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Established in September of 2020, The Podcast Index is an alternative podcast directory that offers open, free access to creators, listeners, and podcast app developers. The inspiration of the brand is to be an alternative podcast directory to Apple, which is centralized and is monopolizing podcast distribution. Podcast Index has a vision of preserving podcasting as a platform for free speech. Podcast Index is doing this with Podcasting 2.0, which gives podcasters an opportunity to collectively build an open, stable infrastructure and puts the value directly in the hands of content creators and not in middlemen.
The Objective
The goal for Podcast Index was to provide its users with a platform of value exchange. By leveraging Bitcoin and the Lightning Network they were able to create a "Value 4 Value" platform that allows podcasters to monetize and for listeners to transfer value to content creators directly. Manging this infrastructure while delivering reliability, consistency, and scalability was complex and costly to do locally. The Podcast Index wanted to offload the educational need and learning curve of running a node so that they could optimize for micropayments.
With a Value 4 Value model, the pricing framework is open-ended. The user pays what they like. Adam Curry shared, "Users opt-in. You do not pay to play, users play to pay. It has a different value for everyone. This is when you see what Value 4 Value is worth, and the results have always been amazing."
The Challenge
While creating this Value 4 Value model, the team working at Podcast Index encountered a problem. They knew Bitcoin and the Lightning Network were the perfect solutions for their platform, however, they knew nothing about running nodes on the Network. Podcasts are listened to all over the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That means that Podcast Index needed a solution that is always online, can scale with their platform, and knew a lot about Lightning.
Podcast Index strived to:
- Save time - Managing a node is hard work and takes a lot of time.
- Ensure Reliability - They needed something professional and can stand up to the test.
- Reduce Friction - There is a substantial amount of domain knowledge in Lightning. What are channels, how do you do backups, updates, and more.
The Solution
Voltage put together a tailored solution that meets Podcast Index's needs. It was imperative to have an effortless setup with consistent and reliable payments by the second. By leveraging our professional node infrastructure product they were able to quickly bring their infrastructure up to speed and keep functionality aligned with consumer demand.
- Expedited Execution - Time from idea to production is the quickest in the market.
- Robust Deployment - Podcast Index gets the most value without doing any work.
- Effortless configuration - updates, backups, networking, and more.
- Reliable payments - When payments must happen every second, there is no room for error.
- When working with Voltage, it’s as if you have a dedicated Lightning Network team on your side.
The Results
With scalable and reliable infrastructure that requires little effort, the Podcast Index team was able to focus on the products and features that their consumers demand. Best of all, there was no need to hire a support team member, node manager, or engineer.
- Podcast Index releases a ‘first of its kind’ platform quickly.
- Podcast Index effortlessly scaled to over 1 million sats per day.
- Podcast Index didn’t have to hire anyone new to manage a node.
- Podcast Index can continue to scale without worry.
Reach out below and learn how Voltage can serve your business or project and meet your scalability, reliability, and growth needs.
