Replying to Avatar Reid Walley

Watched a couple’a Andreas Antonopoulos videos, one in particular for IDEO which focused on how much #Bitcoin could benefit from better UX.

Even though the video was from 2015 or 2016, my graphic designer instincts kicked in.

I’ll be attending a birthday party for my grandson later today and it’s a perfect opportunity for me to chat with family about onboarding to Bitcoin and Lighting. And as I look at different apps I realize:

• Some require email and password to set up

• Some require email and first name to set up

• Some require writing down 12-word seeds to set up

And all these peeps at the party are not gonna have an easy way to remember the unique password they created, and writing down a 12-word seed phrase and keeping it safe is definitely gonna be new and scary.

And they’ll have to do this while at a party, drinking, and I doubt any of them even has a password manager to save the password and there’s no place to safely store a 12-word seed phrase while they’re out partying.

Out at a party isn’t necessarily a safe environment for securing passwords and seed phrases. Especially for noobies.

Thinking back to when I was orange pulled in 2017, person had me install Bread App on my Android smartphone, walked me through how to display a QR code, then sent me $5 of BTC from his Bread App. It was all 100% new and weird and odd to me. I don’t even remember if I had to enter my email and first name, or email and create a password. But I know for sure I didn’t have to write down 12- word seed phrase to set up Bread App, but I was told that I absolutely had to write down my 12-word seed phrase once I got home.

Graphic designer instincts kickin’ in and thinking about easiest on-boarding solutions for peeps who are drinking and having a good time and not thinking about passwords and 12-word seed phrases.

Pre-printed $1 or $3 tip cards that can be uploaded to any wallet... I swear SXSW had things like this in the 2010's 😂

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Discussion

Which non-custodial (or custodial) Lightning wallet should a noobie install on their smartphone?

Sorry, but the first will probably have to be Wallet of Satoshi. Custodial, but the UX is the easiest.

Totally agree. For a noobie custodial UX is easiest.

But I live in the United States and nostr:npub1hcwcj72tlyk7thtyc8nq763vwrq5p2avnyeyrrlwxrzuvdl7j3usj4h9rq is no longer offered here. WoS decided to pull their app from the App Store instead of comply with KYC (or whatever regs it had to comply with). And I applaud them for that 🫡

At the birthday party I mentioned attending, we tried using Cash App, but the app required them to provide a government-issued ID to receive Bitcoin. And they didn’t want to do that.

So I had them install Phoenix Wallet.

I sent them $10 of Bitcoin on-chain (instead of via Lightning, because explaining Lightning and liquidity to a noobie at a birthday party was just too overwhelming for them).

What about Aqua wallet? I think you would need something with built-in channel management. I know Aqua is targeting the developing markets and total noobs.

I have Aqua on my phone and dig it. But when I showed them Aqua to gauge their reaction to the UI, they were totally overwhelmed when they saw Bitcoin, Layer 2 Bitcoin, and Tether USDt.

Makes sense. They are a complete noobie and, well, everything is overwhelming. So we went with Phoenix Wallet.

I’m def looking forward to using Aqua myself as well as the advances that the whole Lightning wallet ecosystem is making for ease-of-onboarding.