I have a self-custodial desktop LN wallet connected to my full node running Core Lightning. Using it ...
I fund a mobile neutrino wallet called Blixt for walking around Bitcoin. Using it ...
  • I fund a custodial Stacker News wallet so I can tip cool posts.
  • I also use Blixt to tip and Zap people on Nostr.
  • I also use it as a Lightning Address target for people that want to tip and zap me on nostr
So using all this software, I can permissionlessly transact how I want, where I want, outside banking hours, in whatever amount I want. I can open a channel using coinjoined bitcoin with a complete stranger. Bitcoiners at a meetup can pay me to build them a SeedSigner. With that bitcoin, I can zap someone, and in turn, someone can zap me on nostr for the lulz, and I can l, in turn, use that bitcoon to tip SN commentors for their insight.
Step back a minute. Think about this.
None of the people who write and maintain these pieces of software work for the same company. They don't have operating API license agreements with each other. None of them needed permission to write the software that touches our bitcoin. And all their software interoperates with each other.
And the end result? Pure, seamless electronic cash, slung around the world in peer-to-peer and face-to-face and value-for-value transactions.
Not a single bank involved.
We are SO winning.
Fedimints could be a big deal too. Agreed, we’re sorta winning.
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Its good to look at the improvement in lightning and have appreciation for that.
Still a long way to go IMHO
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Lightning has come a loooong way.
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It's stunning, and the fools on Bitcoin Twitter arguing about L1 irrelevancies need to move the passion up a layer. Taproot hasn't even been loosed fully, neither has miniscript, and PSBTv2 talk... If you don't know what an LNurl address is, you need to pack your bags, tell your hardware wallet to sleep well, and join the revolution upstairs. There's much work to do. L1 is complete. The janitors will keep it clean.
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layer 1 will never be irrelevant and is constantly under attack. Software is NEVER complete. but i agree with you, people need to wake up to L2
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Does L2 also include sidechains like RSK? Or is L2 a pure derivative of the native chain?
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L1 still has a long way to go to properly support L2s
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Don't stop there... go beyond. For the last 4 years I was testing intensively many LN solutions, more to learn how to use them at maximum potential and then trying to help the devs to improve them.
Here is a use case for that could go far beyond than you can imagine: be a LN bank for your local community https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/bitcoin-private-banks-over-lightning
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I forgot who... hmmm. Someone who worked for a Lightning Service Provider said that in 2018 a $5 noncustodial LN payment had a 50% chance of going through 1st try. Now it's over 98%.
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I posted a similar sentiment earlier. As a general user. This shit is wild.
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I use Lightning every single day. I’m always amazed how it worked since the first time I tinkered with it on blue wallet many moons ago! This is a great summary of how far things have come.
Remember the zap wallet? Haha while lightning is no where near perfect I am very appreciative of how far the technology/software has come. I often dream where lightning would be if more companies poured real resources into it . Time will tell and I’m excited for what the future may bring with this humanity changing technology
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yeah and stating the obvious, liquidity is based on sats and most lightning transactions are measured in fiat so if and when the price of bitcoin doubles, a 100$ lightning transaction will consist of 50% less sats and therefore require 50% less liquidity.
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I agree. 1m sat channel seems like nothing now but what if bitcoin is $500k a coin. Channel liquidity hopefully wouldn’t have to be rebalanced so often
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Does your mobile wallet talk directly to the full node or you just fund it from the node?
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I know what it would take to maintain connectivity to the node from my phone outside my home network, and it seems like a fragile arrangement.
I don't really want to depend on my ISP or tor or whatever VPN port forwarding solution would be necessary just to have "walking around" sats spent directly from the node.
It's much easier to use a custodial or neutrino-based self-custodial solution. So I simply keysend some sats from the home node to the mobile wallet, and I don't have to worry about all the moving pieces I would have to maintain to have a wallet that "phones home".
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FYI Zeus + Tailscale or Zerotier makes this painless, albeit with a trust tradeoff.
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It's not just the ease part of it, I should say. It's that my lightning transactions would now depend on the service continuity of a node at home, my ISP, and a VPN service. That's a pretty fragile arrangement, especially in an extended travel scenario. Neutrino lightning wallets are a much more resiliant non-custodial solution for mobile.
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Choo choo!
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Hasta ahora estoy empezando, me gustan dos cosas valor por valor y anonimato