Limiting Lightning to tips is a fiat way to think about information flows online. It starts from the assumption that everything will be stolen if it can be. It assumes there are no costs for the distribution of information other than duplication of bits. It assumes paywalls are always bad because they are bad with inconvenient and expensive credit-based money.
Discussion
I want to see someone experiment with a nostr client that embraces this. I’m pretty freaked out by the fact that I’m not having to stream #[2] sats every single time I open Damus! Seems messed up! It means someone is subsidizing the development and maintenance of this app I’m using that might not have my best interests at heart. I’d feel much better knowing Damus users were collectively funding it.
Nothing is free. If we allow it, Lightning can allow us to pay for all the value we take so that incentives don’t get screwed up.
Sure fire way of killing the protocol early. It’s a fledgling and you think the best way to have it adopted is by making clients paid? Novel approach
Fiat thinking. Making things cost what they actually cost signals their value. I think the protocol would grow *faster*.
Not Fiat thinking. Timing is wrong imho. Let the protocol get off the ground and in common usage first. Fiat thinking would be getting a short term payoff in terms of monetising a client only to have the protocol become a ghost town. If Nostr is a bitcoiners only space so be it. Happy to support a paid client if that’s what Damus became but if our goal is mass adoption of an actual free speech protocol then it should initially be “free”. Supporters can pick up the bill by providing relays as has been done. Just my 2 cents