This would seem to be the appropriate place to start this topic as I don’t see it as a subject of interest by many here. I’m a small business owner and have been making the gradual transition to self sovereignty for some time now. I have finally reached a phycological state of confidence relative to security where I will move my business in that direction. That is easier said than done, when coming from a tradition fiat background and making the switch to cryptocurrency (particularly in a decentralized ecosystem). I won’t get into philosophy here, but wanted to give some background.
My preference is to start with the server in my home and then transitioning to the office once I understand it further. However, I’m not finding much support for anyone that wants to conduct truly secure and private activity on the net in my small business community circle of collogues. Researching Start9, I was impressed with the underlying thinking that seems aligned with mine. But, unfortunately, it appears it’s not a hot ticket item for most small business owners. I believe that is about to change. As such, I’m hoping support and teaming will evolve out of this post.
I purchased the Embassy Pro bundle and intend it to be my first step in the direction described above. Once it arrives, the journey really starts in earnest relative to billing and payments and not least, dragging kicking and screaming all my associate businesses, subcontractors, clients and my central banking institution into the self sovereignty ecosystem with me. Based on my belief that small business is the backbone of all economies, I can only influence those in my sphere. However, it’s likely to have a geometric effect (as I am well known and moderately successful in my profession and industry) as inflation and debasement of national fiat currencies create severe economic instability worldwide.
I’m leaning toward starting a YouTube channel on the subject since there are an abundance of influencers selling their wares on the platform, there doesn’t seem to be much support for what I’ve described above.
That’s it for now. I’m hoping to get some feedback on this in hopes I’m not the only small business owner thinking this way.
I can see from purely an organizational aspect that a YouTube channel is a sizable undertaking if one wants to produce something of value to the community and I don’t believe I have much to offer except articulating mistakes I’ve made at this point. For the small business community, it seems it’s going to take some content on why they would want to make that step. I’ve started writing concepts down and see where it takes me.
Have you got your Embassy setup yet? I’d be interested in listing to the experence you had and what are you using it for? Busing or personal?
I’ve been running an Embassy One for a while now. Personal / small business - but just a side hustle (https://YourPersonalCryptoAssistant.com) teaching folks about Bitcoin, some crypto and occasionally EmbassyOS.
With the EmbassyPro I am hoping to get some family using some of the services (file sharing, password mgmt), but mostly want to (once clear net is available) use it to host my business services - web pages, receiving Bitcoin payments, etc… Once embassy to embassy backups are available (and multiple drives supported) I’d also like to use it to replace my cloud backup services (run one at my sister’s house and back each other up?)
Sounds like you’re a lot further along than myself. I’m still trying to learn how to create a static IP address for my BTC node. Haven’t received my Embassy Pro yet, but when I do I may have some questions for you if you don’t mind.
I’ve found that “side hustles” detract from my main fiat generating hustle which is in the area of engineering services for the public/private sector. Every time I’ve tried a side hustle, it’s never generated sufficient income to justify the time spent (from a monetary standpoint that is). If it’s gratifying emotionally for someone, that’s an entirely different motivation), but I like a roof over my head and food in the fridge more than emotional gratification when it comes to work.
Thanks for the reply Jesse, I hope we can keep this dialogue going.
Hello, Wayne. This is something that would be of interest to me as well. I have a few “side hustles” that I have going–but am interested in how to implement BTC/LN into those workflows where possible. I got the embassy cause im a nerd at heart LOL.
The main thing I am trying to figure out is how to use Lightning–from set up to actual use. Another slight limitation is the fact embassy services are only accessible over Tor…however I think a reverse proxy could get them viewable on the clearnet. I am exploring this in the upcoming days.
Heres an unboxing/explainer vid I made for when I received my Embassy. You may find it useful. Any feedback would be great. Hope to see this thread continue to grow!
Thanks for the comment and input. Yes, I did review you’re video and while it was helpful, it did present some challenges for someone not all that familiar with terminology and/or steps that seemed to have been taken for granted while skipping over them that left me having to slow myself down and do my own research. This isn’t necessarily a bad think, but not likely true for many that are too impatient to do some work on their own to shore up their weaknesses (which is what the whole self sovereignty thing is all about really). I won’t write in detail what they are since I’d have to go back and make a note list and I need to get ready for work. But it did instigate my reviewing other videos as a comparison to see if those steps were also skipped over. There are not many videos on Start9 products so, it’s good that you’re taking measures to improve yours. Though, for most, I’m sure yours is more than adequate.
