Alby Buzz: WordPress Plugin and Podcast Analytics

Alby Buzz: WordPress Plugin and Podcast Analytics

Hello Alby Community!

Welcome to the eight edition of Alby Buzz, where you find out about everything new at Alby, the Lightning app ecosystem and are the first to learn about what's coming next.

News from the Bitcoin Lightning ecosystem

  • bolt.fun announced the Legends of Lightning tournament with 3 BTC in prices
  • Bitnob expands into Kenya bringing Bitcoin and Lightning to 50M residents
  • Bitcoin payment service Strike raises $80M
  • LightningLabs announces the initial code for Taro, a new protocol to issue and transfer assets on Bitcoin and Lightning
  • THNDR Games released Solitaire
  • Tweetoshi released a big update for their app with significant performance improvements
  • BitGo unveils custodial Bitcoin Lightning solution
  • The Bitcoin Design Community is hosting a Designation in October
  • Max Webster from hivemind.vc published a great essay: How to disrupt Google building on the Lightning Network
  • RoboSats is now WebLN compatible. Users can buy and sell bitcoin on the Lightning network with Alby: Connected to their own node and no more QR code scanning.

Introducing SATurn: Value for  podcast analytics

At Alby, we have created SATurn, a web app that lets users easily analyze their Value for Value podcasts. Users of the Alby podcaster wallet can connect their account to SATurn to receive valuable insights into the performance of their podcasts and read all messages from their audience sent by Value for Value enabled podcast players.

Bitcoin on WordPress with the Alby Plugin

At Alby, we have created the Bitcoin Lightning Publisher, a WordPress plugin that lets users easily monetize content on their websites using Bitcoin on the Lightning Network. The plugin sidesteps the need for expensive payment processing services, making access to paid content a pleasant, streamlined experience. Traditional paywalls can be frustrating for users, who may feel that paying to access a website isn’t worth the hassle of filling out forms and creating new accounts. With Alby’s WordPress plugin, access-granting microtransactions can occur instantly, with a single click.

Guest Post: How I discovered Alby

Alby welcomes individual bloggers who talk about their experiences with Alby. Michael L. Ovsen Jr. shares with us his story about his major pain points using bitcoin today and how he discovered Alby when he was looking for a solution.

Releases

This month we released v1.15.0 🌈 North America and the Pelican and v1.16.0 📀 Ringed Ice Giant Neptune, which include:

  • Better YouTube battery: we now load the lightning information also from the channel description
  • Tipping support on SoundCloud
  • Support for the Tor Browser: when Alby is used with the Tor Browser or Tor running then connections to Tor nodes just work

v.16.0 includes improvements to handle translations and allows users to enable or disable browser notifications. We also added many refactorings to improve the user experience.

The WordPress plugin also already got an upgrade. You can now add simple buttons via shortcodes that allow you visitors to send Value for Value payments. Check out the help section of the plugin for more information.  

Meet us in person and online

Let's meet in October at


That's it from the hive this month. For more, visit our website and follow Alby on Twitter. We love your feedback! Big or small, feature request or bug report, we read them all! Please visit the feedback board to help us out.