After more than three years of X-Payment, we are excited to announce the largest expansion to date! The Merchant system seamlessly integrates into Discord servers to transform them into bustling economies. — X-Cash team
(Release on 22nd of August 2022)
So what has X-Payment been up to?
From its first iteration, the X-Payment Discord bot’s purpose has been to execute micropayments between Discord users. Throughout the years it has seen multiple upgrades revolving around code base improvements, styling, and expansions of integrated commands, however, less had been done to expand its functionalities to become an integral part of our strategy.
How does that fit into the whole picture?
X-Payment’s team focus has always been on bringing X-Cash to the world over social platforms. As a part of the X-Cash Ecosystem, we strive to develop products that allow our users freedom beyond the expected wallet functions and exchange activity, and now X-Payment is closer to this ideal.
Why is X-Payment different?
Many believe that Crypto bots on social media are unable to do more than send tips, though we believe this is a self-imposed limit. When new features are added to social media Crypto bots they typically are used for a novelty period before the user moves on to never use them again, thus resulting in the above limit misperception.
X-Payment has focused on features that people need and will want to use frequently.
Key features of X-Payment
- X-Payment has the only private/public transaction functions available for social media use right now.
- Simplified for users to begin using right away.
- Transactions are instant and free.
- X-Payment is available on multiple platforms.
- Merchant tools to allow you to build your micro-economy
What are our objectives?
We are the first to offer a comprehensive package that blends the lines between retail consumers and retail operations. In simple terms, our goal for X-Payment is to fully allow anyone safe access to Crypto through the platforms they’re most comfortable with. The Merchant system’s purpose is to enable anyone to manage their own economy, simply, and without bureaucracy, start-up costs, or obligation.
Key terms
Customer: Discord server member.
Retailer: Discord server owner or management staff.
Merchant system: X-Payment’s merchant tools.
Where does the need for a Merchant system arise?
If you use Discord:
- You may come across servers offering VIP access to their secret channels with complicated (and sometimes risky) access protocols.
- Perhaps you are a Retailer with a monetization strategy that is time-consuming to manage.
- Maybe you can’t find trustworthy managers to lighten the workload?
- Or you may have abandoned this ambition entirely due to not having adequate tools.
To better understand the origins of the need, we reviewed the operation of monetized channels and paid particular attention to interactions between Customers and Retailers.
Here is our solution.
Overview
The Merchant system is an expansion to X-Payment built by the X-Cash team.
The Merchant system enables variable duration role assignment to Customers who purchase a role from a Retailer. Subscription roles give Customers access to exclusive channels as defined by the Retailer.
How the Merchant system works
By registering the Discord server in the Merchant system, a new server wallet and an X-Payment channel category are created with a private #merchant channel.
The server wallet is used to receive XCASH from sales (think of it as a “corporate wallet”) and the #merchant channel is used to relay notifications on all purchases (like the bookkeeping).
With the execution of just a few commands, you are able to register in the Merchant system and monetize Discord Roles. You can create as many monetized roles as Discord allows (to our knowledge 250 is the maximum). Once the role is created the only thing that is left to do is to assign the role’s parameters and you are ready.
What happens in the background once a role is purchased?
X-Payment monitors for purchases (and kindly informs you of the purchase), transfers made to the Retailer’s wallet, roles assigned to Customers, calculates the role expiration date, and removes the role from the user once the pre-agreed end date has been reached.
For the Customer, once the purchase is final, the required amount of XCASH set for the monetized role will be automatically deducted from their X-Payment wallet. They will receive a payment slip of purchase with a calculated expiration date, and a purchased role assigned to their discord account.
For both, the Retailer and the Customer, we have a full set of commands which we will introduce in later articles.
Customer
A satisfying Customer experience is key to the Retailer’s success, and self-serve access to exclusive channels after purchase is convenient for the Customer as provided the role is clearly defined, the only limitation is how much time it’ll take the Customer to decide on whether they should make the purchase.
Customer protocol
For the Customer to participate in the server’s economy one needs to transfer the exact amount of cryptocurrency specified by the server’s management staff to the server’s hot wallet address (wallet where they collect payments), to obtain special benefits for a set-time duration.
When the transfer is successfully processed, the Customer is required to send a valid transaction ID to the server’s administrative person as proof. Here the user is faced with another constraint due to the potential delay in the processing time. This is something that is not acceptable, as a Customer should obtain benefits instantly after the transaction is validated.