I just got my Embassy Pro yesterday and set it up last night. I’m back at again for a few minutes this morning (which is about the only time I have available since most of my waking hours are preoccupied with my physical universe commitments). I’ll give you an update once I’ve gone through the entire cycle. But your post did raise more questions in my mind about sovereignty and expanding beyond the initial suite of services that Start9 offers. Tor is a pretty well know decentralized browser and I have great confidence in it. Perhaps you could elaborate on you comment for those of us less knowledgeable. I don’t tend to tinker with things until I’m strong in the understanding of how they work and when it comes to sovereign computing and cryptocurrency security and privacy, there’s nothing more important. And, it’s all fairly new to me from a technical standpoint (also my most obvious weakness).
That said, I came across a curious warning from my security system informing me about a malware install attempt after the setup was complete and I’m investigating it at this writing. it was a file that wanted my Embassy to go to a website, I can give you the URL if you want in case you’d like the info. Or if you are already aware of it, I’d appreciate sharing what you know. I have suspicions at this writing but their not more than hunches so I won’t express at this time.
Lastly, I’m making headway with subcontractors, clients, colleagues and friends in the area of sovereign computing and cryptocurrency which will come into play for future conversations and progress reports.
Thanks again. I hope this was a useful response to your post.
I’m a newbie and looking to implement a project that appears to be similar to your designs. I received my Embassy a few days ago and have the services I think I’ll need installed.
I’ll try to lay out an overview of my project, though it seems to change as I learn more:
Provide an alternative payment system run on my Embassy that will permit:
POS purchases utilizing BTC via the Lightning Network using a mobile wallet
website storefront crypto payment integrations
all with wallet integrations, how-to documentation, and my own storefront to act as a model for implementation
What I believe this will entail is running my own Bitcoin Node, which will require Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Proxy, and BTCPay Server. I’ll also need a Lightning Node, consisting of the services Core Lightning, and Ride the Lightning,
The wallet of choice at the moment is Blue Wallet utilizing Strike. I “think” this setup would allow users to easily conduct POS transactions using Strike, which is connected to Blue Wallet - which is in turn connected to my Lightning Node.
BTCPay Server acts as the plug-in to allow BTC payments on website storefronts. I would love to see more crypto payment options available in the future. For now, I plan on spinning up a Ghost website with a storefront to serve as an implementation model and for my experiments to try and make this all work.
At this point I feel like I know enough to be dangerous. If you, or anyone else, can think of a better way to implement this kind of project - I’m all ears! As a non-developer, I feel like my contribution can come in use cases and projects that implement Embassy Services for real-world use.
Anyways, I wanted to share in case you or others have any insights and if my project can be of any use to your initiatives.
My suggestion is to dive in and give it a try!!! For most folks it will take much longer if you try and figure it all out in advance. Just understand you may need to delete and build again after your initial ‘proof of concept’.
One key limitation (for now) is that folks accessing web sites / BTCPayServer, etc. on your embassy need to access it via TOR. If your customers aren’t already using a TOR capable browser, this adds extra challenges…
Lightning can be very confusing when you first start out (and sometimes even after). Feel free to reach out if you have any questions…
I’ve been off line on Start9 and other self-sovereignty pursuits because family issues that take priority over all things and I haven’t been keeping up as intended. I still haven’t overcome my IP address hurdle from the original post here, but only because of the lack of time and self-discipline. However, I will return to it in the not too distant future.
All this info is great and I don’t have much to offer except what I will post today and inform you that I’m still in the game, but sidelined due to situations outside of my control. I’ll keep the reading up and once I’m back to my Embassy Pro issues, I’ll post what I’m learning. At present, I only have time to continue to purchase and Huddle BTC, BTH, XRP, XLM (warming up to HEX, but not jumped in, swapped a little ETH for it as an “experiment”). And researching others for my top 20 cryptocurrency choices for future wealth accumulation. Sovereign computing will be as important once adoption gets in full swing, but since I lack the most important and key ingredient to achieve sovereignty in any form, i.e., “time”, I’ll have to set my priorities, be disciplined and stick to them. Right now, getting over the family crisis has moved to the top of the list. In the meantime, best wishes to you all and keep posting. It’s important! I’m just sayin…
