The analogy of Bitcoin/Lightning as Gold/Paper money oversimplifies things, and might even make LN seem weaker than it is.
Gold-backed paper relied on trust, whereas Lightning is cryptographically secured by Bitcoin itself. LN channels aren’t just claims - they are a set of pre-signed transactions that either party can enforce on-chain at any time.
Of course, LN has challenges like liquidity and channel directionality, but these are solvable trade-offs.
Yeah I agree with you, and I believe also is a forced analogy, but Preston also explains it.
Grasping bitcoin and its features without trying to go technical is very hard, but they did a great work here.
Fair point, I have faced this issue many times myself. Also, I really appreciate any educational work in the space! My only concern is that we should try to pick analogies carefully so we don't unintentionally underrepresent the real innovation behind LN.
Very true.. often we over simplify and make wrong analogies, like "wallet". That one also creates big misunderstandings.
When I try to introduce people to bitcoin concept aI always try to don't fall in this trap, but is not easy.
