Duration of channel? What does that mean? Is this channel going to expire at some point? Yeah I see two channels and thatās not what I wanted. This is way too confusing
Discussion
Yes, channels expire after some time, but you can renew them in the app.
As for the two channels, you donāt have to worry about them too much, you can use both of them together.
I have a small advice for you in the future. If youāre not sure what youāre doing itās always better to read the docs so you avoid mistakes especially if you deal with Bitcoin nostr:nevent1qqsy4svf3r4mvv57yutsahkst2yjxhutqsnn6pc4xwhws0pqtlffnlczyq73jv5nqt57u230dzm3hf4zl7wxg4ftajd7jge9d0sh2st6wllksqcyqqqqqqgmxu6zk
Dude Iām not a developer. I shouldnāt have to read all these docs lmao good UX should take care of this. I understand bitcoin and I have a basic understanding of lightning. I know you need channels and inbound/outbound liquidity. But thereās just way too much information here. And I understand why itās designed that way. Transparency is important but most of this info is overwhelming for the average user and a normie will never sit through reading all these docs.
The docs arenāt for developers! You havenāt even checked what I shared with you before you wrote this note š¤·āāļø
Docs are not for ordinary users. They are for devs or the die hard dedicated user. If you need me to look through docs, then the UX isnāt good enough. This is a book I read when I was working in digital marketing and itās helpful for developers trying to improve UX. It should be straight forward and intuitive. I understand that Zeus is trying to give users all of the options and control but this isnāt ideal for 99% of users. Thatās why custodial wallets dominate. Itās not just that itās cheaper, but itās braindead easy. Maybe add another option to create a wallet using an extremely simplified UX? I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to improve UX of their app.
ZEUS v0.11 has a new Cashu wallet. You can get a Lightning address for free and have your a-ha moment on Nostr, with the ability to accept 1 sat zaps.
Then, as you wallet balance grows, ZEUS will provide educational material and prompt you to upgrade to a channel when economic self-custody becomes viable.
Sir, my 10 years old nephew just set up Zeus wallet after reading the docs without having any issues and sending my invoices on daily basis now
Congrats to him. We should just throw away standard UX practices and blame it on lazy users. Iām sure thatās how large tech companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon became as massive as they are. Let them eat docs.
This is one of those times when we have something great in our hands and we don't know what to do with it so we just start hating it š
We could say that its about the target userbase being considered by the wallet devs more than standard UX practices. We have so many options now, thanks to the network's open nature, that we don't need to be up in arms about this very much.
For the demographic of Bitcoiners who care about control, customisation and self-custody while using Lightning, Zeus is doing an incredible job. I love their UX. Blixt is a other option.
For people who sort of understand lightning and are okay with giving up a certain degree of customisation but still want self-custody, there's Phoenix.
Aqua is for people who want to minimise fees and maybe go between on-chain and LN very often.
Wallet of Satoshi for people who want to use a wallet without thinking about anything under the hood.
Blink gives a way to get access to Dollars while still using Lightning.
Strike is a great interface with fiat.
Cashu wallets for people who are okay with third parties as long as strong privacy guarantees exist.
Alby for people who want the proper LN experience with full control over literally everything from their desktop.
All of these services will likely exist side-by-side, make money (hopefully enough to become incredibly sustainable) and help people use Bitcoin in the way they see fit.
I don't think we will see a standard UX per se. It's going to be quite diverse.
Not a standard UX but you can still have great UX while retaining all of the advanced features. One way to do it is to start the onboarding with simple questions whose answers
will set up the wallet settings for you.
nostr:nprofile1qqsytuv4el7t3jtjfm7zfrc9q730ked40806he7dx5uctxqk8j4hvfcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpz4mhxue69uhks6tnwshxummnw3ezumrpdejqh358gt you come to me. Iāll help explain it easily.
I appreciate you. The point Iām trying to make is that if we realistically want the world on a bitcoin standard, the UX should be brain dead easy. I shouldnāt 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.
Agreed 100%. But also, you ever signed for a loan from a bank? Or opened a credit card? Lots of docs. Itāll 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 youāre willing to put the time in.
Self-custodial VS custodial is all about time preference. Have some pain getting started as youāre getting familiar with the concepts VS have much more pain when you can no longer access your funds.
š 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 ārentāchannels.
But Iām not signing a loan from the bank. Iām 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 youāre 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. Iām just asking for a simpler onboarding experience. I have Phoenix wallet and that feels much easier to use.
Hear you loud and clear. Weāre working on it.
Appreciate all the feedback.
I appreciate you not taking this an attack. I do love what Zeus stands for. Iāve 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, Iām just like wtf is all this info itās overwhelming. Where do I even start? So I close the app and say Iāll come back to it later because itās 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 doesnāt feel great to pay all those fees without knowing that the channels will eventually expire. I donāt 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. Iām dipping my toes in ecash, thereās 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 āper diemā 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