Avatar
Ben ⚡
b4bd9e8416e701d22907731c120e9b7c644ce86f9aa671f734f15ef588413b76
Software dev building on the lightning network
Replying to Avatar Zaelus

I see constant talk about how Bitcoin is the way of the future, how it's the answer, the solution to the corrupt and mismanaged fiat system, a revolution, a way to put the power back in the hands of the people, digital capital, how it has so much utility, how it is the perfect money...

But I never

ever

ever

see anyone talking about how we'll actually value it in a future where it has achieved the goal that everyone idolizes. Why? Why does it feel like there's no true long-term plan?

Lots of people say "don't value your Bitcoin in fiat", but they just stop there. They don't even bother with trying to extend that thought. I feel like this is a mistake to not take it further.

Imagine a future where Bitcoin has become our new primary store of value and we no longer value Bitcoin in fiat. How will we value it at that point? What will one BTC be representative of?

How will we determine this new system of value? How will we arrive at a consensus for it? Will this somehow naturally and organically grow out of the decentralized nature as the system becomes more and more widespread and adopted and used, similar to the dynamics involved in the emergence of the first currencies? Or will there need to be some form of committee formed to make a decision about how we value BTC? Will governments play a role in this?

All the talk of "0.1 BTC is all you need" and "whole coiners" is all purely based on fiat, and doesn't address anything about the long term future of Bitcoin.

I was wondering if people can tell me if any thought is actually being put towards this. I'd like to read about any progress towards this, or about thought experiments for it, or see videos or listen to podcasts that discuss it. So any kind of recommendation of reading materials or other information would be greatly welcome.

Memes and pithy hype quotes aren't going to do shit for us. If this truly is a revolution, we need plans, and we need to ask the hard questions and deal with the tough discussions and start to think about the goal we all dream of actually being realized. Memes and parroting "stack sats" are the lowest of the low hanging fruit.

#Bitcoin

It seems to me your asking how price discovery works?

One of my favorite podcasts on a subject my fellow Bitcoiners might like: https://open.spotify.com/episode/262vW4junObOATj8j9KAxO?si=Ul9X31CUTBO3mHuNWbmg9Q

Agree, though I imagine "built in" could also refer to a seperate process on the users device, so a user has one node per device, rather than a wallet per app

For best UX, it should be automatic so that sessions live as long as a user needs it. Ultimately, the user can define their payment intervals based on their connectivity.

I disagree VPN client should be its own wallet. Rather it should interface with the users node, wherever it lives. The user just needs to provide the node's location and permissions (e.g macaroon).

Long-term I think there are optimizations that can be made to improve payment reliablilty

Appreciate it. Agreed, client-side wallet integration is one of the biggest challenges I see. Payments should all be handled under-the-hood

Recently, I worked with the IVPN team to build a prototype for a Wireguard tunnel facilitated by on-demand lightning payments. The code for this project has been released publicly. In this article, I explain the potential for such an idea using references to properties of Lightning which I've defined in previous articles, along with a summary of the completed work.

https://wordform.space/articles/64e391b390eb8ed79548322f

Great listen. nostr:npub139nl9yxvwayl60fr97m3zrq9md6x5v0uup344mkyuyg6mzlusyxs4zkwf4 understands the trajectory of Lightning nostr:note1kz7qmnan6uthdrpezax4drmm839nlfdps9dwhfkfqgdjhlurrm2qhuthdd

As I get more experienced as a Lightning application developer, I plan to write about the mental models I use and the lessons learned along the way. In this first article, I lay out some basic properties of Lightning that I plan to build on later: https://wordform.space/articles/64c337a475acbfb817a5fcc4

For anyone interested in a place to host their online content and get paid via Lightning, check out WordForm: https://wordform.space