Topic: Let's start a lightning service provider (LSP). Who's in? (Read 134 times)

I have some experience with lightning nodes. It would be interesting to pilot something small. Does anybody think that there would be some use cases here on bitcoin talk? I registered when i saw this topic

The first question that comes up to a merchant if you try to sell them this, is: what does LSP provide more than Visa and Mastercard? If the only answer is lower cost, the venture is likely to refuse it. Visa and Mastercard levy higher charges than your business due to their substantial operational costs.

Setting up a lightning node yourself does make more points than cost reduction. Faster transaction confirmation and better privacy to name a few. Acting the intermediary between the customer and the merchant, replacing Visa reminds me somewhat of something similar to BitPay. We don't need another BitPay.

These are my concerns, feel free to extend this to a service discussion.

Ok, let us imagine for a moment, I will play the role of an online seller, I have a website/application and I sell digital goods, I'd love to have bitcoiners as my costumers while at the same time I want my payments to be paid instantly to my fiat bank account.

Can you offer that? People would buy from me using your service, you do the lightning part, what about my fiat part?

Don't kill Visa and Mastercards yet champion.😉

I'm not the right guy to do IRL promotions, I like my privacy too much for that.

He acknowledges that he only has the technical developer-solution approach and will need hands, from the citations you've given, I deduce that you can render some sorth of assisstance to him since you have an idea on his potential competitors or partners.

The Dutch company BitKassa offers something similar, I mainly know them from Arnhem BTCitcoincity. They've been around for years, but the statistics don't show much growth.

It would be cool if you can pull it off though, I'd love to see more shops accept Bitcoin LN.

So if I'm understanding correctly, you want to facilitate Lightning Network payments being made via channels, invoices, etc, but you have your own interface with higher fees so that customers can pay businesses with credit cards?

Not a bad idea.

However, you will probably need to have some way to list the transaction history on the cards, and possibly even have it mailed on request in case it is desirable to use the cards on places like Paypal.

Yes, agreed. Thanks so much for your contact, I will contact you.

You can not be one man army and create a fortune 500 business.
Feel free to DM me on my Telegram @Royse777 when you have time.

Good luck bud.

Hey bitcointalk.org members!

I need your help, I'm looking for co-founders for a business idea to make an LSP.

I've been thinking about the Bitcoin project/movement and the long-term benefits of Bitcoin. I am sold that taking on the payment card industry giants like visa and mastercard is definitely a powerful motivator in that it can bring obvious huge savings for regular everyday transactions.

I am convinced that lightning has the capacity to achieve this goal, even though not everybody is convinced lightning will be a success yet. The pot is simmering with activity at the moment, businesses are popping up here and there that are accepting lightning, but I want to help the cause by bringing this activity to a boil, so that we see businesses popping up left right and centre. Hyperbitcoinization is the goal.

The company would be profitable by charging a fixed fee for businesses to accept lightning in their brick-and-mortar store, and hopefully, this fixed fee will undercut the payment card giants. So monetization is obvious and built right into the business model.

Unfortunately, I hate sales, and a key component of this business would be "pushing"/selling the whole concept of Bitcoin to local businesses.

I am a software developer and bring some technical skills to the team, but I am not a business person, HR specialist, finance guru, or marketing genius. Sincerely, I need your help.

Marketing in particular might be tricky since a lot of people see Bitcoin as a risky investment, or some even as a scam. Selling this product will be hard work, take years, and for all team members involved, there is potentially little or no reward. To be motivated, you have to see the bigger picture and share the optimism I have that there will be success for the movement as a whole. One day, this product will sell itself. Today is not that day.

The first steps and key players I will need in the beginning are somebody who can organise investment, and somebody who can organise sales; but if you can contribute in other ways please don't hesitate to reach out. Investment doesn't have to be immediate. It can be contingent on things like having a certain number of customers signed up or other requirements. Mostly, we need this to motivate a sales team.

The incentive for getting involved in our business early on will be shares in the company. If Bitcoin is going to be a huge success, I see no reason why a business enabling businesses to use a payment network that undercuts visa and mastercard shouldn't also be a huge success.

If you can help, please reach out.

Let's bring value to the world together.

Thanks for your time

Jack