With new Lightning apps being launched almost every day now, it's hard to keep tabs on the progress each team in the ecosystem is making.
In the comments below, share a Lightning app that you think is under-appreciated by most Bitcoiners today and explain why you think it will have an outsized impact on the world.
Top comment (determined by user voting as of 9am CT tomorrow) gets 5,000 sats!
5,000 sats paid
Mutiny Wallet. I like it for its simplicity, its inherent privacy, and the way it seamlessly integrates into your workspace. It's intuitive, and stealthy as hell.
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Thank you! We've got a lot of plans for the upcoming year that I hope can really push it to be a solid wallet
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12 sats \ 1 reply \ @ski 2 Feb 2023
Excited for the developments on this as well. Last time I tried it, I couldn’t send. Is this possible yet?
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There was an on chain bug for a little bit that we fixed. But we don't have gossip sync yet so only paying your direct channel partners on lightning is possible. Hopefully we add that soon too.
Lots to polish up! Sorry if it was problematic, is still very much in a "hackathon" shape but we've been doing a lot of planning and getting back to the code. We have a testnet version too now:
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Is it a your suggestion? Seems great!
A warm suggestion: on the website and github page would be nice as first thing offer guidance to newcomers: write in a sentence what Mutinity is, link to a long form resource that explains the insides and usage, point to the demo (this can be buried in the writeup is you think is still too alpha and the user need to read before tweaking the wallet, to avoid bad experience, ex. lost funds).
Example:
Mutiny is the first private lightning wallet that focuses entirely on privacy first features. Mutiny utilizes pLN (the private lightning wallet) and offers privacy as the only option. Read how it works and test it live.
UX is important to promote a project/idea/technology, imho :)
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OBW and Blixt - Both these 2 mobile LN node wallets (non-custodial) have great potential, with rich features like Dunder channels and hosted channels, apart from regular private channels.
If you still didn't use them, you still don't know too much about LN.
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I'm building on LN, and "dunder channels" sounds provocatively interesting.
Do either of these little gems also have a network API you can hook up to other applications? Either on the same device or on the same LAN?
I really like OBW! I was a big fan of SBW, I think OBW this is the next iteration if SBW development had ended.
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Fountain.fm is pretty spectacular. They provide an avenue for podcasters to be rewarded in other ways besides overt donations. They also incentivize listening and education because there is a possibility to stack sats through listening.
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personally i find Fountain lacking in features and its UX pretty bad. I'd love to use it more frequently but in the end it just feels too unpolished to become my daily driver for podcasts. I'm using Pocket Casts and the smoothness of it is just orders of magnitude further than Fountain.
I do occasionally actually find the podcasts that i'm listening on Pocket Cast and boost them on Fountain but i really need to be extra motivated for that
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Have you checked out our latest 0.6 release? Lot's of UX improvements! https://twitter.com/fountain_app/status/1612438181973999616
Anything specific you'd like changed / added?
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Hey @MerryOscar you've got a LOT of improvements, great job. Two questions:
  1. Any reason pull-down-to-refresh didn't get implemented?
  2. What's the timeline for a desktop app? I try to listen on the mobile version via M1 Mac but it's buggy to the max.
Also a big suggestion: maybe you can partner with something like Cash App, Fold or RoundlyX to get small amounts of sats from round-ups directly into the Fountain wallet. I use round-ups from Cash App to fund mine. Or maybe a nice marketing campaign showing people how easy it is. The best part about round-ups is that I'm never (in my mind) actually spending my bitcoin. It feels like it's all free sats that can go to creators no problem.
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  • will get pull down to refresh prioritised for you - if it's not out by end of Feb I'll send you 10,000 sats via this comment. I've set a reminder to reply here 1st March.
  • desktop version is coming at some point in the next ~3 months.
Love the idea of roundups! - let me have a think about this one
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10.2k sats \ 6 replies \ @go 12 Mar 2023
You did it!!!!!!!!!
A+ user experience now.
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haha not in time though!
Was going to message you - have sent 10,000 sats to your comment above as promised!
What's next on your most requested feature list?
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still no pulldown to refesh on android it seems.
I hadn't remembered the sats part, but that's fun - thanks : )
Sure! It's not as big as that one, but maybe to customize the page that opens when I open the app - or simply re-open to the last section we were on.
Bump the "Download Episode Audio / Delete Episode Audio button" to the main episode page view rather than the Add-to-queue - or have an option. I imagine people would have one preference or the other, but not both
just couple from the top of my mind
  • app refreshes and takes forever every time you start it up
  • unusable without internet connection / doesnt handle switching between networks very well
  • forgetting where you left of and going back to previous position
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Bitcoin jungle Costa Rica app. BitcoinjungleCR
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Indranet will enable an anonymity layer to the internet that users pay anonymously for the service and thus enable a network effect that could potentially lead to it becoming a universally used layer of the internet networking stack.
The harms caused by mass surveillance have been on show for decades now, all we need is a widespread totalitarian crackdown on wrongthinkers and the use case will be clear to everyone.
I'm glad I read this post and threads also. Dunder Channels and Hosted Channels (Blixt and OBW) are potentially very useful things for Indra for the case of, especially, congested main chain and high channel opening fees.
Hat tip to @DarthCoin for pointing them out.
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275 sats \ 1 reply \ @go 2 Feb 2023
Looks like an app called Zion (https://www.zion.fyi) is going to be a tool to use. Bitcoin. Lightning. Nostr. I heard the creator on the Bitcoin Fundamentals podcast (episode 115). The guy's got his head in the right place plus plenty of funding and experience. Almost a Jack-type character.
