Bitcoin Forum

I was watching Strike's announcement that their API can transfer money by converting from fiac money to BTC, transferring that over the Lightening Network and converting back to fiac at the merchant. The video is here https://youtu.be/o73fWsqJDdY?t=304

But given the spread when buying and selling BTC, how is this possible? Wont the consumer have to spend more to buy the BTC that will then be converted back to fiac at the merchant?

Right now no fees transactions is impossible even you used LN network you still need to pay few cents. The way he talking no fees is just promoting his app e.g. Strike, if you read their FAQ they didn't say they will cover the network fees, they only not charge additional fees like other exchanges. They're centralized exchanges and would ask your KYC whatever they want, I would use decentralized exchanges rather than this one.

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https://strike.me/en/faq/fees/
https://strike.me/en/legal/tos/

Please anybody correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that free here doesn't mean you won't have to pay anything. Free here means Strike doesn't charge you anything for their services, so you're not paying the platform at all. However, network fees are beyond Strike's services. And so the network will still charge you for your transactions. Unlike other platforms, however, whatever fees you are paying aren't padded for profit or revenue. As regards BTC to fiat conversion and vice versa, it's still determined by the market.

Thanks, yeah i get it now.

What decentralised exchanges would you recommend?

AFAIK the truly decentralized exchanges to buy Bitcoin is Bisq, Localcryptos and Hodl hodl. Not all P2P platform is decentralized e.g. Localbitcoins which already implemented KYC, there's no way decentralized exchanges ask your KYC. Don't forget to send your coins to non custodial wallet, holding your coins in exchanges is pretty risky.

non-custodial wallets? As in hard wallets? Im new to this, Im using coinbase. So I guess you're saying I should extract from coinbase to a hard wallet?

Non custodial means that you (and only you) have access to your wallet seed phrase or private key.
If the amounts in discussion are big then it's advised you acquire hardware wallet or learn how to properly setup and use cold storage (hardware wallet would be much easier).
If the amounts are rather small and it won't be a big loss if you get hacked and lose those funds, an Electrum on PC (downloaded from electrum.org and verified (https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/)) or Electrum on Android (but at least go to electrum.org and get the link to the correct Electrum on Play store) would do the job. Make sure you write down the seen and save it securely.

Hodlhodl and localcryptos are just websites running on centralized servers and can easily be taken down which means they aren't truly decentralized. IIRC hodlhodl had to issue a statement for misusing the term decentralized lol.

Thanks for this info, very helpful.