I'm currently a bit worried about the state of custodial ln providers. Even though I strongly encourage everyone to run their non custodial setup, it's absolutely essential for new people on Nostr to get their ln up and running. The other day someone was asking and I honestly don't know what to recommend at this time.
In the end the only Nostr client that ran on nostr:npub14w5fpxvrhux6c9ecp82p5w3hxm46rh9tzktlr0e72sg8k9q57xwshqhg7u 's smartphone is Freerse, because he has an old version of Android.
Neither #Amethyst nor #Primal.
Luckily I made him getalby so now he can handle sats for both receiving and sending zap...
What a struggle though, it's not really something within the reach of ordinary users.
We are still way behind. 😔
Discussion
It is too complicated to manage one's own noncustodial facility for users arriving on Nostr.
Getalby however has now made things very complicated with the invitation code requirement.
The easiest zap management is to use Primal, with all the KYC and custodial wallet issues we know.
Neither is it easy to manage zaps with npub.cash or Minibits.
Of course, I am always talking about inexperienced users signing up for Nostr.
It's all extremely problematic and until I had nostr:npub14w5fpxvrhux6c9ecp82p5w3hxm46rh9tzktlr0e72sg8k9q57xwshqhg7u sign up I wasn't even thinking about it.
Ecash zaps are sooooo needed.
And they only solve half if the problem, for now. Still need to acquire them somehow starting from zero Bitcoin.
Also conflicted. I have custodial and non-custodial Lightning, but only custodial gives me an address.
Can we setup some sort of directory on a remote server, to facilitate zapping over any NIP 05, or something?
Or am I missing something important and just showing my ignorance? 😂🙈
There's things like nostdress so you can link your wallet (lnd or lnbits) to a zapable lnaddress. You need a webserver/domain tho, so more advanced stuff.
I really mean wos being down in us, Alby needs invite codes etc.
Yeah, I have a webserver and domain, tho. Lots of people do. I was wondering if we could run something generic, for any confirmed NIP-05 address, rather than for some particular provider.
Like a... zapserver?
I guess I'm asking if we can completely change the architecture.
The problem is the receiving wallet has to generate the invoice. Since this happens over an http endpoint, the wallet has to run a web server.
Ah, I see. So, the wallet has to be located on the same server as the invoice? There's no way to redirect?
There are ways but like anything else with trade offs. If you can communicate with the wallet someway (like NWC) outside of http, the web server could fetch an invoice on behalf of the wallet.
If the receiving wallet is offline/unreachable - things get more tricky. Zeus does something with holdinvoices to let self-custodial wallet users claim the funds when they come online.
There always needs to be some coordination between the eventual receiver and the web server though.