Planning Zaps: Using ZapPlanner to Make Periodic Bitcoin Payments
A while back, I wrote about using Oak Node on my Umbrel. It's an app that allows you to schedule recurring lightning payments using your own node. I loved how it used bitcoin native time, but it was a little technical and too much for my Raspberry Pi node to handle. Since my lightning node crashed, I have been looking for different ways to replicate this to no avail—until now. It also does not require one to run a node. I feel a little uncomfortable saying this, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most people just ain't going to run a damn node. Luckily, the people at Get Alby made it so they don't have to.
Plan Zaps With ZapPlanner
I won't write a tutorial on this because it's so easy that my mom can do it. If you want to learn more about it, check out the blog getalby wrote on nostr. When I first tried using Oak-Node, it was difficult to get people's Lightning addresses. Most bitcoiners didn't have them. I had to use Matt Odell's fountain.fm lighthing address because I couldn't find another one. Hardly anyone heard of NOSTR back then. What a difference six months makes!
Now, all I had to do was make a list of bitcoiners I wanted to pledge my support to. The beauty of this website is that it requires no credit card. This means monthly pledges must be done using something Ramit Sethi calls a "conscious spending plan."
Credit cards suck. Satoshi even mentioned this in the early days. Credit cards are great for merchants who want to jail you into subscription hell.
I also think this it is important to have a censorship-resistant alternative to Patreon, and this seems like a decent option since there is no KYC and finding each person you send sats to would be possible but impracticable.
How I Am Using Zap Planner
I set aside a certain number of sats every month to use for giving. I also stack sats, but I love donating sats too. I'm sure most people have given bitcoin to someone at some point in their journey. It feels good, doesn't it? Anyway, I decided to make a list of bitcoiners I want to support. This list may differ at some point; if one of them becomes a b-casher, I would end my subscription. I also might cancel if the price shoots up to ten million dollars per coin and I can no longer afford to give so many sats away.
This is my list, in no particular order:
- Bitkarrot
bitkarrot@ln.tips
Guy Swann
theguyswann@getalby.com
Matt Odell
odell@stacker.news
Gigi
dergigi@ln.tips
Verbiricha
verbiricha@snort.social
Vitor Pamplona
vitorpamplona@getalby.com
Matt Taibbi
evasiveskirt12@walletofsatoshi.com
Lynn Alden
Again, I might change the list from time to time. I might also need to pause my donations if things take a turn for the worse, say a job loss or my roof caves in, but I get to decide whether to send money to my ZapPlanner wallet or not. I am going to try doing 21 sats per hour this month, but I realize this could get annoying, and it's not exactly the cheapest way of doing things, but I think it's cooler than the Yeti cup.
The best part is that I don't need to ask them for their Lightning addresses because they already have them. I did need to ask Matt Taibbi to create a lighting wallet on Nostr, but he created one, and now it's time to show him how it works. Unfortunately, I still won't be able to comment in the walled garden behind Substack, but it's like Gandhi says:
Plan Your Zaps
This is a call to action. Set aside a certain number of sats and plan to give them to people whose work you find valuable. This is not the same as asking you for zaps. I appreciate them, but if we are going to take back the narrative, Like it or not, we need to use bitcoin for it to reach its full potential. With the banks starting to crack, it's time to get the word out:
Bitcoin is not a speculative asset.
It is not limited to 7 transactions per second.
Bitcoin will not boil the fish in the sea.
Bitcoin does not turn the sky The New York Times altered gray.
Bitcoin is peer-to-peer electronic cash, and we should treat it that way. Not all the people on my list use self-custodial solutions. That's okay. Self-custody is not that big a deal for small amounts, but before we can teach people this, we need to show them how it works. I hope you show someone what bitcoin makes possible. We will need it. Maybe your country is safe from hyperinflation, unlike Venezuela. Maybe your country can dodge the debt ceiling stopwatch once again, and maybe your bank can survive the next bond crash. Just in case, we should show people what we can do. All in all, this will cost me about 35 bucks a month at today's prices. Maybe you can't afford that much, but you could probably afford to send 100 sats per day to your favorite podcaster or something. The amount is up to you, but I would like to see some more people start to spend sats. I think this can go a long way in building a circular economy, but if it's just one nerdy dork sending sats to a few people, it won't help bitcoin adoption. If 10 million people started doing this, we can get things really started.
Blogging Bitcoin
npub1wkljx5c6a8uccc5etws8ry0y3r4dgavh2dcav0tal4rtmcdl4z2sfu5u0t
Block Height: 789,684
To pledge your support, please visit:
my lightning address is: bloggingbitcoin@ln.tips
Visit my Value 4 Value Page
or scan this QR Code with lnurl compatible lightning wallet.
