Back in the day, I think people really underestimated the importance of instant settlement.

I remember really offending a guy who sold bitcoin out of his coin shop. After the exchange, which he did from his blockchain.com wallet, I sat down and waited. I had to explain the risks in walking away with 0 confirmations.

Now that the lightning node graph is large and reliable enough, the liquidity is deep enough, and the tooling is mature enough, we can really see the beauty of instant settlement. The minute you get zapped, you can zap someone else. Money can move through a room or around the world instantly and without permission. Someone in the global south can instantly spend their Strike remittances, and that's increasingly important in regions where the effects of inflation are measured in days; soon, maybe in hours.

As clown world accelerates, it's not enough to just have good money for goods -- we need fast money for fast exits.