After a suggestion from ecurrencyhodler and @theliteschool from twitter
( Two great guys)
I decided to do a short guide on Satoshis.place, a new creative way to bring LN awareness and have fun while doing it.
Satoshis.place allows users to cooperatively or competitively color pixels on a shared canvass.
Each pixel is only one satoshi. As the player colors, the price is approximated on the side. In the Image below, I randomly spread white dots around in preview mode, 176 pixels to be exact, which would cost me about one cent USD to post to the canvas.
Now that we understand what Satoshis.place is, we can move on to using it.
*** @knowbitcoin (from twitter) brought the test-net version of the game to my attention called testnet.satoshis.place. This, along with the test-net version of the Eclair wallet will allow you to use the exact same steps below, but without any risk of lost funds. Remember, LN is still in development, which means money can be lost. https://twitter.com/knowbitcoin/status/1007036271917559809 ***
What you need:
- A Lightning network enabled wallet:
To play the game, we do not need to accept LN payments, only send them. This means that a mobile wallet such as Eclair, on the android store will suffice. Download the wallet, set up your seed phrases, and you should be good to go. Sadly, IOS users seem to be out of luck here, as apple has not been friendly to Cryptocurrency. (an android emulator on a MAC laptop/PC might be able to run Eclair)
2. Bitcoin:
Yes, you need some Bitcoin to play. While the cost to play is very cheap, you will need around $10–15 worth of BTC in order to send the payments ( This will be explained later). 99% of this cost will not be spent.
After you set up your wallet and deposited some Bitcoin, you can begin the next step.
Set up a channel between your wallet, and Satoshis.place
First, go to satoshis.place, scribble on the canvas, and hit submit. This will open up a screen shown below.
What we want from this screen is the Node information. Click the button to copy it to your clipboard.
Next, open Eclair. Navigate to the “Lightning Channels” Tab, and click the green plus on the bottom right.
Select paste a node URI. You should get a box like this if all went well.
Here, i’ll explain why you need 10–15$ worth of BTC.
The Lightning Network works by setting up channels between wallets. To set up a channel, collateral is placed on the blockchain into a shared multisig address.
After this collateral is in place, payments can be sent and received over the channel instantly and almost free. After the channel is closed, the collateral from each party is returned. To set up a channel to Satoshis.place, a minimum of 0.001 BTC is needed to be held as collateral. You can not send more BTC over the channel than what is in collateral, which ensures that there can not be any fraud. This is an oversimplified explaination, so if you would like to learn more see this post on StackExchange that goes into more detail.
So, if you only plan on playing around with the game, and don’t want to color thousands of pixels, stick with the minimum channel fund of 0.001 BTC.
After funding the channel, tap open.
You will see a “WAIT_FOR_FUNDING_CONFIRMED” message under your channel if successful. Now, you wait. This can take about 20 minutes or longer to set up on the blockchain ( I believe 6 confirmations are needed). After a channel is set up, you will no longer need to wait to send transactions.
Note: When LN is in use, it is expected that most users will not be the ones opening and maintaining channels to businesses and retailers. This will be the job of relaying nodes which will be paid network fees to keep channels open for public use.
When the channel is ready, you will see a green “normal” under the address.
SEND A PAYMENT
Now that your channel is set up, go to Satoshis.place and scribble whatever you want. Click submit again, which will bring up the first screen we saw.
This time, Open your Eclair wallet. Navigate to transaction history, and click the arrow on the bottom right, select scan a payment request ( if your device has no camera,copy and paste it), point it at the QR code, and send the payment.
You should INSTANTLY see your payment go through, and your “art” appear on the canvas.
If you had your fun, you can close the channel by simply clicking on it and selecting cancel. However, if you do not need the collateral back right away, keep it open and play some more later.
As @GaryDeSnailBot From twitter correctly concluded
“This will replace War”
My Twitter handle is @NickLTC, and I would be glad to answer any further questions to help get people going.
