Our final update. 5 milestones achieved. 🙌
We went crazy the last week of the hackathon and managed to release many milestones. We therefore skipped the LN-Auth process because LN-Auth is not what we need for our site. So, what were our major milestones?
tl,dr: Here is a demo video:
https://lightning.video/bc0c8c0882d7077d2d4367b71b25c8781b52505a8e197a8ebdb8bb1ecc067e55
1. After many attempts, we managed to offer an endpoint in Africa
To be honest, we had more struggles with finding a reliable hosting provider in Africa than we had initially expected. Most providers were too expensive or couldn't provide the needed connectivity, reliability, or the right Linux operating system. But with Web4Africa, we found what we needed. We have now an endpoint in Nairobi, Kenya. We can highly recommend this hosting provider for other projects like Africa Free Routing. We are happy to help setting up a routing node there.
2. We offer now API access
This may sound a bit boring and not very significant or important. But we managed to roll out full API access to the public, so every other application can integrate our VPNs without any complicated payment or KYC process. Thanks to a user who demanded this feature, we learned a lot about APIs and request handling. This feature is now enabled, but still in beta. We would be happy if you could reach out to us if you have feedback for improvement.
Our API docu: https://lnvpn.com/api/documentation/
3. We changed our look.
We are aware that we are not very talented when it comes to design. But we got some help from KanutoTakumi and he gave us a new logo and some simple tips on how to improve our look. “Sometimes less is more”, he advised. So we skipped all the colors and fancy pictures and icons and cleaned up our entire website. So far, we love it and are keeping it!
4. We now offer one-time-usable phone numbers.
For this long-wanted feature, we started cooperating with SMS4Sats.com, which offers a great API. Users are now able to choose a country and service (this is how we make sure that numbers are not used twice for the same service) and after that, we deliver them a mobile phone number to receive KYC activation codes for 20 minutes. This feature is not new, as it is as old as the internet itself, but many of the services required a credit card, which is not good in terms of privacy at all. There are also free services, but these services are not well maintained and are often not usable due to a lack of preventing number collisions, so numbers are used twice for the same service, which is not possible. For this feature we use HODL invoices so if you don't receive a code after 20min you get automatically a refund.
5. We cleaned up our code.
We did a lot of code cleanup and restructuring.
Visit our github: https://github.com/LightRider5/lnvpn
Conclusion
After all, we are really happy to be able to announce so many milestones we have worked on. But the most important milestone is the hackathon itself. Many, many thanks to everyone involved, especially the organizers and the jury. Without the motivation of this hackathon, we and all the other projects would not have delivered so much work in such a short amount of time. You should not underestimate the impact of this tournament on the Lightning Network!
🙏