Hello there, First of all, thanks a lot for being here, I really like to have this discussion.

So lets be clear, the day that lightning will become the main focus of bitcoin will never happen. There are different dev teams for the different implementations of lightning and bitcoin. We will never "abandon" the base layer. therefor The base layer will continue to be used as it is today, settlement layer for lightning, big transactions and people who want to use it no matter what (ordinals for example).

That being said, I understand your frustration, you believe that paying 50c for paying a coffee its crazy, you r right, it is crazy, but is also crazy to save your everyday coffee transaction to the main blockchain of the future economy, don't you think? Why an African node runner need to save coffee transactions from a guy of San Jose, CA? it doesn't makes sense.

That's why lightning come into play, we can keep using bitcoin as the unit of account, the one who grow in value, but we can be used in the every day coffee transaction, almost free and instant.

The fees are needed to secure the base layer (the blockchain) but lightning bring the equilibrium to the ecosystem. If Russia (the country) sell to China oil & gas, and they need a neutral, free, unseasonable network to transfer value, they will use the blockchain because 50c for that transaction is nothing. Meanwhile paying your coffee still possible with lightning.

I have a question for you, what was your process to be here? was it so painful? I mean you need bitcoin and lightning to share your thoughts with us in SN.