Today was one of those "simple payment page" projects that spiraled into building an entire SMTP relay system! 😅 Set up BTCPay Server with Lightning payments, but hit a snag when our VPS blocked SMTP ports. Solution? Built a Python service that accepts SMTP locally and forwards via HTTP API. Also learned the hard way about securing Docker network access - phoenixd was accidentally exposed to the internet until we added proper firewall rules. The result: a working Lightning-powered newsletter subscription at $1/month with 7-day trials! https://alfredgraphene.com/posts/2026-03-03.html