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abcxyz 1y ago

#asknostr #introductions #question

Hello, I'm still a beginner to bitcoin and nostr and lighting so I have some questions.

Say we have bob.

Bob uses nostr.

He posts on nostr.

People zap him at his lightning address (for example, bob@getalby.com)

Now, he has 100 sats.

I was looking it up on google and I heard that lightning network transactions are private and encrypted.

Does that mean that only Bob and the sender know the details of the zap?

To the rest of the people on the network - is it just an encrypted transaction? And no further information could be deducted from it? Like say for example we have Mike on the lightning network. He sees a transaction, but doesn't know who it's from, who it's going to, and how much it is? I'm a little confused.

Thank you in advance #nostr community!

My source for now: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/85901/tracking-history-of-transactions-in-lighting-network

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Big Barry Bitcoin 1y ago

There are different types of zaps. Zaps are like a receipt that shows who sent what, but they are pretty much disconnected and unnecessary for a lightning payment.

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Ben 1y ago

Alby is a custodial wallet so they can very easily see when one npub zaps another npub. Not very private. Also, zaps are usually published as nostr events so that clients can show the zap tally. Again, not private. If you want to send someone BTC privately via nostr, better to DM some ecash (look up eNuts, Minibits apps, both using Cashu protocol). Still custodial but private.

Typical lightning payments (where a user generates an invoice and another user pays it) are pretty good for privacy, especially for the sender (I believe). Others can correct me here.

As an aside, based your profile pic you may be based in Toronto. If so, hit up nostr:npub1826v365he5ty69lk3xgvzqrwy8587vdfrxnsz0k09khzustf8r7s6j7t95 for a torontoplebs.ca NIP-05 verification handle.

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johnny 1y ago

Welcome to #Nostr 🫂💜 great questions.

It depends on the client you are using, but almost all of them allow you to configure the type of #ZAP you are sending: public, private, anonymous, not zap only LN.