The BoltFaucet ⚡🚰
When I discovered Bitcoin⚡Lightning in 2019, I was quickly fascinated by this Magic Internet Money ✨🧙♂️. We need a currency for the 21st century – for the Internet age. I bought my first eBook via Lightning for the equivalent of 10 euros. Today, it’s worth many times more, but I somehow misplaced the book. I set up my first Lightning⚡Node, a RaspiBlitz. Both were still pretty nerdy back then, not very stable, and a bit reckless. Today, there are 1-click solutions: secure, reliable, and comfortable. Anyone who wants to can use them.
An eBook at a rate of 10,000 €/₿
Hardware was replaced once
I was so fascinated that I wanted to show it to others. That’s when the idea for the website ereignishorizont.xyz came up. Users should receive Lightning⚡Satoshis as gifts and be able to use them immediately with practical applications – that’s exactly what this new money is for, it is natively digital.
We can experience⚡Lightning
Five years later, I had acquired the necessary technologies and was able to build the Onboarding page. I give away a few Satoshis, and users can test a paywall, try out a bitcoinSwitch online while watching the result via webcam, return some Satoshis through donations while leaving a message on the website – or even buy a ticket 🎟️ for a private Telegram group.
However, the problem was that my culture of generosity was mercilessly exploited. Apparently, some people didn’t understand the idea behind it and made an effort to claim a few Satoshis every few hours for a fraction of a cent. I had set the interval to 6 hours and offered only 3 Satoshis – but someone with a lot of free time still abused it. It wasn’t a bot – the pattern was too irregular.
Anyway – this faucet abuse made it practically impossible for other users to meaningfully use my onboarding page. I tried many things, but nothing worked – I was quite frustrated. Until I recently told Lee, aka DoktorShift, about it. He magically 🪄 created a program within a few hours that controls the distribution of LNbits vouchers via a Telegram bot. The bot asks for the user’s Telegram ID and saves it in a database. If the user tries a second time, the issuance of another voucher is denied. ⛔🔒
That finally solved my dilemma. 🎉 I could generously distribute 21 Satoshis to anyone who wanted them. 🧡 Instantly and without waiting – but only once per Telegram account. If anyone has concerns about their Telegram ID being stored, they simply don’t have to use the voucher. For everyone else: my server only stores the absolutely necessary Telegram ID – no usernames, no dates, no additional metadata. You can find the button in Example 1 of my onboarding tutorial.
If you want to learn more about the technology behind BoltFaucet or maybe build one yourself, feel free to check out my GitHub repository BoltFaucet. You’ll find everything you need to spread a little bit of Lightning⚡Satoshi love into the world.
Thank you for reading. 🙏
Created with love 🧡 Since 894169 / 894169