Great questions. Where's the best answers? #asknostr
#asknostr #introductions #question
Hello, I'm still a beginner to bitcoin and nostr and lighting so I have some questions.
Say we have bob.
Bob uses nostr.
He posts on nostr.
People zap him at his lightning address (for example, bob@getalby.com)
Now, he has 100 sats.
I was looking it up on google and I heard that lightning network transactions are private and encrypted.
Does that mean that only Bob and the sender know the details of the zap?
To the rest of the people on the network - is it just an encrypted transaction? And no further information could be deducted from it? Like say for example we have Mike on the lightning network. He sees a transaction, but doesn't know who it's from, who it's going to, and how much it is? I'm a little confused.
Thank you in advance #nostr community!
My source for now: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/85901/tracking-history-of-transactions-in-lighting-network
Discussion
I just sent you 4 types of zaps. With and without logging in, check out how they look.
One of them wasn't even sent as a Nostr event. You'll see it direct in your wallet.
To who, me? or David
I just sent them to you too
Would there be a way for me to use some lightning network tracker tool to find the sender information for public zaps? Like would there be a way for me to get your npub from the transaction?
I don't know. But you can see public zaps on people's notes and private zaps on your own.
Zaps are an event kind, so you can query relays for them to see who zapped whom for how much.
Oh okay. Thanks.
I would at least say in the context of ZAPs it is not private at all due to the fact that it's a lightning payment that attaches nostr public key data to the payment it is a public record of who sent money to who.
Lightning privacy is complicated. The receiving side still has a lot of work to do in terms of privacy. Sending is a little bit more private, but it's also by no means perfect.
I'm not exactly sure how amethyst's private zaps work, so I guess there is that, but I'm Not sure if any other client has implemented private zapping.
So a Zap contains public information, but what about a regular transaction. Like if I open alby, enter someones lightning address and send some sats.
Again, without going into technical detail, it is not totally private, but that is better in terms of privacy than a Zap.
Although all the problems of using a custodian apply. Someone sending to you might only realize that they are sending to an Alny account, which I guess is fine, but Alby knows your account balances and who you're sending to and receiving from.