What is the purpose of doing so?
Thanks for the tag! You can see nostr:npub19tcpurtt6xulhw0r6sc404j9jraj0h8me2lzs7z2tqewz7l0hpas59nlea response here:
https://stacker.news/items/182446
All data we collect is either public or opt-in. This is the essence of privacy: choosing what you wish to disclose.
We're always open to feedback!
Discussion
Our goal is to help the lightning network become a high-performance, sustainable payment network. Due to the decentralized nature of lightning, this involves a lot of coordination. The best way to coordinate is to have good communication, which means collecting information and relaying it.
Right now, traditional payment systems have complete visibility into every payment. Lightning is fundamentally different and in many ways superior, except in payment reliability.
It's necessary for us to collect data to help with payment reliability and we do so exclusively on an opt-in basis.
I can appreciate the transparency.
Thanks for explaining. The part of the stacker news article that concerned me was that it was being monetized, the potential for kyc, and that your information could end up being tracked without permission depending on who you transact with.
Anytime! We charge for access to the data we collect for those wanting to access historical records, which are valuable for determining trends etc.
Under our policy, we could offer optional KYC, but we decided that this sets a bad precedent for how lightning should (inevitably, in our estimation) be regulated.