Zap to Zero Day 21 | Thunderstorms

Is this the storm that @DarthCoin mentioned here?

I don't like my post from yesterday¹. I think that might have been the worst post in the series. Or I might just have forgotten how "bad" the earlier ones were. But those also were early.

It's an interesting feeling. We're much more critical about our recent actions than what we did a few weeks, months or even years ago—or maybe I should talk for myself. What I did last year isn't the person I am anymore. And today's actions will be "few weeks, months or even years ago" at some point, too. So why care?

But then, why care about what I did yesterday? Aren't we a different person every day to some degree? Because we need to hold ourselves accountable? I think so, yes. Because the changes are insignificant from day to day? Also yes. But isn't it like watching grass grow then? When do we let the past become the past? Why not hold ourselves accountable for everything we ever did?

We probably just simply move from "holding ourselves accountable" to "I am never going to do this again" at some point. Or something like that.

Satistics

Date	Spent	Stacked (Rewards)	Posts	Comments	Rewarded
2023-12-28	13k	8808 (n/a)	2	35	n/a
2023-12-29	16.1k	15.6k (5222)	3	52	⚡
2023-12-30	10.8k	9752 (7026)	1	41	✍️
2023-12-31	20.5k	17.9k (4379)	5	61	⚡
2024-01-01	12.5k	10.7k (7684)	3	47	✍️
2024-01-02	16k	19.5k (9353)	6	36	✍️
2024-01-03	15.9k	15.6k (6729)	2	46	⚡
2024-01-04	11.4k	11.4k (~~3954~~ ~~4093~~ 4131)	3	38	✍️
2024-01-05	11.3k	11.4k (~~3954~~ 4092)	1	41	?
2024-01-06	6691	6282 (~~3665~~ 3954)	0	38	✍️
2024-01-07	8053	8503 (~~1219~~ 3665)	3	20	✍️
2024-01-08	8873	9164 (1219)	2	12	⚡
2024-01-09	5828	6808 (4649)	2 6	34 35	✍️
2024-01-10	14.1k	14.4k (4857)	3	22	⚡
2024-01-11	11.8k	10.4k (4109)	3	22	✍️
2024-01-12	8743	8016 (4778)	3	41	✍️
2024-01-13	9393	9339 (3116)	2	17	⚡
2024-01-14	14.2k	6697 (3533)	4	41	✍️
2024-01-15	10.2k	11.3k (3395)	1	15	⚡
2024-01-16	6867	11.1k (2500)	2	27	⚡
2024-01-17	6008	6931 (3982)	1	21	⚡
2024-01-18	TBD	TBD (2544)	TBD	TBD	⚡

Recent Superzaps

1. So...How are We Activating Eltoo (LNSymmetry)?

@nerd2ninja asked something I also wanted to ask for a long time but I always forgot and was too shy and afraid.

About a week ago, Darthcoin made a post using the nostr protocol about how while channel opening fees are manageable in the lightning network, unexpected channel closing fees in high fee environments are unacceptable and unmanageable. You can see that post here:

https://primal.net/e/note10rprgyaltjyumf42079x2pq7zv0g9jlxdjrzuhetm689t08jvzlsssfgn5

So how do you remedy this issue? One solution presented to get all the different implementations for LN to agree on rules that are more forgiving about downtime and stuck payments and don't go straight to force closures so quickly.

Another method is LNSymmetry (formerly known as eltoo). It does away with the justice transaction and allows for any later state to replace any older state. So if you close a channel with a low fee, you don't have to sweet bullets over your peer trying to submit an older state to cheat funds out of you with a higher fee, because you can just replace their older state with the newer one.

@petertodd replied and I must have been as excited as @nerd2ninja to read his response:

The problem with Eltoo is that removing punishment has serious risks in untrusted environments. Your counterparty can steal a lot of money if they manage to get a revoked state mined, up to almost the entire balance of the channel.

— @petertodd, #391659

So this is the first time I've ever seen anyone have a concern with LNSymmetry so this is exciting lol.

