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@ DEG Mods
2024-11-20 17:05:05On DEG Mods, mod creators and enjoyers can benefit from tips, allowing them to earn money directly from those who appreciate their work or comments, and 100% of what's tipped goes to the one being tipped (excluding the processing fee of the transaction, which is extremely negligible). We don't take any percentage of this process, unless you choose to and at whichever amount you like.
Did you discover a mod that you found enjoyable, useful, or intriguing, and you'd like to show your appreciation with a $10 tip? You can do that. Choose to give 100% of your tip directly to the creator, or opt for a 90% share for them, with the remaining 10% supporting DEG Mods. You can also reverse the split if you prefer. It's entirely up to you how you'd like to allocate the tip.
The elephant in the room
Yes, we're using Bitcoin as the main currency and monetary system on the site, and we're aware of the general public's perception of Bitcoin and the general Cryptocurrency space. We have pretty solid reasons why we're utilizing Bitcoin as the monetary infrastructure for DEG Mods instead of traditional payment systems with fiat currency, like USD/EUR, and the banking system, like Visa or Mastercard.
DEG Mods is built around the idea of censorship-resistance and being permissionless, not just anti-censorship, with that in mind, we didn't want to use a system, and in this case a monetary system, where some third party can come in and threat the site, its users and creators, to self-censor or else suffer the consequences of everyone's money frozen, stolen, or not being able to send or receive. There are many examples of such cases.
We wanted to use something where people actually own their money, not have it controlled by anyone, and have people freely transact with anyone they want, whenever they want, with whichever amount they want to utilize, and not worry about any kind of censorship.
That's why why we went with Bitcoin, with the utilization of the Lightning Network. All of this is possible with it. And we didn't go with any other Cryptocurrency, not even create our own currency and massively benefit from it, because we wanted to use the most trusted, verifiably sound, and strongest currency in the world that's the most censorship-resistant one out there, and not a potential one where people would have a higher chance of thinking that its a scam. That's why, generally speaking, many differentiate between 'Bitcoin' and 'Crypto'.
Properly used, you completely own your money, and nobody can take it away from you or stop you from transacting with others. Now, let's get back on topic.
How to set up and enable getting tips
You need to download and install a Bitcoin Lightning Wallet app (suggestions: Lifpay or Wallet of Satoshi) on your mobile device, where where it supports and provides you with a Lightning address. Once you have obtain such an address, you can go ahead and add that to the 'Lightning Address' field in the profile settings page on DEG Mods.
After that, save/publish your changes and you're done. People can now tip you directly on your profile or tip you via your mod posts.
How to exchange your tipped Bitcoin to other currencies like USD/EUR
So you got tipped a few times and feel like you want to exchange what you've received so far into other currencies to spend them. We won't have a full-blown guide on this, at least not now, but the general idea is that you'd go to an exchange site/app (Suggestion: Binance, or if you're in the USA then CashApp or Strike might work better for you), send them there, and have them exchanged there to whatever currency you like, then withdraw it to your bank or payment service that you use (or keep them there if its already the payment system you use already).
You can also go to physical exchange stores if they support the exchange of that currency in your country.
How to tip creators and other users
As a user that wants to tip creators or other users, you'd do that by first having a Bitcoin Lighting Wallet (similar suggestions as shared above), and then you'd need to fill that up, which is basically the reverse process of above, and once you have an amount of Bitcoin (or 'Sats', think 'Cents') in your Wallet app, you can now go ahead and start tipping creators or other users.
You tip others by tapping on the lightning icon you'll see throughout the site, either for a comment, a profile, or a mod post next to the reaction buttons, which will trigger a popup asking you to enter an amount in Sats and then you'd generate the QR code. In your Wallet app, tap the send button and scan that QR and send away. Done.
Keep in mind that other users or creators might tip you, so you don't necessarily have to go through that process of exchanging traditional currencies to Bitcoin/sats, so its definitely worth at least obtaining a Bitcoin Lightning Address and adding it your 'account' here on DEG Mods, in the off chance that someone tips you when you comment on a post for example. Why leave money on the table, as they say.
Questions and Answers
We'll continue updating this blog post when new information comes along, but here are some questions and answers regarding this topic.
Did you really have to use Bitcoin/Crypto? Why couldn't you have PayPay, Stripe, or some other traditional payment method?
This is answered at the start of this post, but in gist: So we, creators, and users, aren't screwed over and be forced to censor ourselves.
Do I have to use Bitcoin?
No, you can use DEG Mods without ever touching it, and you can also add your own payment links (like PayPal, CashApp, Kofi, Patreon, etc) in your profile (we'll be adding a linktree-like system at some point to make this process easy), and people can easily find those link and tip you there, though those tip buttons are only for Bitcoin.
Will there be more ways to get money later, or is it just tipping mod posts and profiles?
Yes, there'll be more ways for creators to acquire money from users in the future, for reasons other than 'thank you creating this mod'.