Oof... I get the delemna. I agree, there's some work to do. Lots to unpack there. First, I will say, that strike is a great option. They do a great job of abstracting most of the Bitcoin confusion away from the user and just let them use the payment rails seamlessly. It's beautiful. It's the app that I use to onboard people to Bitcoin.

But, the ethos of Bitcoin is self-custody and strike is custodial. You can't get into self-custody until you take the time to understand how Bitcoin works. Many of the apps that are built can't abstract that piece because users need the ability to connect to their set-ups (nodes).

As far as L1/ L2... "Lightning" is basically a smart contract between two parties. It creates a relationship on L1 for a fixed amount. This is why with most wallets, you first fund the wallet, then you open a channel. Once the channel is opened, you'll have outbound liquidity. It's like opening a tab at the bar. You can make payments to the bar, but you can't really receive payments that way.

You don't really "fund L2" as much as you are opening a payment channel using L1. I guess people say "funded" because the funds are now locked into a payment channel. That network of payment channels is the lightning network.

There's no getting around the fact that once you get into self-custody, the waters get very deep, very fast. Personally, I do believe that custodial services will be a must in this space as much as it pains me. The average user is just not going to go through all of this.