Hey man I’m a bitcoiner, I just think it’s silly to all dog pile on a guy who has legit concerns and criticisms. I’m less concerned about the privacy aspect (I am concerned about that) and more concerned about the scaling issue. As far as I understand it, there is no scaling solution that creates self sovereign Bitcoin for 8 billion users. If he or I are wrong about that, please correct us.
Discussion
Correct. There is currently no way for all 8 billion people to self custody BTC
This is not a reason to spread ridiculous FUD about Lightning and to wholesale ignore all kinds of useful open source technologies
Agreed. But to his point, 8 billion people can’t even use lightning in a non-custodial way, so what are we talking about here? Lightning works really really well for a small group of people, I don’t think anyone is denying that. I’m sure not. It works great and I love it. But it doesn’t work for 8 billion people, and that’s his point.
It could easily work for many many tens of millions of more people than it serves today!
Are you using Primal’s custodial wallet, nostr:nprofile1qqs9336p4f3sctdrtft2wlqaq5upjz9azpgylhfd3dplwf005mfrr9spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq3gamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wdau8gu3wv3jhvcn8yuk? Can you even really consider that “using” Lightning?
I’m almost always using a self-custodial set up
What percentage of Lightning users do you think do that, versus either a custodial setup or using an LSP (which are singular points of failure and major targets for the Feds)?
Not sure but it’s lightning connecting different pools either way
Do you understand Paul’s point? If Lightning coalesces around a handful of powerful nodes (maybe it already has?), you really don’t have any guarantee they’ll use Lightning to settle transactions.
In fact, there’s strongly incentivized NOT to use Lightning, because it’s more expensive than creating their own private messaging service (similar to what the Silvergate Exchange Network was between banks).
And that’s not even getting into the risk of the government shutting down these players altogether, which deals a SEVERE blow to Lightning.
He absolutely did not make this point
He just said LN was cope and a failure which is laughable
Many times I argued that LN is far from perfect, won’t be digital cash for everyone, etc
What you miss is LN is an open global network
And saying lightning doesn’t work for 8 billion people isn’t “FUD” it’s a fact lmao. Not every criticism of Bitcoin is “ridiculous FUD.” That mindset is so bad.
Everyone knows this. You can describe Lightning intelligently without saying the whole thing is a scam which is what Paul says