The independent online publisher Substack, with over half a million subscribers, announced on Monday that it has integrated Bitcoin Lightning payments in partnership with OpenNode, a payment processor that offers Bitcoin and Lightning-optimized API solutions for businesses.
OpenNode will now operate both on-chain and off-chain Bitcoin and Lightning payments on the Substack platform, meaning journalists and writers can now effectively live in Bitcoin as independent writers.
Nick Inzucchi, Substack Product Designer, commented, “We are excited to be working with OpenNode to enable independent publishers on Substack to accept crypto payments.”
Inzucchi continued, “This option will give writers more flexibility and freedom, and we look forward to doing more in the crypto space to meet writers’ needs.”
At the moment, lightning payments are only available for “a selected group of crypto-oriented publications”. Subscribers to these publications can pay their subscription fees in Bitcoin, and the lightning-enabled publications can withdraw their earnings in Bitcoin as well.
João Almeida, Co-Founder and CTO of OpenNode, said, “Our partnership will allow content creators across the Substack ecosystem to accept Bitcoin payments and withhold income in Bitcoin or convert it to a preferred currency, financial freedom, and Bitcoin is natural Complement.”
