I remember how upset some people got back in February of this year when BlueWallet announced they were shutting down their custodial Lightning node.

BlueWallet got accused of conspiring to rug their users, and there was a lot of bad information circulating, for example that the entire app was shutting down, or that they were no longer supporting the Lightning network.

They even gave their users about 3 months to withdraw their sats from custody and still a nonzero number of people found out too late that they could no longer access their wallets, because they didn’t get the memo. I did my best to get the word out.

Ultimately, I think this was a good decision on their part, even if they didn’t do the best job of communicating to their users. They had built their LNDhub.io node in the early days as an experimental feature. They never intended to be a bank, and didn’t want to be in the business of holding user funds indefinitely. It was about demonstrating the potential of the technology and encouraging other users and developers to build on it.

There is no room for complacency in bitcoin. Your funds are ultimately your responsibility, and when you pass that on to someone else because it’s easier, you are exposing yourself to more risk and potential for loss, but there really isn’t anyone else to blame.

Stay safe out there. 🫂⚡️🤙

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