"Bitcoin is money, everything else is credit.

Credit is expensive, so fiat payment sucks.

Lightning is magic."

Is Lightning that bad?

- Permissionless

- Instant

- Sort of private

- Atomic

No money really gets ever around, it is all settlments between different ledgers in the FED system.

When a person makes a payment to a merchant, in the fiat system there are around 32 steps between different actors (FED, VISA, banks, Square, etc.) that need to be satisfied.

Banks have a cost of capital when being a member of the FED, since they need to have capital reserves inside the FED. This is not cheap nor free.

Ideas to debunk:

- Bitcoin is expensive <-> Fiat is cheap

- Bitcoin payments are hard <-> Fiat ones are easy

Now on Main Stage, after Hackathon Expo, at nostr:npub1dwah6u025f2yy9dgwlsndntlfy85vf0t2eze5rdg2mxg99k4mucqxz7c52 Lightning++ Edition: nostr:npub1sfhflz2msx45rfzjyf5tyj0x35pv4qtq3hh4v2jf8nhrtl79cavsl2ymqt of @fundwithflux with "The Fiat Payment Stack".

Flux wants to be Lightning-centric: Offering services to Lightning companies, broading the services offered today by LSPs.

Flux: a new Bitcoin native asset managing company.

Only raises in Bitcoin, accounts in Bitcoin and deploys in Bitcoin.

Now on Main Stage at nostr:npub1dwah6u025f2yy9dgwlsndntlfy85vf0t2eze5rdg2mxg99k4mucqxz7c52 Lightning++ Edition: nostr:npub1sfhflz2msx45rfzjyf5tyj0x35pv4qtq3hh4v2jf8nhrtl79cavsl2ymqt is making an announcement!

"Bitcoin simply doesn't work unless there is sufficient demand for censorship-resistant transactions in the world"

Where to next?

Bar has shifted, Lightning self-custodial is not competing with on-chain anymore, but with new solutions that have better UX and nearly-0 fees.

Users will not settle for "better than on-chain" wallets anymore.

Trustless systems may still be centralized, but generally can decentralize later. Trusted parties cannot.

Current regulations allow "regulatory self-custody", but will never accept centralized entities to not submit to possible new regulations.

Today's mobile experience is full of trusted parties, such as Liquid and Spark.

Bitcoin usage, today, is running towards centralized third parties.

Self-custodial lightning solution emerged but they were not the best possible solutions. That's why many custodial solutions emerged.

However, the slow work of the previous years is now coming to an end.

Lightning became the scaling solution, now powering 10-30% of the network. It is though considered a disappointment.

First on Main Stage at nostr:npub1dwah6u025f2yy9dgwlsndntlfy85vf0t2eze5rdg2mxg99k4mucqxz7c52 Lightning++ Edition: nostr:npub185h9z5yxn8uc7retm0n6gkm88358lejzparxms5kmy9epr236k2qcswrdp of Spiral with "Requiem for a Decentralized Bitcoin".

"What's a use-case other than tipping?"

EK: Subscription, for example.

nostr:npub19kv88vjm7tw6v9qksn2y6h4hdt6e79nh3zjcud36k9n3lmlwsleqwte2qd: Podcasting 2.0 or video streaming integrated with NWC could be a good one.

"What are the biggest risk for the adoption?"

EK: Something better that shows up.

EK: We do not want to touch user funds to not be liable in any way.