If you don't SPEDN and you only HODL, you're not sovereign
Discussion
Yep, and if you spend with unnecessary parties watching you, you're not sovereign. Alby extension is sovereign; alby hub is not.
Why is Alby Hub not in your point of view? Did you look at it?
FWIW, I had to hack the source to skip SSL validation before it would connect to localhost LDK. It's possible to use it without central control, but maybe not out of the box.
which SSL validation and what localhost LDK?
It uses a remote blockexplorer and some APIs for the LSPs do you mean those?
Sorry, I meant LND, as configured by RaspiBolt. Alby Hub wants to validate the API ssl cert, but LND uses a fresh, self signed cert at startup.
Change was to throw out most of this branch because the UI required a non-blank value, the use a tls.Config with certificate validation disabled.
and why did you not provide the certificate hex in the frontend?
when LND is configured you can provide the address, macaroon and that certificate.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong? But the cert changes every time LND restarts. Is there a different, stable cert?
IIRC even the first one fails because it's self-signed. Maybe you've only tested with a public node that has a LetsEncrypt cert?
nope, many run it with LND and that's also how it works on Umbrel and Start9.
If the certificate is provided then this is used to validate the connection.
The error handling might not be really good if an invalid certificate hex is provided.
But I know many who use it successfully in a setup like you describe.
hmm, afaik it should not change every time (otherwise none of the tools would work that work with LND). It only generates a new one if the old one is deleted.
It expires after many months, that is true and in Alby Hub there is no update option, yet. But that's a long time.
Last I looked, it needed an alby account and had a bunch of phone home logic for LSP that wasn't available to self host, and sacrificed privacy.
With an Alby account you get a bunch of features like a lightning address, fiat topups, encrypted backups, etc. and it will get more that we can offer with that.
But you have the choice in the onboarding to choose.
Some data is loaded remotely, like the blockchain data, LSP info, rates, ...
You have full control and can also configure those on your own.
I didn't know you could use the hub without an alby account. I'll check it out.
Why do you consider using an Alby account an issue?
Having an account carries risk. My node key & my npub are my sovereign accounts that I control. Alby hub on the other hand requires albys website to authenticate their accounts, which for some reason aren't just our npubs.
Right. For people that don't want an Alby lightning address and payment notifications, they can use Alby Hub without an Alby account. 👍
go through the onboarding if you don't want the additional features that an account provides then you don't need to use it. You get asked during onboarding your free to choose.
If you only HODL, you are piggyriding on actual bitcoiners driving sovereignty
Few
shall we stop cheering Microstrategy for only buying and hodling Bitcoin because they piggy riding on you? Is the value they bring to Bitcoin adoption literally zero? If the "only Hodlers" suddenly change their minds and exchange Bitcoin back to fiat, wouldn't impact the adoption?
If the answer for above questions is affirming, we probably should launch new campaign and encorage them to sell, because this kind of "piggy riding" is immoral and not acceptable.
Who is 'we'?
I don't cheer them, and definitely not for piggyriding. And I didn't say 'piggyriding on me'.
I admit they bring the value to Bitcoin adoption for being so open about their strategy and providing lots of education and example for institutions. I bet there are some others that do it in the shadow, maybe even publicly shaming on Bitcoin, while buying, holding and expecting the price and technology to grow without their effort.
If "only Hodlers" suddenly change their mind, it will only confirm they were piggyriding, regardless the side effect impact on adoption - which might actually be negative in such situation.
I understand that the value you imply by that thought experiment, is that piggyriders increase scarcity (let's get some of those bitcoin, let someone else develop, promote and use it), which drives the price up...?
Great value 😅
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Sorry for not much affirming answers above
Nothing to be sorry about. The only thing I imply is that devs create incentives for Hodlers and vice versa. And don't understand where this negativity towards Hodlers comes from. They also do a lot of work to gain conviction and bet on the adoption with their wealth.
I'm happy to have a conversation on this topic on some other occasion and understand errors in my reasoning of this mutual relationship between hodlers and other network participants.
so underappreciated...