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They changed their mind on nostr and are building on web5 afaik
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1127 sats \ 0 replies \ @mh 2 Feb 2023
THNDR games - particularly solitaire in my opinion, but all of the games are well made and reward you with sats. There’s also no withdrawal limit, which is a huge plus.
Some apps will make you wait to accumulate 500 or even 50,000 sats before you can cash out, which can feel insurmountable for new users. THNDR lets you send even just a few sats to whatever wallet you have installed!
My code if you're interested (not sponsored lol)
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sms4sats.com
this application offers SMS verification numbers online that you can use to register accounts on several plaftorms. You can pay using LN (3000 sats as of writing); it is fast, anonymous (no account registration neither kyc required), can use over tor. I've used mysefl a few times and highly recommend. This can substantially increase privacy and allows you to use the different phone numbers to create separated profiles (work, family, social, shopping, etc) accounts on, for example, whatsapp / telegram / discord / etc
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I used it once, really impressive
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Very easy way to find and bring together different node operators to open mutual lightning channels. One can double their node's liquidity vs just opening a one sided channel to a random node.
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Valet -- an SBW fork and full-featured LN/Onchain wallet with fiat custodial channels feature.
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VPN paid with Lightning is a great combo for privacy protection.
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Although Jack Mallers gets lots of attention, Strike is still underappreciated because it is not much used by most Bitcoiners - it is used by real people sending not-bitcoin home to their families. Strike is doing more for global bitcoin adoption than any other app.
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Strike is nothing else than a replacement for VISA. Is it good to buy sats quickly? Yes Is it good to send value (not sats) over borders? Yes Is it a real Bitcoin / LN app? No, is just pretending to be.
We are not in this Bitcoinlandia to replace VISA with LN, we are here to make obsolete fiat world, in any form or shape. And Strike is not doing that, is just continuing to sustain the fiat world by making it faster. That's all.
Only US people are "in love" with Strike because their mindset is deeply into VISA cards and fiat.
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Stacker News, fountain, zebedee, coinkit lighting wallet are my best.
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Wallet of Satoshi will be a game changer but still underrated
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What's the game-changer part? It's incredibly popular but what's the schtick?
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Wavlake. Send these plebs some sats 😀
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I love stablemusing.com there are TON of LN based technology apps, wallets, nodes etc. but sadly I don't see very many apps that actually let you do cool stuff WITH your sats.
Its an AI image generator as a telegram bot that even lets you put what you make on your wall all paid with SATs. Its cheaper than Midjourney etc, and I can pay as I go as little as I want with BOLT11 invoices. Images cost 500 SATs each.
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Thank you. Hope you all try. We are super proud of a fun, and community oriented way to leverage these two very cool technologies. Hope you all try it. Telegram Group Invite
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Imagine being able to hold BTC-backed dollars and trustlessly spend to any LN invoice. Marduk enables this. Could be a big deal for people who don't want to expose their rent money to BTC price volatility, but also don't want to or can't hold their money in physical cash or a bank account (for security, privacy, or other reasons). "Save BTC, spend USD" kind of lifestyle. At the very least could be a nice way for people to ease onto the sat standard.
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The "Valet" app that gives you a special lightning wallet that will keep your value stable towards the dollar. Like stable coins, but you never leave the realm of bitcoins. :)
Here is where they are describing their concept of Standard Sats: https://standardsats.github.io/
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Nunchuk is great. I was introduced to it through buying a TapSigner. Probably the greatest feature is the NFC tap to sign feature. I can also point this at my own node's Electrum server so that is also a win.
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I personally really like Phoenix wallet. Never heard of it until I fired up my node with the help of MiniBolt.
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I have a list
  1. Fountain
  2. Stacker News
  3. Zapread
  4. Umbrel
  5. Blue wallet
  6. $Miles
  7. Bitcoin magazine (formerly Carrot)
  8. Breez
  9. Orange Pill
  10. Damus
This can suffice for now
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Thank you! I'll set aside these sats to spend on Mutiny Wallet.
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GPT4BTC - ChatGPT3 Android app gives access to GPT AI for anyone with an android device. No phone number required, and has built in LN payment option. Also there's a nostr chatbot version anyone can use on nostr by tagging it with @gpt4btc.
Open access to AI for everyone in the world is a gamechanger!
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110 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 2 Feb 2023
There are lots to pick from, but I think Mash is underrated.
They don’t get a ton of attention in Lightning discussions on SN or Twitter, but I think there is a case to be made for them becoming the Shopify for creators.
Rather than Shopify giving merchants the tools to sell physical products online, Mash is giving creators the tools to monetize their digital products online.
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Definitely muun wallet. Lightning/on-chain(featuring taproot addresses now I believe) wallet without having to swap from lightning to on-chain or on-chain to lightning. I have never paid over 400 sats to send up to $1000usd on the lightning network. Also for on chain it's custodial I believe (only flaw) and allows you to customize your transaction fee manually. However, you cannot send to an LNURL yet they only support invoices. You can receive via lnurl though.
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On chain is non-custodial. It’s 100% noncustodial but importantly for many it isn’t a lightning wallet. It supports sending and receiving via Lightning but everything is stored on chain. So it’s a noncustodial on chain wallet that’s Lightning “aware.”
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That's fair. Muun doesn't support RBF though but you can always export to electrum and change your fee if necessary.
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LN Bits, hand down my biased favourite and I think more people should be using it, its the WordPress of lightning, no better way to fuck around and find out
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