I appreciate you. The point I’m trying to make is that if we realistically want the world on a bitcoin standard, the UX should be brain dead easy. I shouldn’t have to look through docs or speak with the actual team about the fact that the app needs to be open to send/receive payments or open a channel.
Discussion
Agreed 100%. But also, you ever signed for a loan from a bank? Or opened a credit card? Lots of docs. It’ll become more user friendly with time, WE are still early.
You guys are both right.
Self-custodial Bitcoin UX has to get better, but it is progressing each and every day.
But at the same time, to use it to its full potential today you have to do some learning about the nuances. Thankfully there are tons of great resources if you’re willing to put the time in.
Self-custodial VS custodial is all about time preference. Have some pain getting started as you’re getting familiar with the concepts VS have much more pain when you can no longer access your funds.
🙏 did you guys change something so the channels and duration or is that an app thing? My node channels have been open for years. The app only lets me “rent”channels.
But I’m not signing a loan from the bank. I’m just trying to hold a small amount of sats for shitposts on nostr.
Right. But you are your own bank. If you want someone else to make it easier for you then custodial is the faster onboarding. But then you need to trust who you’re using. True privacy and self-sovereignty is a balance of convenience. Everyone has different tolerances.
Most people are inevitably going to be on custodial solutions anyway. I’m just asking for a simpler onboarding experience. I have Phoenix wallet and that feels much easier to use.
Hear you loud and clear. We’re working on it.
Appreciate all the feedback.
I appreciate you not taking this an attack. I do love what Zeus stands for. I’ve had the app downloaded for like 3 years now. Listened to you guys more than once on the citadel dispatch. Every time I do, I reopen the app to try and use it but every time I open the app and try to set up the wallet, I’m just like wtf is all this info it’s overwhelming. Where do I even start? So I close the app and say I’ll come back to it later because it’s early and the UX should improve. But coming back to it years later still feels the same. Today I finally bit the bullet and just did what you said. It doesn’t feel great to pay all those fees without knowing that the channels will eventually expire. I don’t envy the UX work that you guys need to do but it feels like you just have to burn sats to learn or you have to have prior experience running a lightning node. I like the idea of making the current UX a more advanced option and adding a beginner friendly option that handholds you through the process. I highly recommend that book. I think improving UX can massively grow your user base.
Cheers. Thank you.
Tradeoffs. I prefer lightning over liquid. I’m dipping my toes in ecash, there’s a learning curve for sure. I think of L1 as my savings, L2 as my checking. Self hosted holds most of L2 and custodial gets a “per diem” spend that is okay if rugged.
Right now I prefer liquid. The custodial risk is small but trading with it is super cheap and intuitive. No need to manage channels or pay unexpected fees. When your liquid balance is large enough you can pay the fee to send it on chain.
Breez is similar to Phoenix, but better: phoenix devs knows who you are paying (because of their routing mechanism), Breez devs don't