Nostr Web Client

⚡️ hampus@blixtwallet.com

This Lightning Address is special.

When you pay to it, my Lightning Box solution will forward the request to the phone, where Blixt Wallet respond with an invoice.

This is the first time a self-custodial LN wallet supports Lightning Address.

This is part of my on-going work to support receiving via Lightning Address for mobile self-custodial wallets.

https://github.com/hsjoberg/lightning-box

Android supports foreground services, meaning that Blixt Wallet can stay online all the time to answer incoming requests (no effect on battery).

Though the normal mode of operation for Lightning Box is that it'll take the payment on behalf of the user and then next time the user opens wallet, it will auto-withdraw from the Box, thanks to LNURL-withdraw.

But if the wallet is online already, it can just forward the request.

Hampus 2y ago

LNURL-pay was first developed for commerce/B2C.

Years later Lightning Address came along and became a success, because it allowed for an easy to write & read handle.

Soon even custodial wallets started using Lightning Address and this later lead to widespread usage on nostr.

It's a succession of events that lead to the current situation.

So as it stands now, non-custodial LN wallets are losing on walkover to custodial wallets, where you have easy access to a Lightning Address.

My Lightning Box solution tries its best to work within this framework that has been developed and gives a sound alternative to using a 100% custodial and trusted Lightning Address solution.

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Other technologies such as BOLT12, especially with "async payments", could help steer people away from Lightning address.

But it cannot fully replace it, because the primary value proposition of Lightning Address is an easy to read and write handle, which BOLT12 doesn't have.

It's possible we can do some neat "spacechain DNS with BOLT12/BOLT11 AMP" and whatnot, so I'm open to possible ideas.

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Discussion

metamick 2y ago

Big deal!

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FuSsY 2y ago

The idea is very nice... i love Blixt. Its one of the Best LN wallets / Neutrino node for me... LN adress hyped 100% this time and most nostriches wanna use it. I think your solution that payments automated get forwarded to my Blixt mobile LN node would work really smooth on Android. Then i can stop using my custodial workaround services hrhr 👌🍻💯

Cant await 😎

Hampus 2y ago

Cheers FuSsY!

DZC 2y ago

I think bolt12 could replace much of nostr usage of Lightning Addresses, tbh.

I'm zapping to people without knowing their Lightning Addresses at all.

It works with whatever they have set in their profile. If they set a bolt12 offer, sending zaps could work exactly with the same UX as it works now.

Hampus 2y ago

BOLT12 does not remove the requirement to be online in order to pay.

I think nostr users will keep using custodial LN wallets.

So whether BOLT12 or Lightning Address is used doesn’t matter that much actually.

Those who run their own LN node could use BOLT12, but that’s a minority.

DZC 2y ago

I agree with you on this.

What I just wanted to explain is that I think that the "primary value proposition of Lightning Address being an easy to read and write handle" is not so important in nostr use case right now.

People are using Lightning Addresses without knowing the real handles.

So, replacing them with bolt12 offers will not change the UX at all.

Hampus 2y ago

Yes indeed, in the context of nostr, Lightning Address is merely used as a common API endpoint.

Like people could just use lud06 metadata and input https://domain.com/.well-known/lnurlp/user instead.

But Lightning Address and its use-cases long predates nostr.