Get booked for your time in bitcoin

Alby positions itself as not just another payment gateway; We're a movement embracing the lightning adoption of bitcoin through innovation, across more and more industries. Now, in collaboration with another freedom tech project, we're making it easier than ever to plan your appointments and get paid or pay for them in the most innovative, decentralized and scarce money– bitcoin.

We are excited to launch an integration with Cal.com, a fast growing platform for effortless appointment scheduling with more than 110,000 users worldwide. Whether you are a personal trainer, language tutor or a financial advisor - it is always a must to have a comfortable way of scheduling meetings and getting paid for them. By connecting your Alby account, you can minimize the risk of no-shows and ensure that you receive compensation for your valuable time in bitcoin.

Collect payments at booking with your Alby account

Did you know that you can conveniently collect payments upfront from individuals interested in meeting with you, including those who simply want to gain insights from your expertise?

What's the rationale behind this integration for your business, especially if you offer consultations, meetings, or any services that require your attention? Here are the key benefits:

• Boosting your income: Recognizing the value of your time, this integration can help you generate additional revenue.
• Simplifying payment collection: Users can seamlessly book meetings and make payments in one step, eliminating the need for multiple actions on separate platforms. You won't have to deal with the hassle of creating invoices or sharing payment links.
• Minimising no-shows and safeguarding your schedule: When customers have already paid in advance for their time with you, they're less likely to cancel or fail to show up. Additionally, you won't have to chase down customers to settle invoices.

Well you might say that you can already do that with PayPal or Stripe. Yes, but receiving bitcoin enables the points above plus:

• No chargeback risk: Bitcoin payments are final and cannot be reclaimed by the acquiring bank.
• Quick setup: No need to copy and paste Client IDs or Secret Keys. Just enable the Alby plugin, connect an Alby account and you are done.

How it works

Alby has been added as an app to Cal.com’s app store. If you’re logged in you can install the Alby app - either from the app store or from one of your existing event types.

Once you’ve installed it, you’ll need to setup the integration by connecting your Alby account (or creating a new one for free during the connection process) to Cal.com which can be done with a few clicks.

Next you'll need to authorize the connection to Cal.com. This integration will request your profile information necessary to receive payments. You can be sure your payment history is kept private - Cal.com is open source and does not store details of any payments it receives from Alby.

Also note that this Cal.com integration does not request permission to send payments - only read incoming payments on your account. Your lightning address is requested in order to be used to allow Cal.com to generate an invoice from your Alby account so the guest can pay it to complete the booking.

After you’ve authorized the connection, you’ll be redirected back to Cal.com, to enable the Alby app and set the price for your meetings in sats (100,000,000 sats are 1 bitcoin). You’ll receive the payment from the payer directly in your Alby account. Click save and you’re ready to go!

Now, when a user wants to book a meeting with you, they’ll see the meeting price in sats, and can hover over the amount to see the fiat value.

After they choose a time and enter their booking details, they’ll have to complete a bitcoin payment in order to complete the booking. This can be done with any bitcoin lightning wallet. If your customer doesn’t have a lightning wallet, don’t worry - there’s a link on the payment page to get them up and running quickly with Alby. They can even topup using fiat directly from their Alby account.

For an even smoother experience, they can use the Alby browser extension for one-click payments without having to scan a QR code. As the screenshot shows below - all you need to do is click on the "Pay Now" button, and the payment will be executed through WebLN.

If you tick the "Remember and set a budget" option in the payment popup, next time you pay you won't even see a popup to confirm the payment:

After the payment has completed, the user will be redirected to the booking success screen as usual, and you’ll both receive an email of the booking, including the price paid in sats.

Start accepting payments!

This plugin is particularly useful for individuals who are self-employed or engaged in freelance work. It also holds significance for larger organisations that, as part of their sales and engagement strategy, provide complimentary consultations. People frequently underestimate the effort and time required for consultation preparation. Consequently, they might schedule a consultation and, without cancelling, opt not to attend. So the next time someone requests "just 30 minutes of your time," direct them to your Cal.com link that includes the necessary payment for booking a slot with you - in bitcoin of course.

➡️ Read the announcement and how-to on Cal.com's blog: Introducing Alby: The Bitcoin-Friendly Payment Solution
🛠️ Check out Cal.com's GitHub profile
📅 Book an appointment with Alby's team - only 2,100 sats for 1:1 consultations!