Customers should be satisfied:
- Ability to make payment over Discord with one user action and without the need to further verify the purchase with the Discord server staff.
- Access to purchased membership/role has to be done immediately once payment is processed.
Retailer
The Retailer seeks to allow Customers to have a memorable experience regardless of the Retailer’s monetization strategy. It is the experience that causes repeat custom, and X-Payment’s Merchant System makes this process easy for the Retailer. The Retailer defines the parameters of purchasable Discord Roles and allows the Merchant system to remove the tedious management tasks Retailers are required to execute to successfully manage the Discord server economy.
Retailer protocol
When administration staff receives the verification of the payment for their services, they need to verify the received transaction ID with the incoming transactions to their hot wallet. Once successfully identified, a transaction id with amount, date, Discord username, and expiration date needs to be tracked separately in a spreadsheet-like document to keep everything in order. Once the aforementioned steps are completed, the designated staff is required to give access to the user by assigning him a dedicated role. That however does not represent the endpoint of the retail management process.
Usually, servers offer their members time-limited access of daily, weekly, or monthly lengths.
It is required for them to be extremely careful when handling multiple users who apply at different times and represent different expiration periods. Some of the Discord servers have changed the subscriptions to just a monthly basis and some slots are limited, where payments are collected before the start of a month. This allows them to monitor the subscriptions and manage expiration with ease. By imposing such actions they are losing Customers as someone can not make the due date of payment collection period or monthly time frame does not fit the needs of the Customer. To finish up with the ”Cherry on the top of the messy cake”, the whole management process and monitoring can be further jeopardized due to human error, as once the server grows to over 50+ members, monitoring and processing become time-consuming with a lot of data.
Retail needs to be satisfied:
- Need to have such a system in place that administration of the server could divert the time from management into content production and quality improvement.
- Need to have multiple types of roles/memberships to be purchased on the server to open up and expand various income channels.
- Automated system for instant payment processing.
- Automated system to handle the management of the Discord Roles upon payment and removal once the time period from purchase expires.
- Easy tracking of payment histories.
Mutually beneficial relationship between Retailer and Customer
With the possibility of recurring subscription spending and unlimited access for Customers, the Retailer can lower costs for the Customer as the Retailer knows that more value can travel to them over the long term in contrast with a one-time payment with a higher price point.
Discord’s setup combined with X-Payment’s Merchant system allows deeper relationships to form between Retailer and Customer.
Use cases where we deliver a complete solution
Case 1
User A sells artwork via the established platforms, spends a lot of time and resources using self-promotion and paying for multiple platforms’ premium subscriptions to gain exposure, and still has to split sales profits with the platform and payment processors.
Case 2
User B is a musician who is struggling to gain a following using the established platforms, and the YouTube algorithm is giving user B unfavorable treatment. User B can open a Discord server and set the price for a subscription to view content, and remove the prior platform’s restrictions and biases.
Case 3
User C offers trading advice to a private group and wants to remove the complexity of tracking which group members remain eligible to keep receiving advice.
Case 4
User D sells adult content and wants to move to a less saturated platform for a better chance at success while removing third-party commissions.
Case 5
User E gives exclusive live streams to closed groups and wants to make entries exclusive.
Case 6
User F is a Singles chat that requires time-limited speed dating channels, and a need to give users who are serious about dating access to exclusive channels amongst like-minded individuals.
Case 7
User G gives private tuition and wants to keep track of student eligibility.
Case 8
User H is an Indie game developer and wants to run closed testing with members of their community who are supporting the project’s development through subscription.
Case 9
User I has files to share but on the condition that User I is first compensated at least once.
Case 10
User J is a celebrity and wishes to go further to connect with fans. User J also wants to keep abusive messages outside of their space. Using X-Payment’s Merchant system inside Discord enables User J to set an entry price which will force the abusive message senders to reconsider the costs of sending abuse.
How about the fee for using such a service through X-Payment?
As it has been till now, services and use of X-Payment functionalities, for the time being, are completely free of charge.
Where can I find support?
We have established communication channels through which you can reach us:
- You can open up a GITHUB ticket at the X-Payment Repo.
- Join us at Discord and tag @Animus.
- Send us a message on Twitter to the account @XPaymentBot
We wish you success through X-Payment! Be sure to let us know about your experience and the economy you are leading. Let’s do something together ;).
Animus,
X-Payment developer
