I assume the implementation will look a lot like yalls.org?
At yalls.org, you can read the first paragraph or two, and if you want to continue reading you scan the QR code with your phone... Or you click "pay" in the browser plugin of choise that supports Lightning payments...
Anyone know how they’re planning on doing this? I image they’ll be emailing users Lightning invoices or gating posts with them but I couldn’t find details.
Kind of worse model for publishers because they currently get paid regardless of whether they’re actually read or not.
Fun subscription fact: it takes the average gym goer 18 months after they stop going to cancel their subscription.
Given that it's a collaboration with OpenNode, my hunch is that it just means Substack will expose some kind of payment invoice that's integrated with ON behind the scenes.
Regarding whether or not it's worse for publishers, it might actually be better in the long run, since it instantly expands the potential market to... you know... all of humanity ⚡️
(Also, @koob, be wary of averages... this is probably skewed by people who never cancel 😂.)
For example, by encrypting the content with the preimage of the payment hash.
It is a secret generated when the invoice was created. Its revealed to the invoice payer when the invoice is paid.
I'm no lightning expert, but it sounds like it could be used by the payee as an encryption key to encrypt the newsletter content when the LN invoice is generated, and by the payer to decrypt it after payment is confirmed.
That’s a clever way to paywall. Somehow I doubt they’re doing anything that interesting.
If you have some means of IDing users you can effectively achieve the same thing by just maintaining state on the backend. If the invoice is paid they show/send it to that email address. If not nope.
I assume the implementation will look a lot like yalls.org?
At yalls.org, you can read the first paragraph or two, and if you want to continue reading you scan the QR code with your phone... Or you click "pay" in the browser plugin of choise that supports Lightning payments...
Makes sense. Only it’s a bit more cumbersome than pay once a month regardless of you reading
Anyone know how they’re planning on doing this? I image they’ll be emailing users Lightning invoices or gating posts with them but I couldn’t find details.
Kind of worse model for publishers because they currently get paid regardless of whether they’re actually read or not.
Fun subscription fact: it takes the average gym goer 18 months after they stop going to cancel their subscription.
Given that it's a collaboration with OpenNode, my hunch is that it just means Substack will expose some kind of payment invoice that's integrated with ON behind the scenes.
Regarding whether or not it's worse for publishers, it might actually be better in the long run, since it instantly expands the potential market to... you know... all of humanity ⚡️
(Also, @koob, be wary of averages... this is probably skewed by people who never cancel 😂.)
Lol good point! I imagine the median is still 6+ months
I figured there's a way to send encrypted content and decrypt it by paying an invoice?
For example, by encrypting the content with the preimage of the payment hash.
It is a secret generated when the invoice was created. Its revealed to the invoice payer when the invoice is paid.
I'm no lightning expert, but it sounds like it could be used by the payee as an encryption key to encrypt the newsletter content when the LN invoice is generated, and by the payer to decrypt it after payment is confirmed.
That’s a clever way to paywall. Somehow I doubt they’re doing anything that interesting.
If you have some means of IDing users you can effectively achieve the same thing by just maintaining state on the backend. If the invoice is paid they show/send it to that email address. If not nope.