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How Far Are We From Peer to Peer Lightning? Gaming?
138 sats \ 5 comments \ @Stackernerd 14 Aug devs
With Lightning microtransactions, truly peer to peer gaming economies are no longer just a concept they’re within reach. Players could trade assets, place wagers, or unlock content instantly, all without a centralized payment processor. Imagine every in game action from loot drops to PvP battles settling in sats, in real time.
The potential is massive, but the tooling for smooth, real time LN payments in games is still maturing. Reliability, latency, and channel management remain hurdles most indie developers aren’t eager to tackle from scratch. Frameworks like LDK, lnbits, and Alby are making progress, but friction still exists between the vision and seamless implementation.
Has anyone here shipped or is currently building a Lightning-enabled game where payments feel invisible to the player? I’d love to see demos, repos, or even early stage prototypes.
In your view, what’s the biggest blocker keeping Lightning gaming from going mainstream technical limitations, UX gaps, or lack of player demand? Or is it simply that no one’s been bold enough to push it over the finish line yet?
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150 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby 14 Aug
Seems like onboarding to lightning is still too much for most people. Sure, you can do it with an ecash mint or liquid swaps or just straight custodial, but I think big game companies are going to struggle with the legal exposure these things create.
Then there's also this: normie users probably aren't too interested in stacking sats. They want something they can spend quick. So if they are doing gaming in sats, they need a really smooth off ramp to dollars or amazon gift cards or something.
These same normies aren't going to come to the gaming app with sats in hand; they're probably going to need onboarding with credit cards or paypal-style payment processors. So there's friction getting in to sats on the app, there's friction using sats on the app, and then there's friction cashing out from sats in the app.
Until these things feel smooth and easy, probably one click each, adoption is just gonna drag.
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102 sats \ 2 replies \ @Stackernerd OP 14 Aug freebie
Agreed, adoption challenges are real onboarding, spending, and cashing out need to be effortless or most players won’t engage. Yet the upside is huge Lightning enables instant microtransactions and peer to peer interactions, impossible with conventional systems and thoughtful design, it could become a game changer.
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 14 Aug
What are you quoting?
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