Open, Flexible, and Instant API Monetization

Sulu is revolutionizing the way APIs are monetized and paid for. By leveraging the Lightning Network and the L402 protocol developed by Lightning Labs, Sulu offers API providers the tools to implement new business models, including pay-per-call monetization, instantly settled microtransactions and AI-accessible endpoints. 

The Objective

Sulu’s objective is to fulfill Lightning's most natural use case: internet money. APIs are the backbone of the Internet application ecosystem. However, the current way to pay for access to APIs is outside of the native Internet stack, through credit cards and bank transfers. This creates a variety of problems, including a lack of micro-transactions, high costs, long settlement times, risk of fraud and chargebacks, and no access to the unbanked demographics. 

The Sulu team saw in the Lightning Network and in the L402 protocol the key to bringing API payments back to the internet stack, creating a more open and efficient ecosystem for data and services to flow. Sulu's core mission is to onboard as many APIs and data services as possible to this new payment scheme.

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The Challenge

Sulu’s planetary-scale mission presents unique technical, regulatory, and commercial challenges. The founding team was small and lean, and it wanted to concentrate on its core offering without having to rely on Lightning engineers, who can be hard to find. 

Sulu needed a Lightning infrastructure setup capable of withstanding heavy traffic with minimal downtime. Any downtime would greatly affect customer experience. Additionally, they wanted to  easily integrate with existing tools in the Lightning ecosystem, such as ThunderHub or Amboss. Furthermore, Sulu needed access to the low level Lightning node APIs to be able to implement certain key features of their product efficiently.

Finally, as an early-stage startup, Sulu wanted a solution that would scale with them in terms of pricing and demand. 

The Solution

The Voltage platform offered Sulu a plug-and-play solution to get started with Lightning. Sulu had their first node up and running in just over an hour. Voltage exposes all of the LND APIs, enabling Sulu to leverage the existing Lightning documentation to implement them. Access to all the APIs gave Sulu all the flexibility and power they needed for their specific use case.

Moreover, Voltage nodes come together with many ready-built service applications, such as the Thunderhub dashboard. This was crucial for day-to-day monitoring and testing. Routine maintenance, such as updates and backups, could quickly be done through the Voltage tooling without requiring Lightning engineering expertise.

Finally, the Voltage team of experts quickly answered any questions and implementation queries, making the process smooth and straightforward.

The Results

The Sulu team can maintain their node infrastructure with just over 5 hours a month and 1 software engineer. This enables Sulu’s engineering team to focus on their core product while taking advantage of a fully non-custodial and secure Lightning infrastructure environment that scales with them.

Sulu has recently started onboarding Brave New Coin’s (BNC) crypto market data APIs. The move greatly enhanced BNC’s offering by enabling customers worldwide to pay directly with Bitcoin through Lightning. Furthermore, it allowed BNC to monetize their endpoints on a pay-per-use basis, significantly increasing the flexibility of the product’s consumption, especially for first-time users trying out their solution.