— @nerd2ninja, #391843

I also liked that @nerd2ninja did not hold back (but stayed humble) since that's what SN should be about:

After I read your comment, I had this thought that I was kinda holding back, but I'll go ahead and put it out there now.

The idea behind using LNSymmetry is to then have multi-party channels. So, broadcasting an old state doesn't screw over 1 person, but rather maybe 10 or more people and those other people have a vested interest to also ensure that the newest state is the one that gets mined so even if 1 person is having some node trouble or temporary internet connectivity issues, those other people can jump in and save them not out of altruism, but to save themselves.

Now of course a multi-party channel of 10 people could contain only 2 unique individuals, and maybe that gives rise to LN node IDs being used as pseudonyms, and that does introduce a degree of trust into the system.

So I don't have much else to say other than "huh, that's interesting".

— @nerd2ninja, ibidem

I kind of just want to end the post with this post and thus forward @nerd2ninja 50% but there was more great content yesterday (and before) that I found.

But what I could do is add some more kind words that are definitely not just empty phrases: I always had great conversations with @nerd2ninja, not only on SN but also in the TG chat about various things since my early days on SN (even before I got hired).

So please, feel very appreciated @nerd2ninja even it took me 21 days to find something from you that I could mention here, lol :)

But I am sure it won't be the last time.

2. Payment solution Stripe deplatforming accounts that sell bitcoin hardware

@bitsaga_org shared their experience with Stripe with us:

Stripe is blackmailing me to stop selling bitcoin hardware (miners). I stood firm and now the pleb army is uprising. Unreal.

Vanguard blocking clients access to bitcoin ETFs seeing massive outflows, pressured to give in to freedom. We can pressure stripe to not deplatform businesses like myself selling simple specialised hardware (miners). Their "climate policy" (https://stripe.com/en-gb-be/climate) mentions carbon removal technologies, they don't realise the greenhouse gas mitigating potential and green energy usage/incentive of bitcoin. Is Stripe deplatforming me for selling specialised hardware even legal?

Belgian customers can no longer pay with Bancontact, by far the most popular solution in Belgium. This sucks. I guess part of "then they fight you".

You deplatform bitcoin, we deplatform you.

We are legion.

Someone who was afraid of the uprising pleb army turning against each other shared some details about the the Stripe ToS:

The read the terms of service or take your business elsewhere arguments ignore:

its really hard to start and run a small business and 99.99% of the time everyone will go with the easiest option so you can focus on running your business and not dying. Not taking a side or saying this is right, its just true. Stripe is often one of the more expensive payment options, but everyone uses it because its the easiest. Ease > cost for almost all businesses when it comes to payments.

if the pressure is coming from Visa/Mastercard, central banks, or big powerful government entities this could easily eventually spread to most or all other major payment providers and leave few if any good options. While I love and applaud things like BTCPayServer, fully self sovereign payments are way too hard for all but the most hardcore technical Bitcoiners, which are probably 0.000001% of all business founders. Until the bitcoin payment tools get 10x better and easier most mainstream business just won't bother.

We unfortunately need fiat for now to run successful businesses. Just the hard truth.

Maybe similar to that @anon, I kind of wanted to reply to some comments "if you have no experience running a business, maybe you shouldn't write comments about how to run a business".

But I also don't want to stifle conversation. So I just grabbed some popcorn and bookmarked that post for today.

Challenge of the Day

Do something scary today.

Song of the Day

Just a young gun with a quick fuse I was uptight, wanna let loose I was dreaming of bigger things And wanna leave my own life behind Not a "Yes, sir," not a follower Fit the box, fit the mold Have a seat in the foyer, take a number I was lightning before the thunder

After lightning comes the thunder. But what comes after thunder?

I didn't like my post even though I shared a personal story in there but something tells me that might actually be the reason. It was too long. I wrote way more about me than about the actual blog post. And I didn't care about the quality as much. I mostly just wanted to get it out. ↩

954 sats \ 6 replies \ @siggy47 18 Jan

I don't want to dump more work on you, but when you're done with this experiment I hope you keep writing these posts everyday as a sort of blog. Your writing style is addicting. Kind of a more friendly Popescu. I read it to see what's going on in that head of yours more than for this experiment. I bet I'm not the only one.

