Haven’t heard from us for a while? That is because we have been heads down building the infrastructure of the creator economy of the future and made some fantastic progress. As you might have already read in the title, this post will cover the biggest upgrade to Starbackr so far: Starbackr V2!
What Is Starbackr V2?
Starbackr V2 is the most significant update to Starbackr since we started this project. We didn’t only add some features but rebuilt the whole thing to make it even more accessible and easy to use. While V2 is a complete make-over, neither our mission nor the core principles of Starbackr have changed. We are still striving to empower content creators all around the globe by making the Lightning Network accessible to anyone.
The following paragraphs will highlight some significant changes and new features.
Seamlessly Integrated Wallet And One-Click-Payments
A few weeks ago, we introduced Starbackr Wallet, an on-platform Lightning and Bitcoin Wallet that was supposed to enable content creators to monetize their content immediately. However, the Wallet was very clumsy and far from intuitive. Starbackr V2 offers a seamlessly integrated Wallet that can be used to receive and pay on Starbackr without any friction. Once it is funded with some Bitcoin, users can tip, subscribe to creators or pay for content with a single click. Earnings will be collected in the Starbackr Wallet automatically and can be withdrawn to any Bitcoin Wallet at any time.
Discover New Creators
We spent a lot of time thinking about ways to increase the discoverability of Starbackr creators on the platform and finally came up with a great idea: the Popular Feed.
On the Popular Feed, you can find all the popular posts of the platform, even if you don’t follow the creator that posted them. The posts will be ranked based on the engagement they receive. Shortly, we will add filtering options, so you can adjust your popular feed to match your interest.
Post Types For Every Need
Since we launched Starbackr, we learned a lot about the needs of the modern content creator, and with V2, we are finally able to meet those needs. As soon as the new update goes live, all creators will have access to temporary content, aka stories, that will vanish after 24 hours. We also improved the video encoding, ensuring better compatibility.
Our roadmap for this year includes even more content types like audio or text, and in the next couple of weeks, we will be introducing live streaming!
Keep Your Fans Close
With this upgrade, we also introduce the “follow” button. Following a creator will make their posts appear on a users “Latest” tab, regardless of their current subscription status, making sure they don’t miss any updates, even when their subscription runs out. It also makes resubscribing a lot easier!
Also VIP-Messages will be a thing! A VIP-Message is a paid message that will be displayed separately in a creators inbox, ensuring the highest viewability possible.
When?!
Don’t worry; we won’t put you off with a “soon™”… Starbackr V2 is currently in its final testing phase and will be going live in the last week of April (yes, that’s NEXT WEEK…)!
Changelog
Sign-Up/Login
- Users can choose to enable NSFW mode on Sign-Up.
- If they do so, they will be required to put in a DOB (higher standard of child protection)
- Sign-Up/Log-In with Google/Facebook
- Username is now chosen on Sign-Up
Payments
- When paying, you can now choose between “Pay with Starbackr wallet” and “Pay with external wallet”.
- “Pay with Starbackr Wallet” will withdraw from your Starbackr Wallet in a single click.
- “Pay with external wallet” will create a Bolt11 invoice, payable with any Lightning Wallet.
Wallet
- Starbackr Wallet is now fully integrated into the UI of the platform
- It can be topped up using on-chain and Lightning payments
Discovery
- Posts can now be posted in one of three categories
- Teaser posts will show up on the feed of every user. It can help a creator be discovered. They replace “free” posts of Starbackr V1
- Feed posts are posts that will be only unlocked for users that subscribed to the creator.
- Exclusive posts are posts that can be unlocked by buying that specific post.
- Hashtags can now be used on posts and can be looked up using the search bar.
User Interaction
- A user can choose to buy VIP messages when chatting with a creator. VIP messages will be pinned to the top of the creators inbox and promises higher viewability.
Content
- Users can post Stories, which are like regular posts but will vanish after 24 hours.
- Server-side encoding of videos will ensure better compatibility
- Live-Streaming will be available in a couple of weeks
