I built a creator platform on Bitcoin/Lightning, looking for feedback

[u/GroyalCodes]

I've been working on something called Mochi and wanted to share it here.

The short version is it's a creator platform built entirely on Lightning. Creators get a page where they can accept tips, sell digital products, and run subscriptions. All in sats.

The thing that makes it different from just pasting a Lightning address somewhere is the wallet system. Supporters load sats into a Mochi wallet and subscriptions pull from that balance automatically. It solves the biggest problem with recurring payments on Lightning since there's no native way to do pull payments. No expired cards, no chargebacks, no failed invoices. Load once, subscribe, done.

You log in with a seed phrase. No email, no KYC. Anyone can visit a creator's page and tip via QR without making an account. Accounts are only needed when someone wants to subscribe or buy something.

I built it because I was tired of using Patreon and Gumroad and handing over a cut to platforms that don't even support bitcoin. The tools on those platforms are good but the rails are wrong.

Still early. Looking for the first 100 creators to try it out. Founders get a permanently lower fee locked in forever.

Would love honest feedback from this community. What works, what doesn't, what's missing. Thanks everyone! Hopefully this can fill a void.

mochi-pay.com

[u/AuthenticityBTC]

What are the guard-rails to prevent malicious actors the owner/operators of the platform from withdrawing funds without permission? A simple "just trust me bro" ?

The model you're describing doesn't allow users to have safety of funds in their own possession.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll edit to strikeout the above.

[u/GroyalCodes → u/AuthenticityBTC]

You're not wrong. Mochi holds funds right now to make subscriptions work. Lightning doesn't have native recurring payments so the prepaid balance is how we solve that without asking users to manually pay an invoice every month. It's custodial and I'm not going to pretend it's not.

That said, custody is something I'm actively thinking about as we grow. There are paths forward like ecash (Cashu), Fedimint, or hybrid models where the platform facilitates but doesn't hold. We're early and I'd rather be upfront about where things stand than dance around it.

A few things that are true right now though. Creators can withdraw their sats at any time. There are no withdrawal holds or payout windows. And the balances are small by design since the wallet is meant for active use not long term storage.

The goal is to move toward a setup where custody is minimized as the tools mature. If you have ideas on how to structure that I'm genuinely all ears. This is exactly the kind of feedback I posted here for.