Time Into Sats

Inspiration

While it's possible to earn sats with activities like playing games, filling out surveys, or running a paid Nostr relay, it's difficult to earn MEANINGFUL income.

What it does

Time Into Sats(TiS) provides a system for discovery, coordination, and facilitation of a consulting session where the risks to each party are mitigated by breaking the session into small billable time segments and streaming Lightning invoices to the client.

How we built it

TiS is built largely on javascript with a dependency on the Alby browser plugin for managing both Lightning and NOSTR npubs. It utilizes NOSTR for session coordination and it's own websocket channel for streaming lightning invoices to the client side. A primary intention is that it be easy to install so it was packaged for Umbrel and StartOS 1-click installation.

Challenges we ran into

As evidenced by the project video, I'm not a UI guy. A well designed UI would enhance the usability of the project, but can come at a later phase of development. The point at this time is to understand the trade-offs of session segmentation and pricing influence the acceptance from a consultant/client point of view.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

That it works and provides a platform for further refinement and discovery.

What we learned

Relying on a single NOSTR relay is not decentralized enough. There are several strategies for managing pools of relays but this iteration is intended to prove the concept and not dwell on getting everything perfect.

There are a lot a places where "forgiveness" can be applied. How long do you wait for the first invoice to be paid before deciding that the session should be terminated? What if the price of bitcoin swings wildly between when a session is confirmed and when it's delivered? These are human questions that should be considered and where applicable features developed to address.

What's next for Time Into Sats

Discoverability: It's left to the user to decide how to best "let others know that you're available". This could be over any social media channel, but NOSTR is getting better at relay/topic/community management and this could be levered for better awareness. All good consultants know that word of mouth is the best advertising anyway.

Better calendar(coordination) support. NOSTR calendar events aren't widely supported in today's clients and relying on iCal and email defeats the point of decentralization. This aspect will be cumbersome for the time being, but should improve as calendar events support improves.

Accounting/tax system integration: Like it or not, in the US and other jurisdictions, earning money(property) in exchange for services is a taxable event. The system should, at the conclusion of a session, force the client to download a filled in 1099-misc(or likewise tax reporting form). What is currently unclear is if this system is required to likewise notify the proper taxation authority as well.

Built With

• api
• lightning
• nostr