Getting Started w/ BTCPay
BTCPayServer is the most popular bitcoin commerce solution and it is included with every paid Voltage plan, along with your Lightning Node. Follow along with this guide to get started using BTCPayServer! The short video below will walk you through this guide as well.
To access your BTCPayServer, click the BTCPay icon on your node Dashboard Home page in the Applications window. The icon looks like this:
After you click the icon, click Let's Go!
Next you will give your BTCPay Store a name and also enter your Lightning Node password to assure successful sync up with your Lightning Node. Then, click Create.
After a moment, your BTCPayServer will be deployed. Click the Copy Icon next to Default password, as this will be used to log into the BTCPayServer interface. Then click Login.
On the login page, enter your Voltage account email and the default password you copied from the previous step. Click Sign In.
The first thing to do now that you are in your BTCPayServer interface is to scroll all the way to the bottom on the left side menu and click Account --> Manage Account. In the Account Settings click Password, paste in the default password, and then change it to something you would rather use. Alternatively, you can keep the default password. Just be sure not to lose it.
Since you deployed BTCPayServer from your Node Dashboard, you will see that your Lightning Node is already synced to your BTCPayserver by the green light:
To either give your customers the option of paying in on-chain bitcoin you can click "Bitcoin" on the above screen and then configure it. If you do not want to give your customers the option to pay on chain, and keep it Lightning-only, then ignore the following steps.
Remember, BTCPayServer does NOT hold private keys. All on-chain payments will go to whatever wallet you connect it to, but will not be accessible directly on BTCPay.
From here you can upload an xpub from a cold storage or mobile wallet, which is what we reccomend when configuring on-chain payment options.
You will notice at the top left it will show your store's name and a drop down. Keep in mind you can create more stores if you like. Each store can have it's own settings different from other stores. You can think of a Store as a folder, and in the store folder, you can have plugins.
Plugins
The default pre-installed plugins are available on the left side menu under Plugins. These may include Shopify integration, Point of Sale, Tip buttons, or Crowdfunds. Choose what best suits your needs and customize it to your heart's content. Keep in mind that after every change, click the SAVE button before viewing your creation.
If you click View, that will take you to your deployed plugin that would be customer-facing. This URL is unique, and you can bookmark it if you wish, embed it into your own website, or do anything you like with it.
To keep track of your sales, you can look under "Payments" on the left side menu for various options. "Invoices" will likely be your parimary go-to as you can extract payment history as a .csv and see all sales there. You also have the option of running Reports. The Payouts option is disabled on Voltage because the node is not integrated into BTCPay and does not have direct access as it uses an invoice-only macaroon for connection. To do pay outs if needed, you can access your node through Thunderhub or Terminal Web from the node dashboard.
We have more information on https://docs.voltage.cloud/external-informationdocs if you need specific help with BTCPayServer or customization, APIs, etc.
