How Can I Pay for an Online Bulletin Using Bitcoin Lightning?

To pay for a Qwibbit bulletin, first create the note and save its ownership secret. On the note's owner page, select how many hours it should appear on active boards, review the price in satoshis, and pay the generated Bitcoin Lightning invoice. Your first bulletin becomes public only after Qwibbit verifies the payment and credits its board time.

You do not need a public account to do this. You do need a Lightning-compatible wallet, access to your particular post, and enough funds for the invoice and any wallet fees.

A Qwibbit payment buys time for one bulletin to appear in its eligible category and hashtag listings. It does not buy a social-media account, traffic, directory placement, goods advertised in the note, or a guarantee that a reader will respond.

Start with a private bulletin, not a payment

At Qwibbit, choose Create a post and write the bulletin. The first line becomes its heading; you can optionally choose up to three existing categories belonging to the human bulletin board and include relevant hashtags in the text.

When you submit it, Qwibbit gives the note an address such as /q123 and displays a 64-character ownership secret once. Save both. The secret grants you editing, deletion, and recharge access to this one Qwibb; it is not a wallet key or a public profile password.

The first unpaid note is private. Someone guessing its address cannot read its body through the ordinary public page, and it does not appear in public categories, search, RSS, or sitemaps. You can still see and manage the draft in your authorized browser session, or authenticate later with the saved ownership secret.

This is a deliberate difference between creating information and paying to publish it. A draft is not a free public listing awaiting a promotion upgrade: first publication requires a verified payment.

What does an hour of board time cost?

Qwibbit prices active display in whole hours, using satoshis (sats), the smallest units of bitcoin. One sat is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.

As checked against Qwibbit's current public payment terms on October 23, 2026, its configured rate is 25 sats per hour. That works out as follows:

Purchased time	Example at 25 sats/hour
1 hour	25 sats
24 hours	600 sats
72 hours (3 days)	1,800 sats
168 hours (7 days)	4,200 sats

These are examples at the rate verified on that date, not a permanent price list. The site operator can change the hourly rate. Your owner page displays the current rate and exact quote before you request payment; an already issued invoice retains its own quoted hours and amount.

Qwibbit's owner page offers quick duration choices such as 1 day, 3 days, and 1 week, as well as an hours control. The visual battery uses a seven-day scale; that is not a seven-day purchase limit. Actual remaining time is stated separately.

The total is calculated in sats, not continuously repriced in dollars. If a US-dollar estimate appears, it is approximate; bitcoin's exchange rate may move while the sats in the issued invoice remain fixed. Your wallet may charge its own Lightning routing or conversion fee.

Pay the invoice from your Qwibb's owner page

1. Open your Qwibb. If the browser no longer recognizes you as its owner, use the note's owner-access control and your saved secret. You do not need to sign up for a site-wide account.
2. Find the Board time section. Review the displayed balance and whether the post is private, active, expired, or otherwise unavailable.
3. Choose a number of hours. Review the preview, then select Continue to Lightning payment. This asks the server to create a quote for that Qwibb and duration.
4. Wait for the Lightning payment screen. It shows the amount in sats, purchased hours, a QR code, and controls labeled Open Wallet and Copy Invoice. The full invoice is also available under Invoice details.
5. Scan the QR code or use one of the invoice controls in a wallet that supports Bitcoin Lightning. Verify the amount, any displayed wallet fee, and the recipient or description information your wallet provides. Then authorize one payment.
6. Return to the owner page and check the result. The page checks payment status with Qwibbit's server and displays Payment confirmed when the verified payment has been credited. It also shows the hours added and updated board status.

You may keep the owner page open while checking occurs or revisit it later. Qwibbit can also reconcile eligible settled payments when the original browser session is no longer open. The result may take additional time to appear if the payment provider cannot be reached immediately. JavaScript is needed for the owner's interactive invoice creation and status checks; ordinary note editing and ownership access remain available without it.

The QR code is a payment request, not confirmation that money moved. Opening your wallet or returning from it is not enough to make the note public. Qwibbit must match a completed provider payment to the stored invoice and credit the purchased duration.

If you have never used a Lightning wallet, read Switchboard's separate guide to paying Bitcoin Lightning invoices for wallet options and beginner setup. This guide focuses on Qwibbit's particular checkout rather than duplicating those instructions.

Why does the owner page show “Waiting for verified payment”?

Three events that look similar to a new user are not the same event:

Event	What it establishes	What it does not establish
Qwibbit creates an invoice	The site has quoted an amount and associated it with your Qwibb	No one has necessarily paid it
A wallet is opened or shows a pending attempt	The payment workflow has begun	The merchant has not necessarily received a settled payment
Qwibbit verifies and credits the invoice	The provider reported the matching completed payment and Qwibbit recorded the purchased board time	It does not guarantee anyone will read the post

Qwibbit stores the Qwibb, the quote, purchased hours, payment reference, and settlement state together. Its payment code checks the settled amount and payment identity before crediting an invoice, and records the credit so the same payment does not add the purchased time repeatedly.

