Ric is an OG and knows the space better than most. I think that there’s some validity to his concerns, though I fully understand that the Mutiny team does not want to be constrained by the mobile duopoly that is Apple & Google’s approval processes.

I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss his fears

They raised money via debt, not an equity sale, right?

There’s no valuation when raising via debt, just an interest payment due.

Clients and relays are getting better every day.

If it’s off-chain, how do you make it decentralized?

If the data is on a centralized server, you’re trusting the server operator to keep that data available at the provided link in perpetuity. IPFS still seems slightly immature, though maybe that’s an option.

Would be curious to hear more.

Well written article, Peter!

I saw the Lightning reference in the footnote, but can’t figure out how you feel about the 4 major Lightning implementations. Do you believe we’d be better off with all Lightning development activity going into a single reference implementation?

You're trusting SN to honor the withdrawal request, right? Technically, you don't have control of the sat balance associated with your SN account right now.

This misses the whole point of the tweet thread - all of the above could be done on traditional payment rails. Netflix is currently a monthly subscription for unlimited use, but they could very easily offer an option where you pay for a certain number of minutes and pay the content provider based on views. Youtube is ad-based (or subscription) now but could also easily offer something where users pay for their usage directly.

This is a biased view though, as it is ease of use for you i.e. someone who is already a bitcoiner.

Imagine that you're not a bitcoiner and want to use SN (and login via lnurl). First you need to buy bitcoin, probably on an exchange that requires an account and KYC. Then you need to set up a lightning wallet, withdrawal your bitcoin from the exchange, and setup a lightning channel. Oh, you used a wallet that doesn't support lnurl-auth? Now you need to install a second wallet. All of the above take time and learning, which you're taking for granted due to being a bitcoiner.

Hey @k00b and SN - author of the tweet thread here - thanks so much for responding and having this conversation! I am a regular reader of Stacker News on my morning/evening commute and love the conversations that happen here.

I want to clarify that use of bitcoin by itself is a compelling reason for me to use Stacker News, even if a SN clone could be mostly built on traditional payment rails. This is because I believe in the economics and technological principles of bitcoin, and am attracted to products that integrate bitcoin.

Many of my friends and family are no-coiners who haven't taken the time to understand bitcoin, and they wouldn't adopt bitcoin right now solely based on alignment with the principles of decentralization and clear issuance policies. I think that one way that we will onboard the next wave of bitcoiners is by creating digital services that can only exist on bitcoin.

I've seen a lot of excitement over the recent wave of products and businesses being built on lightning, and I've been excited by many of them myself. I was trying to figure out which of them have developed products that couldn't be quickly copied by entrenched tech companies and none of them seemed to have a major moat that I could see.

If and when SN is non-custodial, it would be a true step forward and offer something unique relative to the legacy payment rails.

I hope the message comes through that I am as bullish as ever on bitcoin, lightning, and the ecosystem that continues to grow each year. With so many smart people learning, building, and supporting each other, I'm confident that some folks will figure out some truly novel products that can only be built on lightning in the coming months and years.

Strike allows for ‘instant’ funding from a debit card, and they’re carrying some risk while they wait for the transaction to clear. My guess is that their low weekly limits relate to this model.

Besides the low weekly limits, my experience has been very positive. It’s easy to use, fees are minimal, allows for instant withdrawal to a cold wallet, and the support team has been helpful and responded quickly the few times I reached out (once to increase the deposit limits, which they did)

It’s 1% of profits though, not 1% of your spending. If I go out to a nice dinner and spend $100, Strike and Visa split 3% for payment processing fees. To make that $1.50, Strike has operational costs that need to be covered, let’s just assume there’s $1 profit. Bitcoin core gets $0.01, a single penny, from that purchase.

I’m a fan of Strike and buy my BTC using their app as it’s the lowest fees, and I’m a huge supporter of funding Bitcoin Core devs, but even at scale the amount donated via this program is going to be minuscule IMO.

After 1-2 cups daily for 10 years I quit drinking coffee at the beginning of 2022 to see what impact it would have

The main benefit I’ve observed is that my energy levels throughout the day are more level, whereas before they followed a sine wave. Low upon waking up, high following my morning coffee, then dipping towards the end of the day.

No noticeable impact on sleep quality or other aspects of my life that I’m aware of, but I don’t plan to go back to drinking coffee now that I’m off of it.

Well deserved - it’s great to see established companies providing grants for development

Ruben has done a fantastic job of synthesizing and leading research into privacy enhancements, and space chains are a neat concept that will be exciting to have explored more deeply