page to get started for what he's looking for. Our focus is really on the user experience and guides in the platform, so I'm happy you picked this up.

That is a good point. No KYC is indeed a big deal, but we want to be careful on not confusing new users either. We are still trying to find the right way to show these groundbreaking features for payment processors, without overwhelming the users. I mean they'd get slammed with "No KYC, non-custodial, peer-to-peer, instant global payments, etc". For a non-bitcoiner, each of these is a rabbit hole in itself hehe

But education is a next step we want to be able to unlock in-app in as many places as possible, including in our documentation and as part of our soon-to-come onboarding checklist. This even gave me an idea: we could have an "Education checklist" in addition to the onboarding checklist. Very easy, very useful.

Oh yes, I actually heard already that the government is pretty agressive against bitcoin in India :/

Are these taxes on top of the typical taxes you have to pay for business sales? Unfortunately, it might not be interesting for local payments just yet, but it might be an option for selling abroad. Maybe products can be charged for at a premium, allowing the cost of taxes being less felt at the end of the day. In the end, governments change and all of this will be legal. And when it does change, it will be all of a sudden. Being early is great. That's part of the reason why we made Flash free to setup. We only charge a fee after the merchant earns.

We do not currently provide btc to usd in real time. We do want to provide such services, but only through partnerships. The moment we are the ones to do this, we will have to start KYCing our users and other issues can follow for merchants. We want to stay as far away as possible from that, and need to find the right partnerships + integrations to solve for this.

Thanks for that! Happy you enjoyed my previous work! I think storytelling is an amazing tool for passing messages across and orange-pilling at scale. The next step is payment solutions that are as simple as in the fiat world to bring people into the world of self-custodial, peer-to-peer, KYC-free payments. That's the purpose of Flash. A great personal story and a big reason for starting Flash was the custody of my ad revenue held by YouTube for months, while all I wanted was to be paid!

Regarding a next film, I answered this to another question here :) Yes: The Fight for the US Dollar: https://youtu.be/SHXnHmKEQsE?si=lchwq2U7f54AP2bR Have been super busy with Flash, but I'm lucky to have people part of the production that are super passionate and want it to be finished. We have all the interviews, a first very basic version and the script. So we're going to move on this again. We want it to be released in 2025!

100%

But from building I understood it. It's so much easier to go the easy way and choose custody. After all, that's why banks and companies like Stripe do it. Even if it's a temporary custody. But this will change soon. The tech is mature. And I hope we are the ones at Flash that will lead the way, and make it easy enough, well documented, interoperable and fun so that all others join the movement. We want to show them how

I love going to the movies. I feel like a little kid then, every time! And I had a period of going at least once a week. Recently, though, this has changed. First of all I feel like there aren't a lot of movies that are worth going to the movies.. So I'm more of a home watcher.

Favorite movie... It's hard to say, but I really grew up with a passion for UK gangster films: lock stock and two smoking barrels, layer cake, snatch, etc. Many of my friends hate me because I love rewatching films, and I always like most films. "Yeah, but the lightning was perfect" kind of movie geek. There was no way I wouldn't get into film with this attitude.

Our services are already available pretty much anywhere. We are a non-custodial solution. Which means we facilitate peer-to-peer payments and not for a single second do we hold user funds. So regulations are not a problem (at least at this stage). We'll see how things evolve. Basically you can already use Flash in India if you want! Feel free to reach out to us, we can help you get onboarded!

We will soon be addind support for more currencies (visually, we only use lightning of course) to help user onboarding. We want to make payments easy and to the same standard as companies like Stripe. The difference is that since we're non-custodial, you can get started and monetize in 2 min, literally. No need for KYC or anything like this

Thanks for reading! Happy to answer whatever question I can :D

Thanks! We're excited to have you test it, and happy to help!

Hope this answers it all! :D

The travel rule towards self-custody sucks. And the fact it's coming into the EU and UK is horrible. But we'll manage to get around this. I think it'll force builders to get more into the 2 core principles: self-custody and peer-to-peer. At Flash, we're about to change the game for business payments. We already never tough user funds, but as soon as our self-custodial wallet is live, we'll really be able to provide enterprise quality payment experiences, that are fully peer-to-peer and self-custodial. This is what drives me forward. Because building anything that doesn't follow these 2 standards is just not worth it. We're reaching the stage in bitcoin development tech that it is becoming easier to build such things. And it's the way forward for the internet. But all the businesses or exchanges relying on custody, they better buckle up, because I think it's going to be a touch blow for them in the short term.

Haha! I love my steaks, you have no idea! I eat some multiple times a week. And it depends who makes them! At a so-so restaurant I'll often ask for rare, because they'll likely overcook them. At better ones medium-rare is fine. I rarely trust them to make them as good as I do. I try to keep them medium rare when I cook. I have a whole process (like most people I suppose) and know how to get them just right for my taste!

Yes: The Fight for the US Dollar: https://youtu.be/SHXnHmKEQsE?si=lchwq2U7f54AP2bR

Have been super busy with Flash, but I'm lucky to have people part of the production that are super passionate and want it to be finished. We have all the interviews, a first very basic version and the script. So we're going to move on this again. We want it to be released in 2025!

Well, now that we raised money, the difficult part is patience. Of course now we're no longer building Proof of Concepts that just work. Now it has to be production ready. And the whole building cycle has changed, and has slowed down. It makes it much more difficult, especially when there are partnerships and people waiting for us to finish. Always feels like we're lagging behind the demand and it really gives FOMO as it feels like opportunities are slipping away. But they rarely are. Other businesses are also slow ;) No stress, always take a breather, as long as we move forward every day, we're winning.

I just live in Poland. I'm French and Spanish. Lived in Poland most of my life, though. There is a nice meetup, but the organiser is always travelling so they happen too sporadically. The bitcoin scene otherwise is pretty small. A lot of crypto stuff instead. But we try to change this. I co-founded the Bitcoin FilmFest, and it happens every year in Warsaw. Next edition will be May 23-25. You should come! Last year's was amazing, and the biggest halving celebration in the world!

I have to admit I listen very little to bitcoin podcasts nowadays... I used to listen to What bitcoin did a lot. It really got me into bitcoin, and was a great inspiration for my documentary. So there were plenty of ideas from there. But now, I spend all day on bitcoin topics already for work, I tend to listen to audiobooks or business/product focused podcasts