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I've been dealing with Bitcoin since pre-2013, and I've gotta say I've never seen it feel as powerful as it does on Nostr. The instant, effectively-free transactions that spring from having so many people on Lightning Addresses is like arriving on a different planet. Most people's experience with Bitcoin payments -- if they even have it -- is a 30-60 minute wait for mining + two-plus block confirmations, and a fee that made it feel dumb to send less than $20. Most people don't want that. They don't need that. They will never care about that. Some do -- I did -- but it's a permanent minority. This is what makes lightning-fast settlements a big deal. When normal people and businesses realize that global money transfers can be borderless, instant, free, and only take like two clicks, I think things are going to get very interesting. Still need to cover a lot of road on the privacy problem, but this already feels better than everything naked on-chain. The hardest problem has always been making it easy for people who don't care about Bitcoin to accept Bitcoin (tender resistance) -- without requiring them to start caring about Bitcoin. The way you do that is by making it "better than money." We're not there yet for everybody, but for the first time in many years, I caught a glimpse of how it might be possible.

Replies (66)

For me #bitcoin is awesome, I started to use it as a way to receive help a year ago, and then I started to learn about it, it amazes me every day. I know nothing yet, but it helps me to pay bills. I think that just the important thing to show to some people that only need low fees money lnbc210u1p3aqgu2pp5zurf434h7qfsv5gaqs7laxmxwww0p775sac6frsnwhuf9497cp0sdqu2askcmr9wssx7e3q2dshgmmndp5scqzpgxqyz5vqsp5sa0zqxe0cy7mxsa9thjejp0draqnme43u9mxmq4h9z0cyu2fxyuq9qyyssq85es5j4lyzuv76yeqz7s8hexm5ful24yfg654yqsj0jlfdeej7rj7kmcse7v4h8ks6u2cvph0tcnlw8u2z98ye8wsjqggsrm75cflacpqrlrj5
Lightning definitely changed my view on Bitcoin from being something I originally held as an investment and way to mitigate the risk of just holding fiat, to something that I can now use for payments. Lightning transactions are as quick and easy as traditional card payments and I really hope to see more widespread adoption. #[0]
This is relatively true. And by relative, I mean by who you are talking about. users in developed nations, who are banked and suffer relatively low inflation or are protected from it by having investments in stocks and real estate, sure, they couldn't care less about waiting 1 hours for 6 confirmations. But for people in countries with 60% annual inflation, the story is different. We will wait days for confirmations if needed, at least then we will be protected from haveing our value confiscated through inflation or outright expropriation (bail-ins). But overall, yes, lightning is how most people new to the space will ever use Bitcoin, and it's exciting.
"However Lightning Network may introduce other privacy problems, mostly due to how the network is made up of nodes having connections between them[79]. The parts of this network which can be intermediate routing nodes are usually public, and this network information could be overlaid with information about routed packets such as their amount. Lightning nodes also reveal their IP addresses unless run over Tor, and the payment channels are made up of on-chain transactions which could be analyzed using regular blockchain analysis techniques. Payment channels look like 2-of-2 multisignature on the blockchain. Bilaterial closing transactions look like the 2-of-2 outputs have been spent, but unilateral close transactions have a complicated HTLC scripts that is visible on the blockchain. As of 2019 Lightning is in beta and development continues; the development community is still studying all its privacy properties. Certainly its privacy is better than the privacy of on-chain transactions." Source:
Privacy - Bitcoin Wiki
Making people use bitcoin without caring about it is slowly happening. Apps like fountain already let people people fund their custodial wallets with fiat and send sats to support podcast. This is only the beginning. Music and e-commerce will likely be impacted in a major way too. I could even see it take over the SaaS world with sats streaming per usage. No need for subscriptions anymore.
It's going to be a pretty interesting transition, pretty sure micropayments will unlock business models we have not yet thought of the same way app stores/cloud computing/gps/smartphones created new ones As for nostr and LN, I think this is a fascinating competition between ad-driven models and those that have "got to the top"/become influencers and have growth hacked the algo feeds into getting more impressions and turning that into a business I am sure saying outlandish things will still work to an extent on a service that has no algo curation but its impact will be limited, also with incentives not being centred around pleasing 1 or 2 brands and rather around keeping a loyal audience, it really could shift the way people interact online
Absolutely! Working in the Lightning space for me started with the feeling that this really is the change that we all need. Specifically all the new use cases! But now with nostr…these are the times to get on! Lightning and nostr is a perfect combination! ⚑️🦚⚑️
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⚑ On a UX level sending a lightning payment is so much simpler than traditional finance, mitigating all those input hurdles such as address and bank numbers. Of course the most powerful bitcoin lightning feature is full sovereignry. Your bank can stop your payments for no reason and demand explanation for withdrawals. Your dollars are the bank's dollars.
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@Edward Snowden It hurts both my brain and heart, that so many FOSS developers advocating for open protocols and open networks have given in to cynical anti-bitcoin FUD, and positioned themselves against a truly open-source, decentralized, permissionless, inclusive, fast, and cheap alternative to the utterly centralized, controlled, surveilled, exclusive, proprietary, corporate currencies and payment systems of the world. Lightning works.