For a new eligible note, that verified credit authorizes first publication and starts its board time. For an already published note, it extends the remaining duration according to the owner's saved expiration state.

This is a useful general distinction for small Lightning purchases: a successful payment in your wallet and successful fulfillment by the merchant are related, but separately observable states. Lightning Labs' explanation of BOLT 11 invoices shows how a payment request encodes details such as the amount and expiry; the invoice alone is not a receipt for Qwibbit board time. If the merchant's page is slow to update, inspect its actual payment status before paying again.

What if the invoice expires, fails, or gets stuck?

If the invoice has expired before payment: The checkout marks it expired and can offer a new invoice. Check whether you actually sent a payment before generating another. Do not try to pay an expired invoice just because an old QR code remains in a screenshot.

If a payment is still pending: Allow the page's status check to run, or use Check payment status when offered. The owner page can resume an existing unpaid invoice. Qwibbit restricts a post to one open recharge invoice at a time; this is a safeguard against duplicated purchases. Do not create several independent payment attempts just because the site takes time to update.

If you change the selected hours: A prior invoice might still be payable until its original expiration, even when the checkout shows a replacement. The original quote can still be credited if its payment later settles. Pay only one invoice for the intended purchase unless you deliberately want more board time.

If the wallet reports success but Qwibbit says “unpaid”: Do not immediately pay a second invoice. Keep your wallet's payment receipt or reference, return to the same Qwibb, and check its status again. Qwibbit's support instructions say to include the Qwibb URL, amount, approximate payment time, and payment receipt or reference if you need help. Never send your ownership secret or wallet recovery phrase to support.

If Qwibbit displays a state requiring operator review: The system has not confirmed a credit to the post. Avoid additional payments until the discrepancy is resolved. Qwibbit's transaction records and status checks exist precisely so an uncertain attempt does not automatically become a second charge.

If the recharge button is unavailable: The site can temporarily disable invoice generation when its payment infrastructure or configured rate is unavailable. Paying cannot override moderation or restore a deleted Qwibb.

One practical prevention: keep the post URL and a transaction reference, but do not share account secrets. The wallet receipt can help investigate a payment problem; it does not act as an ownership credential.

Recharging an existing bulletin

Recharging uses the same owner page and secret. It does not create a new Qwibb or change the bulletin's public URL.

When a published post still has paid time left, the verified purchase is added to the unexpired balance. For example, if two hours genuinely remain and you buy 24 more, the updated expiry should reflect approximately 26 hours from the credited payment's time, subject to the site's exact timestamps.

If the previous time has already expired, a verified recharge begins a fresh period. The eligible published note can then reappear in its selected category and hashtag listings.

This is different from buying the products or services mentioned in a bulletin. Qwibbit's board-time payment buys hours of active visibility for that note; it does not pay the provider of an advertised service or give a reader the owner's editing controls.

When finite board time runs out, an eligible previously published note can remain available at its permanent /q<ID> address and be found through Qwibbit's public search and sitemaps. It leaves active boards and their RSS feeds until recharged. Owner deletion and moderation can still take it offline; the URL is not a guarantee of indefinite hosting.

For a deeper explanation of that lifecycle, read Switchboard's guide to what happens when a bulletin expires.

What the payment buys—and what it cannot buy

Qwibbit is a bulletin publisher, not an escrow service, lead generator, identity provider, or seller of every item mentioned in a post. A bulletin may advertise a service or resource, but the Lightning payment described here goes toward Qwibbit's board display time. It does not purchase what the advertiser is offering.

Its current terms describe payments as non-refundable, subject to applicable legal rights, including for incorrect duration selections or content later removed for violating site rules. Verify the duration and amount before approving the invoice. Payment does not exempt any bulletin from moderation, and it does not guarantee placement in Board 2's separate curated website directory.

You can publish without a public account, name, or profile, but Lightning is not inherently untraceable. Wallet providers and hosting infrastructure may retain payment and technical metadata. The private per-note ownership secret must remain protected independently of your wallet.

The economic idea is intentionally narrow: buy time for information to appear in a public bulletin listing, without committing to a social-media identity or subscription. Publish something understandable and worth discovering; paying for it cannot substitute for a useful headline, accurate source links, or genuine reader interest.

For more on independent, account-free publishing, see the Qwibbit guide collection on Switchboard. Check the current Qwibbit Index and payment terms before any transaction.