“Btc tokens” are owned by a contract and multisig, you don’t actually hold them, you just have an IOU.
Lightning channels stand on top of the bitcoin base chain. They’re “real” bitcoin in every sense of the word. Plus you can move them faster and cheaper
how do I access my "lightning btc" as regular btc though? That's the part I currently don't understand
From a quick practical perspective, you can download Muun wallet and send your lightning sats to your wallet there. You can then use them as regular bitcoin from Muun (they use atomic swaps in the background to accomplish that, for a small fee).
Otherwise you’ll have to stand up your own lightning node and channels, which you can close to get back to “regular” bitcoin. This requires both time and btc, and so can be challenging. That’s definitely a valid criticism of lightning
is the real btc to back up the IOU enforced in any way or is it like an erc20 token or token on some other blockchain where you just have to trust the entity issuing the token actually has the currency to back it up
Are you asking about lightning or the wrapped stuff?
lightning, specifically.
Assuming you’re using a noncustodial wallet, they’re not IOUs. The btc isn’t backed by anything, you have full possession of it. I’ll try an analogy, hopefully it’s helpful.
Bitcoin on lightning is kind of like bitcoin loaded on a bullet train. Once it’s on, it can go anywhere really fast, but you can only get it off at a station (going back to base layer).
And while it’s on, it can change owners any number of times
ah interesting. Thanks. that's helping me make some sense of it
there’s technically no minimum channel size- it’s just pointless to open small channels cause you get fucked by fees on mainnet when you open/close the channel.
lightning bitcoin is bitcoin in a multisig wallet, shared effectively trustlessly w a single counterparty (can be anyone). the funds between you are accounted for with commitment transactions so you can’t cheat each other.
you could get fucked if you’re computer/node goes down and your counterparty posts an old state to mainnet before you can post the most recent commitment transaction (you usually get 24hrs to a week to contest)
