Re: instant web payments via the lightning network

This new work looks promising

https://github.com/wbobeirne/webln

cc wboberine -- tl;dr some of us are hoping to try and get some
standardization work going in the w3c payments group around the lightning
network -- any interest?

On Mon, 4 Mar 2019 at 11:52, Andrew Bransford Brown <andrewbb@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Good idea.
>
> On Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 3:16 PM Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 19 Jan 2019 at 18:44, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 19 Jan 2019 at 18:30, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 17 Jan 2019 at 18:24, Michael Bumann <hello@michaelbumann.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>> On Monday, January 14, 2019 11:50 AM, Melvin Carvalho <
>>>>> melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, 14 Jan 2019 at 11:30, Michael Bumann <hello@michaelbumann.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Melvin,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> yeah, I've been experimenting with the Bitcoin lightning network for
>>>>>> a while and I am pretty excited about the state and how easy it is to build
>>>>>> on top of it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi, Great!
>>>>>
>>>>> Funnily enough I was just reading your page, and realized it was you :
>>>>>
>>>>> Tim did actually a while back ask me to interact with this group
>>>>> regarding http 402.  Some work has been done on that, including by me, and
>>>>> it would be great to compare notes at some point.  Or maybe flesh out use
>>>>> cases.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I got a bit lost in the different efforts around this topic. And some
>>>>> seemed to me rather complicated (e.g. including standards for providing
>>>>> invoice/shipping details)
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd love to see and online equivalent of handing a coin to the
>>>>> newspaper person and getting some content in return.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Did you see/use lightning browser extension "joule"[1]?  It brings
>>>>>> lightning payments to the browser - and there has been some discussion
>>>>>> around supporting web payment standards - maybe somebody familiar can help?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have it installed, but dont fully understand the fine details.  When
>>>>> my casa node arrives I'll be able to try it out with my own node.  But I
>>>>> might set up a raspblitz while I wait.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Let me know if you want to set it up on a server. I am happy to help,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I was lead to your blog post from :
>>>>>
>>>>> https://github.com/wbobeirne/joule-extension/issues/46
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am wondering how to make it easier for content providers to
>>>>>> integrate LN payments and also experimented with lightning payments for API
>>>>>> requests [2].
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have written in the past working code for pay walls, with a dance
>>>>> around http 402, and in fact that's my current use case.
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you think some areas of this work flow would benefit from
>>>>> standardization?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> as mentioned above I am not super aware of the current standardization
>>>>> efforts and I ignored it because of simplicity with my experiments.
>>>>> I think also joule ignored it for that reason.
>>>>>
>>>>> But yeah this must use some standard. Does anyone know how this could
>>>>> fit into the current efforts?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> How about this simple pay wall user story for proof of concept?
>>>>
>>>> User Story
>>>> <#m_6562303847656748069_m_1728713327420995450_m_-5517546107507471064_m_8143054714546802283_user-story>
>>>>
>>>> As a teacher, Alice wishes to make her educational notes available to
>>>> fellow teachers. Having put a great deal of effort into it, she would wish
>>>> to get access to different notes from other teachers in return, or put up a
>>>> pay wall for new teachers that have not yet prepared notes. Alice will set
>>>> the price of access, and a license indicating it is not to be shared
>>>> further. Bob, having obtained some credits on Alice's system purchases the
>>>> notes, and starts working on his own presentations, which he would like to
>>>> share in a similar way
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Process
>>>> <#m_6562303847656748069_m_1728713327420995450_m_-5517546107507471064_m_8143054714546802283_process>
>>>> Bob's attempts to access the URI, and receives a response, HTTP 402 -
>>>> Payment Required.
>>>>
>>>> Also returned is a lightning network invoice in an HTTP header.
>>>>
>>>> Bob pays the invoice, then Alice allows access to the article
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Request
>>>
>>> HTTP GET paywall.org/article.html
>>>
>>> Response
>>>
>>> HTP 402
>>> X-Lightning-Invoice : ln74894yiy...
>>> Updates-Via : wss://paywall.org
>>>
>>> Maybe another header for the type of paywall?  ie lightning mainnet.
>>> The updates-via can be used to tell the user agent that the page is ready
>>> to refresh.
>>>
>>
>> Someone (aka basti) pointed me to the following doc saying X- headers are
>> no longer a best practice
>>
>> https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6648
>>
>> So perhaps we can standardize around the ln- prefix for example
>>
>> ln-invoice
>> ln-grpc
>> ln-foo
>> ln-bar
>>
>> etc. ?
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> With solid it's possible to access control content, and give back a
>>>>> 4xx.  We dont yet return 402s but I've custom hacked a server to do that.
>>>>> I'm not quite sure how a server will be able to know to send a 402.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [1]https://lightningjoule.com/
>>>>>> [2]
>>>>>> http://michaelbumann.com/post/180389589277/bitcoin-lightning-machine-to-machine-api-payments
>>>>>> [2] https://github.com/bumi/ln-markdown-to-pdf
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>>> On Saturday, January 12, 2019 6:04 PM, Melvin Carvalho <
>>>>>> melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > I am curious if any of this group is interested in the lightning
>>>>>> network [1].
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > For those that are unaware, it is a system built on top of block
>>>>>> chains that allow zero cost instant payments in a zero trust environment.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > There has been lots of innovation already this year, and it seems
>>>>>> to be growing fast.  One service that impressed me is a custodial service
>>>>>> built on top of twitter that allows you to add a tip jar based on your
>>>>>> twitter account.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > https://tippin.me/
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > This is a really easy way for non technical people to experience
>>>>>> web payments and bitcoin in the browser, without the overhead of a high
>>>>>> technical barrier to entry, or downloading a wallet.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Additionally I have added this to my sollid profile using the the
>>>>>> foaf : tipjar predicate that has been around for about a decade but never
>>>>>> really used.  The I have added it looks as follows :
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > In turtle :
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > </#me> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/tipjar> <
>>>>>> https://tippin.me/@melvincarvalho> .
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > In RDFa :
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > <a target="_blank" rel="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/tipjar" href="
>>>>>> https://tippin.me/@melvincarvalho">https://tippin.me/@melvincarvalho
>>>>>> </a>
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > There are also new solutions such as a mobile wallet that receives
>>>>>> payments (blue wallet), decentralized apps (Lapps) and ability to run your
>>>>>> own node eg on a raspberry pi.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > If anyone is playing around in this space would love to hear from
>>>>>> you, or if you'd like to get started and have, say a tippin me account, I'd
>>>>>> be happy to send some satoshis (the unit of currency) to play around with.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > I think this brings forth an exciting new era of instant payments
>>>>>> in the browser.  Would love to hear from anyone else that is interested in
>>>>>> this tech.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > [1] http://lightning.network
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>