Yes, I can imagine a scenario where layer 1 can't support the massive need for channel opens and closes. It's possible LN will choke on its own success and we will have to come up with a different L2 which uses L1 in a significantly more efficient manner.

But I'm also aware of many developments that will reduce the stress on L1 by LN. For example, I recently tested opening 3 channels across 3 nodes with one transaction. Batching this way is already an improvement. Taproot and future soft forks will reduce transaction sizes too. There are also ideas like channel factories. I'm also excited about the idea of LN on side-chains, like Liquid. We could have a system where many LN networks operate together with submarine swaps. So you could be running an LN node on the Liquid side-chain and pay a merchant who runs a node on proper Bitcoin, and we're all using the same SATs.

The first thing that comes to mind is our mind. Our brains are quite literally built around nodes that are connected to each other and send signals of different intensity. Very similar to the Lightning Network. It would be interesting to think this through and see if LN can over time become a conscious thing, although we would need to reach billions of nodes for that.

This is my imagined setup: • Families run their LN nodes on their home router / server • The family LN node will serve multiple family members each having their own accounts, wallets and funds • The node will have only a few channels (3-5) to most used services, such as their employer, to an online merchant, and maybe their communication provider, family friend • These channels are open for years, similar how you get a credit card and then you stay with that bank for years • New channels are opened when the family needs more liquidity to receive or spend • The node is "watched" by 1-3 friend nodes (LND Watchtower or CLN Eye of Satoshi) • Each family member will connect to this node with their phone to use the network to receive and send SATs

I would build Stacker News. It's great!

But if you're looking for an idea that doesn't exists yet (to my knowledge), I would build a service which allows you to pay for subscriptions automatically. This is an area where credit cards still have an edge over the Lightning payment ecosystem.

It's most important to focus on the solid monetary layer. Decentralisation and security of layer one is critically important. Reckless development and experimentation belongs to layer 2, which doesn't threaten layer 1.

I'm at point in my life where I wanted to do something meaningful that changes lives in the world to the better. I feel helping Lightning go global is the best way for me to help billions who want to be part of the global marketplace and provide their services, yet are currently unable to do so, because they are unbanked, or suffer in weak fiat currency systems. This is 50-85% of the world's population, depending on how you calculate. If we can make Lightning happen together, it's going to have a huge impact.

Currently, I'm running LN+, but I aim to help the LN ecosystem any way I can in the future as my knowledge and skill grows.

I think the biggest growth will be with semi-custodial solutions where the user doesn't need to run a full node themselves, but also don't give up control entirely. There are many companies building different setups (ex. Breeze wallet) and I think some of them will be breakout successes. But all this relies on plebs running routing nodes to keep the network strong and decentralised. I welcome the Krakens and. Bitfinexes but we should not rely on them entirely.

Thank you! Hope to receive constructive (or any) feedback. Email with your suggestions, and ideas for improvement.

The most surprising fact that you can use during your daily meditation is that all life on Earth is related. You're quite literally a cousin with the tree in your garden, but also with the roach in your pantry, and your dog in your living room. Some life forms are very distant cousins, but we still all had a common ancestor millions of generations ago.

From the evolutionary standpoint there are strong incentives to protect the old. But these benefits only apply for species with advanced culture and society like humans:

I'm not saying we didn't go overboard during Covid by prioritising the old over young lives. Some countries found a more healthy balance than others. Like Sweden.

In general many consider the fact that you only receive if you have a sufficiently large active channel to be a limitation. But personally, I don't think it's an issue. If the amount is too large, just send it on-chain. Or even better, let the sender open a channel and send the funds on LN in one go.

Wallets and tools are rapidly getting better, but it's still a steep learning curve to start a node and operate it if you have no understanding of Bitcoin and Lightning. Let's say you're a dentist and you want to receive LN payments, it's not easy. Currently fully custodial solutions are the easiest like OpenNode, but on the long term, we really want everybody to run their own nodes. We need devs and companies making LN easier to start and run.

You mean like TARO for example? I'm cautiously excited about it. I want to learn more before making up my mind. Synonym have interesting ideas too. I have to admin, I'm too ignorant about L3 to give you a reasonable answer.

I don't see significant issues with LN. I think it's pretty cool and the ecosystem is growing faster than I expected. Smart people thought this through really well.

I suggest you start with a small amount and test different services to build a lightning node to gain deeper understanding of concepts before building your long term node.

For example, on Voltage Cloud you can buy a bitcoin testnet node which allows you to experiment without risking real bitcoin and you only have to pay for it by the hour. You can learn how to use Thunderhub and LNbits, etc. Let me know if you need testnet coins.

Then, you can graduate to start an Umbrel node that you run on an old Linux laptop. Later you can build a raspi and run Umbrel on it.

After all this, you will have the understanding and you will be able to decide what sort of node you want to build.

I recommend you check out Voltage Cloud and create testnet node. Use testnet coins and learn all the tooling. Make mistakes with testnet SATs instead of sweet real bitcoins.

I'm unsure about the question regarding unique use cases? What do you mean by it?

Lurker for many years, but never participated actively. I played a very small advisor role behind the very first international Bitcoin conference Inside Bitcoins, and blogged about Bitcoin for a short while long time ago. Unfortunately, I didn't go all in (in all terms) early on.

I haven't been planning to do that, but it's a fantastic idea.

I know for a fact that there are some devs who have been thinking building LN+ into their wallets. Using LDK creating an LN+ wallet would not be a very difficult task.

If anyone wants to try, we do have a recently released API: https://lightningnetwork.plus/api_documentation

I like both occasionally but I'm not a huge sports fan in general. I have a problem. I can't watch anything that doesn't directly translate into something that builds me up or helps my project move forward. I feel I'm "wasting" my time. I know it's silly, because everyone needs to relax and socialise. I have to work on this. Maybe we can grab a drink at a sports bar together. 🍻

Yes, in a sense, but not really. Let me explain.

We all make incoming liquidity possible, so in that sense it's competition.

However, LN+ provides it for free, and you "pay" with your own channel, so it's a different model for different situations. I think both models have a place when building up and operating a lightning node.

I think these services are complimentary and we all help LN grow which benefits us all: the services, LN users, humanity in general.

I thought people will be more weary connecting to unknown nodes, but I realised that the protections built into the Bitcoin LN protocol are sufficiently strong that people are OK to take the chance.

Specifically, the risk is not about losing funds to a bad actor, but that your peer may be able to see the traffic on your channel, which may be used for traffic analysis. In other words, you don't want to connect to a spook.

To be realistic, the information they can gain is not that valuable, so the risk is pretty low.

Nice observation! 👏