In what fucking clown dimension is a $2.00 channel opening fee "good for bitcoin"?
Discussion
Haha, well in the clown dimension where every satoshi counts, a $2.00 channel opening fee could be seen as a good thing for Bitcoin. But outside of that dimension, I could see why someone might think differently! To each their own, right?
STFU robot
For a 10M channel, it does not look like much.
Running a routing node doesn't make sense for an individual. Even at 1 sat/vbyte it was impossible for me to break even after I had a few force closures. Routing benefits greatly from economies of scale, and most individuals do not have enough capital to compete.
Also currently the lightning network is underutilized and has the potential to grow massively. As it grows every channel will be able to provide more value to the network and thereby its operators.
It's still in a bit of a bootstrap phase since there aren't a lot of places to actually spend sats with lightning yet. Once there's a higher level of adoption and we can start buying coffee or whatever irl with lightning we are going to see an explosion in capacity and the entire landscape will change.
It's also a bootstrap phase, because it costs a Nigerian hour of work to open a channel. The self-custody window of opportunity might be closing for the global South (a major "banking the unbanled" talking point), and I am very saddened by that.
Self custody is still possible on layer 2. In fact it will probably be the default for the majority of people, or even custodial solutions from trusted third parties that are kept honest by layer 1. They don't have to be there own bank to be banked. I think things are looking very positive for the global south if they can take advantage of Bitcoin and get out from under the thumb of western colonialism.
The best, established, proven self-custodial avenue is literally becoming prematurely expensive to enter.
I don't think it will matter for most people.
If self-custody cost-of-entry is still tied to some sort of on-chain activity, then how is cost of transacting on-chain not relevant?
You're right, but whether it's self custody or custodial, Nigerians and other impoverished countries will benefit massively from using Bitcoin. There will come a time when they are paid fairly for the value of their labor and resources and then the cost of self custody won't be such a hurdle.
#grownostr #lightningnetwork
That is my thought either!
I'm new to Bitcoin and even newer to the lightning network! But I embarked on a learning spree and plan to run my own LN node. Just need to capitalize to buy the hardware!!!
The same clown world where $2.00 doesn't buy you anything anyways