Notes from Alby AMA on Corny Chat - 23 September 2024

An AMA session was held with Alby on Corny Chat to help explain new products and services, answer some common questions and solicit feedback.

🟡 This is a summary of key points, not an audio transcript 🟡 Posted on nostr: https://nostr.at/nevent1qqsqqqx5gn4l8alyayrq7wmkmvkawfhaz9n5d50vxp5066zx8lkkkyqpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqppamhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5q3vamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwwpexjmtpdshxuet5qgszrdqezqk63lqt4yzgftkfxjl4tdatea67akeezf8g6a0yj86p5hse65a67

Alby Accounts. An Alby account was needed for Alby Hub prior to version 1.8. Everyone with an Alby account can get it setup with Alby Hub. There is still a wait list and people are being granted accounts. They are sending out invites every day but need to work through it and scale up properly to ensure a positive experience.

Alby Extension and Custodial Alby users. Existing users of an Alby custodial lightning account tied to the extension will not be forced to migrate to Alby Hub. Eventually, the custodial will be decommissioned but specific timeline has not been set. It depends on usage. You can migrate your account to Alby Hub either via DiY deployment, or via paid Alby Cloud to have improved sovereignty of your funds.

Alby Hub. Alby Hub is more than a lightning wallet. It can also send and receive on chain funds. The hub interface depicts this as the savings balance. Alby Hub supports instant bitcoin payments across a growing ecosystem of applications, several of which are listed in the Alby Store

For users starting with a fresh Alby Account and no funds, then will need to have funds to create your first channel. There is some consideration about possibly including first channel in the overall subscription but not yet certain.

Anyone can use Alby Hub, and may also be used by small business owners to accept payments. For example, there are simple Point of Sale apps available that support receiving payments without sending. Transactions aren't stored long term in Alby Hub, but are available to download/export from the Alby Account.

A Friends and Family application is available in the Alby App Store that can share an Alby Hub instances across multiple users. Each receives a wallet via Nostr Wallet Connect interoperability, with their own separate balances, but share the liquidity of the connected channels.

Whether doing DiY install or Alby Cloud option, the operator of Alby Hub will need to manage channels.

Costs: The cost for Alby Cloud starts at 10500 sats for a 3 month intro special and set to go to 21000 sats per month after that. An annual plan at 210,000 sats is available for 12 months. Alby does have plans to adjust the pricing at points in the future as the fiat valuation increases. On a Bitcoin standard, prices come down. The subscription for Alby Cloud is paid automatically via a nostr wallet connect subscription. If its cancelled or inadequate funds in the account to pay, then support will send an email when due and overdue prior to shutting down the instance. Fees paid to lightning service providers (LSPs) like ACINQ, Olympus, Megalith etc are direct to that LSP for providing the reserved liquidity + the mining fee for opening channels. These fees may fluctuate over time based on each LSPs pricing models, but once a channel is opened it stays open without an extra fee. Some examples of fees can be seen in the BTC Sessions video referenced in the resources links below. Tomek also provided a comparison of fees as an imgur image link. Fees for topping up a channel via credit card or bank account (region restricted) are based on that separate provider. The only fees Alby itself receives is for Alby Cloud subscriptions.

The Alby Hub interface is a web application. It can be installed as a PWA on mobile.

Benefits of Alby Cloud: Always on 24x7. They manage the infrastructure, leaving you to focus on simple configuration. Updates are still initiated by the Alby Hub operator as it requires a restart and you'll need to unlock the node again with your password.

Regarding privacy.. balance information for channels is not shared with third parties like Amboss. If channels are public, the balance isn't visible but capacity is. If Alby account is connected, then Alby will see the transactions.

The Node health depicted in the upper right corner of Alby Hub is based on the quantity of channels and how the liquidity is balanced. If there is only one channel, then the overall health may be limited to about 50%. With multiple channels, the scoring maxes as long as all the liquidity in a channel isn't on one side or the other.

Does Alby Hub work with Boltcard connections? It doesn't integrate directly because Boltcard uses LNURL Withdraw and relies on having a server with domain. It could however work with a helper service that bridges LNURL to Nostr Wallet Connect.

For DiY setups, when backing up your node, Alby Hub operators should backup the data directory for Alby Hub. This includes maybe 2 database files in there. And obviously backup your seed words.

The names of well known cypherpunks and computer scientists referenced in version release notes for Alby Hub are selected as a tribute to some great inspirational minds.

Alby Go is the mobile application that is simple send and receive lightning. It connects to 1 or more Alby Hub nodes via Nostr Wallet Connect. Technically it can connect to anything that works with the Nostr Wallet Connect protocol improving overall interoperability in a simplified way. User balances are denominated in satoshis, and can configure fiat currencies as well.