The Bitcoin Asia convention held on Could 9 and 10, 2024 in Hong Kong demonstrated a big milestone within the adoption of bitcoin as a official medium of alternate.
This text outlines the methods and applied sciences carried out to facilitate seamless bitcoin transactions for items and companies over the 2 days, leveraging the capabilities of self-custodial cost processing via BTCPay Server.
Government Abstract
All through the occasion, 212 Bitcoin transactions have been processed, involving 4 distributors and totaling 7,714,253 sats, equal to 36,974.63 HKD.
The typical transaction was roughly 36,560 sats (about 175 HKD). Notably, the system maintained full operational uptime with zero failures in bitcoin base chain or lightning community transactions.
What’s BTCPay Server?
With banks, you haven’t any choice between self-custody or custodial cost processing.
For instance, for those who wished to run a self-custody enterprise with fiat, you would need to run a money payments-only enterprise, which comes with large threat of theft when centralizing capital in a single place. This may additionally restrict your buyer base.
To increase our financial outreach past our native economies, we created cost networks and cost processors that enable for digital transactions.
However what have been the results of implementing custodial cost programs over time? Why can’t now we have a digital self-custodial cost processor? What improvements, freedoms, and knowledge do clients & companies must sacrifice on account of custodial cost processing? What if my digital type of cost (e.g., bank card, Apple Pay, Venmo) declines despite the fact that I’ve the funds in my account? What beneficial knowledge — each monetary and private — am I now making a gift of at no cost due to these companies?
With BTCPay Server, we are able to facilitate the expertise of cash-like transactions digitally, which means we are able to make digital funds peer-to-peer. Transactions don’t require private data from the payer, nor do they require an middleman. This eliminates the dangers that come from each transacting with money and relying on an middleman.
BTCPay Server is free to make use of and fully open supply, which means BTCPay Server shouldn’t be an organization — it is merely code.
BTCPay Server is a bitcoin cost processor that enables companies and people to obtain funds instantly, with out counting on third-party companies.
Not like conventional cost processors, BTCPay Server does custody funds and doesn’t cost any transaction charges.
BTCPay Server is a extremely adaptable cost processor. It may be built-in into current programs with APIs, and each people and companies can tailor their cost processing expertise to satisfy particular wants, making certain a seamless integration into their operational frameworks.
Along with the options listed above, BTCPay Server helps what are generally known as Prism Funds.
This performance permits for the trustless distribution of funds throughout a number of accounts on the level of sale. This modern strategy essentially rethinks the stream of cash, enabling real-time compensation for stakeholders and staff.
How you can Use BTCPay Server
Step 1: Setup a BTCPay Server
For a complete information on organising a BTCPay Server, see this full step-by-step tutorial on YouTube.
Step 2: Making certain Liquidity and Value Stability
On the time of writing, the Lightning Community is the one Bitcoin scaling resolution that maintains bitcoin’s cash-like properties in making funds with BTC.
The Lightning Community facilitates prompt settlement, would not require any KYC and provides close to non-existent charges, very like the expertise of utilizing money.
For the Lightning Community to perform, it wants liquidity. Offering liquidity usually means working and managing a node your self, however BTCPay Server does this for you.
On the convention, BTCPay Servers nodes, along with Blink, which served as a liquidity supplier for the convention, operated flawlessly, making certain no cost failures.
Along with using an additional liquidity supplier, we additionally employed a value hedging resolution in case we skilled bitcoin value volatility in the course of the convention.
This threat wanted to be addressed as a result of distributors who accepted bitcoin on the convention wished to be paid out of their native foreign money as soon as the convention ended.
A bearish state of affairs for a vendor can be receiving a $10 cost bitcoin on the time of sale whereas the worth of bitcoin was excessive, after which, in the course of the course of the convention, bitcoin’s value might have dropped 50%.
In such a scenario, when it was time to carry out a settlement within the native foreign money for the seller, they might solely obtain $5 of their native foreign money, which is unacceptable.
To mitigate this threat, we used “stablesats“, a Blink function that enables for immediate conversion into an artificial model of a secure foreign money (such because the Hong Kong greenback) on the level of sale.
Extra data on Blink options and companies right here.
Step 3: Deploying Bodily POS Machines
Regardless of the digital nature of bitcoin transactions, bodily point-of-sale (POS) machines have been deployed to present a well-known checkout expertise to attendees and distributors.
We used POS machines from Bitcoinize. These units additionally facilitated the issuance of bodily receipts upon request.
Step 4: Simplifying Bitcoin Entry with Bolt Playing cards
To facilitate seamless bitcoin transactions on the convention, we additionally utilized Bolt Playing cards.
These customized “Bitcoin Asia” version playing cards, enabled attendees to transform fiat foreign money into bitcoin to be used inside the occasion. The playing cards allowed for easy NFC tapping at POS units.
Step 5: Coaching for Retailers and Staff
A coaching session was performed earlier than the convention to familiarize distributors with how one can use BTCPay Server.
The ten-minute session was efficient, with minimal questions from contributors.
A bunch chat was arrange for help, which remained largely inactive as a result of clean operation of the cost system.
A full video of the coaching session is on the market right here.
Conclusion
Due to free and open supply software program like BTCPay Server and modern options from corporations like Blink, transacting with bitcoin transactions on the Bitcoin Asia convention was extremely straightforward.
The success of utilizing BTCPay server on the Bitcoin Asia convention demonstrated the potential for wider adoption of bitcoin in on a regular basis commerce.
Think about using such options in your subsequent occasion or inside your native financial system.