687 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 18 Jan

I don't want to dump more work on you, but when you're done with this experiment I hope you keep writing these posts everyday

Oh, you aren't. No one told me I should write these posts, they just came to me :)

It's been very rewarding. There were ups and downs (currently more in a down) but I don't want to miss them. So I will definitely continue writing in some form. Maybe not every day at some point (since it's also been challenging at times) but I have drawn blood now.

Regarding focus, I am still trying to figure out if I can focus on three things in my life, not just three. Still figuring out what the third should be, if that's the case:

1. SN 2. Writing 3. Reading/Music/Fitness/Delphi/...

Wondering if I should mention @elvismercury because I linked to a post from him ...

Your writing style is addicting. Kind of a more friendly Popescu. I read it to see what's going on in that head of yours more than for this experiment. I bet I'm not the only one.

Thank you! I also write to see what's in my or been in my head. Flipping through the "old" Z2Z posts was also very rewarding already :)

need to lookup who Popescu is

I wanted to zap you 1k sats but unfortunately, these are all the sats I have for now :)

update: lol, thanks @siggy47, I lost my streak of no freebie comments so I can indeed stop writing these posts now, lol :)

84 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 18 Jan

On certain days, I read his post first before heading over to the Stacker Saloon

153 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 19 Jan

Agreed. My favorite "feature" of SN by a lot.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek OP 19 Jan

Did you mean this Popescu?

I noticed the front page loads random content. That's definitely something that I would do, too.

Kind of a more friendly Popescu.

I also read this post. I definitely see what you mean, lol

Thanks for mentioning this! Very interesting to see which other people come into mind when people read stuff from me.

It's like showing people pictures of other people and telling them that they look similar to them.

So that's how people see me?

103 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 19 Jan

I posted about him: #204836

102 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 19 Jan

Ohh, I remember! I might have bookmarked this post now.

128 sats \ 0 replies \ @nerd2ninja fwd 18 Jan

Yeah even though I responded to peter todd's comment with an idea of how people might cope with the risk he presented, I'm still kinda racking my brain over it.

Like sure 5% probability of spending an old state with no downside risk bad, but maybe when that node ID is reported as having uncoorperative closes that spend an old state no one wants to connect to them, but you can spin up as many nodeIDs as you need to keep trying, so maybe you refuse to allow nodeIDs with no history to join channels above a certain amount, in which case people are incentivized to show a good history, but then hot damn I'm reinventing the credit score here!

Also, I believe the channel cycling attack was mitigated, but not patched so maybe we need this construct anyway? Or maybe we'll fix it one day or something lol.

Then I thought, well what if instead of justice transactions, we try security deposits where if you close the channel before a certain block height, your security deposit is given to the person who didn't "break the lease", but then its really just a justice transaction by another name done a different way and maybe doesn't address Darthcoin's issues with uncoorperative closes? Anyway, surely you could make a covenant that just doesn't allow a channel to close until a certain blockheight which would have the same effect. What's the effect? Lock up your liquidity with an uncooperative partner and that doesn't help multi-party channels where just one person being offline is a problem (but then that's what actuaries are for?)

Anyway, you get the idea, I've been racking my brain on this lmao.

111 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 18 Jan

69 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 18 Jan

It's a pic I found on google images. I was originally going to use it as the background for a meme I wanted to make but my design skills were so bad that I scrapped it.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 18 Jan

Interesting. Seems like your search skills are better mine me. Are they for sale?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 18 Jan

I think it was just dumb luck to be honest. Usually I have a hard time finding what I am looking for.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 18 Jan

I was looking for such a picture! Where did you find it? Or is this a picture you took yourself?

51 sats \ 0 replies \ @kurszusz 18 Jan

Wow...guys you mentioned for superzaps have really great articles!

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 18 Jan

I wouldn’t worry too much about it if I were you. I find that sometimes my stream-of-consciousness, write-it-within-ten-minutes posts earn me more engagement than my carefully curated took-me-one-hour posts. Maybe people relate to the rush of words and emotions haha