Nostr Web Client

The Lightning network is not working well. Recently, the number of channels has declined to around 52,700, down from 90,000 - not good. The sum channel value - in Bitcoin terms - has fallen off a bit, too. We need something better, cheaper, and faster to run for Bitcoin. With some huge improvements, maybe it's lightning, but I am doubtful. I bring this up because I just tried to fund my Alby wallet with some sats to pay for the monthly invoice incoming. I tried to use Kraken, Binance and Coinbase to buy some sats, and transfer them over their Lightning node and all of them failed. I finally got Kraken to work but only after 2 days of working wither engineers to address the problem.

ODELL 9mo ago

number of channels is not a great metric

a bunch of us opened a shit ton of channels and then realized that it is better to have a few large channels

as for capacity, in terms of purchasing power liquidity is up significantly since bitcoin price has increased substantially

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Discussion

Hanshan 9mo ago

>> a bunch of us opened a shit ton of channels and then realized that it is better to have a few large channels

almost like it trends towards hub and spoke?

ODELL 9mo ago

yes, you will not see me denying that

Hanshan 9mo ago

i mean

it's not great

but STN keeps telling me its not really a problem

maybe only a problem in a Global Passive Adversary threat model?

sudocarlos 9mo ago

Just like the Internet. But it's easier to become a LSP than a ISP, so that's a win.

Hanshan 9mo ago

probably a fair comparison.

with native onion routing.

its good, im glad we have it.

but still kinda waiting to see how developed CA becomes in the next years

mattaroo 9mo ago

Thanks for the insight Matt.

Jake 9mo ago

Someone please do an in depth discussion on the state of the Lightning network in a podcast or post. From the outside looking in, it is very hard to identify how strong and robust the Lightning network is now. And that is very discouraging for jumping in and getting my feet wet.

Last time I tried to install and run a private LND node through CLI it was a painful experience. 🙁

I know there are layered abstractions on top of lightning, but there are so many options it becomes overwhelming. 4+ alternatives to LND, AlbyHub, Nostr Connect, etc.