0 sats \ 6 replies \ @clr 23 Feb 2023 \ parent \ on: BlueWallet Shutting Down Custodial Lightning Wallet on April 30th bitcoin
Might feel painful in the short term, but I see it as good. Custodial is easy, but not good. After all, what makes a custodial wallet different from a bank? Custodial leaves users vulnerable to regulatory capture, censorship and enforced KYC.
Yes, Imo the SEC's staking problem against Kraken might be disclose the real reason of this decision...
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Right now the fight is adoption.
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And how will you explain Bitcoin to normies when they find out that their sats are gone because some government shut down their custodial Lightning wallet or the wallet operator did a rug pull or was hacked? What will you tell them when they flee to their country's CBDC because it's "safer" than that shady bitcoin/lightning thing?
We have already seen the results of "custodial" with centralized exchanges. Let's not make the same mistakes with lightning for the sake of "adoption".
The focus should be on improving the self-custodial experience.
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My explanation would be “shit happens” especially with a battle against Satanic banks and millionaires. I’d then suggest if they want better security to support tech that promotes custodial wallets with key revocation. We are not there yet.
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The fact is, whether you like it or not, that BlueWallet's Lndhub is shutting down, no matter the reason. Our main weapon against satanic banks and governments are technologies and a mindset that puts self-sovereignty front and center. That requires individual responsibility and is oftentimes the opposite of "quick and easy". Custodial wallets are easy targets for governments, and we cannot win this battle by becoming an easy target for the opponent and turning newcomers into cannon fodder for the enemy.
Now, to be fair, I think both of us have valid points. For instance, the road to adoption of the internet was also messy, there were scams, dotcom bubble, etc., but internet was adopted nonetheless. But we shouldn't lead people new to bitcoin down the wrong path without making the dangers and the drawbacks very clear, telling them that custodial wallets are intended only for very small balances, etc.
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Yeah I have lived long enough to understand facts and the web to
know what drives tech is actually adoption…not security or even good design. Sats are really just a money tipping mechanism for pgp keys which have been around for a long time except nobody adopted pgp in great numbers. You know why? They were a little inconvenient to use. Nobody is going to run their own node in an average user base. It’s too much trouble.
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