Nostr Web Client

Security is always going to be inversely proportional to convenience. The need for security is proportional to social trust. In low stakes, high trust environments, low friction solutions will flourish. In high stakes, low trust environments, self-custody will be the default.

I say this all the time. But I think one of the problems is a lot of bitcoiners are in a low trust, high stakes mindset at all times, and believe everyone else should be to. This leads to a bit of confusion to how things are going to play out, in aggregate.

ryanthegentry 2y ago 💬 2

It’s also a confusion of product and protocol prios. Protocol should be designed for the zero trust, highest stakes sovereign individual as a first class citizen. That’s what keeps things permissionless and decentralized, ensuring free market economic incentives. Holds true at the bitcoin layer and the LN layer.

If you’re designing product for low trust, zero stakes sovereign individuals otoh, good luck 😅 small, tough market! Much better to meet high trust, low stakes, large user cohorts where they are and provide a convenient abstraction over the raw protocol.

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Discussion

Mike Brock 2y ago 💬 1

Yeah. I think I strongly agree with everything you just said.

ryanthegentry 2y ago

🤝

ryanthegentry 2y ago 💬 2

Oops, in second paragraph should be “zero** trust, highest** stakes”, not “low trust, zero stakes”

Mike Brock 2y ago

Yeah. I think my brain auto-corrected and got the point.

Mike Brock 2y ago 💬 1

Also, the mere existence of easily accessible self-custody, changes the incentive structures of custodial solutions pretty dramatically, and makes breaches of trust, existential reputational risks.

ryanthegentry 2y ago 💬 1

💯

Not an excuse to not prioritize self-custody as a first class citizen at the protocol layer! But def an important check that I wish people considered when catastrophizing about custodial product usage.

Mike Brock 2y ago 💬 1

Correct. At TBD, we are prioritizing self-custody solutions.

ryanthegentry 2y ago

Love to see it