How to Pay in Sats

Satoshoes is Bitcoin only. If you've never paid with Bitcoin before, don't worry. It's quicker than a card payment once you've done it once, and this page walks you through the first time.

We take payment over the Lightning Network, Bitcoin's fast payment layer. Payments arrive in seconds, there are no card fees, and nobody sits in the middle taking a slice.

A quick word you'll see a lot: sats. A sat (short for satoshi) is the smallest unit of bitcoin. There are 100 million sats in one bitcoin, so prices in sats are just bitcoin prices without all the zeros after the decimal point.

Step 1: Get a Lightning wallet

A wallet is an app on your phone that holds your bitcoin and pays Lightning invoices. There are two kinds:

Easiest to start with. Apps like Strike or Cash App (in the US) let you buy bitcoin and pay Lightning invoices from the same app. The company holds the bitcoin for you, a bit like a bank account.
Your keys, your coins. Self-custody wallets like Phoenix keep the bitcoin on your own phone, so nobody else holds it. You'll be given a list of recovery words when you set it up. Write them down on paper and keep them safe, because they're the only way back in if you lose your phone.

Plenty of Bitcoiners start with an easy app and move to self-custody once they're comfortable. Either way, it has to be a wallet that can pay a Lightning invoice. Most bitcoin apps now can, but check before you start.

Step 2: Get some sats

If your app lets you buy bitcoin (Strike and Cash App do), buy a little more than the price of what you want, to leave room for price changes and the tiny network fee. If you're using a self-custody wallet, you can buy bitcoin elsewhere and send it to the wallet, or ask a Bitcoiner friend to send you some sats. Most of us are happy to help someone get started.

Never share your recovery words, passwords or wallet codes with anyone, including us. We will never ask for them.

Step 3: Order on Conduit

Our store is on Conduit, a marketplace built on Nostr and Bitcoin.

Open the Satoshoes store on Conduit, pick your item and size, and add it to your cart.
Go to checkout and fill in your delivery details. You can check out as a guest with an email address and phone number, or sign in with your Nostr account if you have one.
Choose to pay with Lightning. Conduit shows the total in sats and a Lightning invoice, which is a QR code and a long code starting "lnbc".

Step 4: Pay the invoice

Open your wallet, tap Scan or Send, and scan the QR code. On a phone you can copy the invoice code and paste it into your wallet instead. Check the amount, approve it, and the payment lands in a few seconds.

Invoices expire after a short while, so pay soon after it appears. If one runs out, just create a new one from your order.

What happens next

Your payment reaches us in seconds. We'll confirm your order and message you through Conduit when it ships. If shipping to your country needs confirming first, Conduit may let you send the order without paying, and we'll send you an invoice in your order messages once we've confirmed the total.

Stuck?

Message us on Nostr at satoshoes@conduit.market or email chat@satoshoes.co.uk and we'll help you through it. Everyone was new to this once.

🟠 Welcome to the circular economy. We are all Satoshi.