Nostr Web Client

bolt12 was invented in 2019 and hasn't succeeded to gain any adoption -- I would say it's because it is too complicated and designed as if by academics with not much concern for the practicality of the real world. I think it's more likely that Lightning will be abandoned before bolt12 becomes as pervasive as Lightning Address, not discounting the other possibility.

But no, it doesn't fix anything because normal people shouldn't be running dedicated nodes, it's too painful, and standalone mobile devices can't work with bolt12 since they are not always online and accessible, the workarounds to make them work involve centralized companion services ("LSPs") and Google push notifications.

Also it is absurdly hard for custodial providers to adopt bolt12. It requires unpacking the Lightning node daemon open, injecting the custodian's internal database of users in there, then reassembling the node back.

Zach⚡️ 2y ago

The problem of commerce over lightning isn’t a lightning problem, it’s a “bad money drives out good money” problem. With that said though, I bought prints from Argentina and a poster from the Midwest solely coordinated over Nostr and using lightning as the payment method. At a bare minimum, Lightning will very likely be an intermediate payment protocol between wallet, banks, custodians, and exchanges. Market solutions like Zeus and Phoenix are rapidly becoming more user friendly though, so it could go much further as well.

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Discussion

fiatjaf 2y ago

Gresham's law only applies when exchange rates are fixed.

Zach⚡️ 2y ago

You’re right, although there is definitely a psychological difference (that I’ve perceived) which makes people not want to spend Bitcoin versus spending dollars.

It could just be a network effect thing though, because as I said I have bought things with lighting, most people just don’t prefer that as payment right now.