Are we sure that was a crash?  It CANNOT be pure coincidence that the driver spelled out the total emission of DOGE with his tires in that second picture!

(edit ah saw I was not first to see this lol)

This means the lightning network absolutely HAS to work.

This is the moment of truth.

I think very few realize how absolutely important this fact is

This is the reason I have been doing what I have been doing since it came up... I had the 177th node on the network (I just retired it.. too hard to freaking maintain).  I cannot code, but I have been testing and learning.
I honestly wonder how much use it is currently getting.

The other ugly truth is MOST of the transactions that are happening in BTC are happening OFF THE CHAIN.

This is hard for me to explain, but it just hit me, on a new level, how incredibly important this is.

As people opt in to Bitcoin and want to get exposure to the asset they are doing this through custodians.  It is very rare that even the members of this forum really take responsibility for their coins.  When I first started using Bitcoin to play poker I would never leave my coins on the poker site even.  And the ONLY reason an exchange EVER touched any of my coins was for trading.

When you but bitcoin on ____________ there is no transaction on the chain (unless it's Bisq)  And may traders buy and sell tons without ever really leaving the exchange.

I am just babbling.  I will stop.  But it's time for the decentralized transaction layers to start to rev their engines...

Wow... here we go.

So many things about this...

Thanks!

You're welcome! I'm still learning.For example I don't know much yet about the different types of lightning addresses or I should say invoice types, and I think there's a way that you can make a static one for something like a tip. But I am not 100% sure how but here's one that takes a long time to expire. And again I ended up using wallet of Satoshi because it's just a good implementation. But I'm glad you enjoyed trying it.

And your questions about how they handle expiration are good ones that I don't have solid answers to yet. Their default expiration though is quite long I think this is a whole day?

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And ever since I saw sgbett in an interview about bsv he bugs the shit out of me.  If he wins I will have an existential crisis. All his posting in there taunting us annoys tf out of me. 😁

No problem.  I honestly think lightning is important and I want to contribute to adoption if I can.

I am indeed becoming a blockbstream fan. Nobody's perfect, but I think Darth Adam and the rest of his death star are making some really good choices when it comes to building on the bitcoin ecosystem.

I get that a lot of people don't like them. I think it's like anything that's a disagreement that branches off from a very fundamental level. If you agree with the architectural choices that they obviously support, then you see the decisions there making as sensible and helpful to the ecosystem. If you disagree with the architectural choices that they support then you see them as subverting Bitcoin and trying to capture fees for themselves.  I often hear the argument that they're killing the income for the miners and stealing it for themselves. And it's true that liquid for example is paying that company. But the other argument that I hear that same camp make is that fees are going to be too high on the base chain. I see that as contradictory. Fees probably will be high but that will keep miners in business, and them creating a transactional layer that benefits them monetarily but keeps fees low for the users just seems like good business in every direction to me. I have digressed onto a Death Star support rant though let me get back to your question.

My review is really just for lightning wallets so aqua and green are liquid wallets and there are not very many liquid wallets to review yet. there are those two, there's coinos.io and there's Sideswap. Maybe if this scaling layer continues to perk up I will write down some of my thoughts on those. But those are all good solutions in different ways I think green is a great wallet overall but not super notable either. Functionally liquid is an extension of Bitcoin and just feels like you're using Bitcoin. Lightning is much different does a lot of new stuff and is a little kludgier. Also aqua is iOS only so far and I'm an Android person.

My suggestion for liquid wallets would be to stick with green for now if you want the surest operability of all the cutting edge stuff like tokens etc. I put my Jade token in my sideswap and now I'm having a hard time figuring out how to move it and I think that's the wallet implementation not pilot error. That's said, I think sideswap is a really really cool project.

I have bewen performing some fairly deep tests on the state of all lightning wallets currently.  And though I would share a Mini Review

Custodial: You send bitcoin to these and then can use their lightning channels custodially.  Easiest setup.

Wallet of Satoshi 9/10
This is the leader in custodial wallets.
+Consistently low fees, even 0 sometimes (I do run a channel with them on my node so sending money back to my node is zero cost.)
+Very rare that Tx fail.  As in, I do not think I have seen it happen outside of pilot error.
+Allows ad-hoc transactions (will create an invoice with no amount)
+UI is decent
This is a wallet I would DEFINITELY have on my phone if I were traveling.  I believe they have a very good network of well connected nodes.  I run a channel to it on my node, so if I were experiencing routing issues or high fees from my node I might keep this one loaded from my node just to take advantage of the connectivity.

Coinos.io 8.5/10
+a web wallet version
+can do LIQUID!
+very reliable well connected lightning
-You have to be careful with managing your login

This one is really cool.  The only reason it is not tied for first is it is possible to send this thing a transaction to an anonymous not logged in user. Which is ACTUALLY a FEATURE.  It makes it able to be used with a little strange amount of privacy.  But if you accidently do this and not notice the random name it gives you (Satoshi-#####) then you will have to contact the folks who run it to refund your money as it will be in some random wallet.  This is more a ME problem than sn IT problem, though.

BlueWallet  5/10
-Fees are "OK" but could be 200-800 sats. Currently on chain is not much more.
-Payments still fail as much as they ever did
-Failed payments may appear to have worked and then fail later (yuck)
-There is a delay in returning sats from a failed tx.
-You can't easily spend bigger amounts

Whenever I get sats into this thing, I then work really hard to get them back off... lol It's like having hit your golfball onto a beach.  Even as a lightning wallet that has been around a while I find it klugey

Non-custodial Neutrino private channel (These run a full neutrino node, and establish a single channel to the wallet company) They are sort of a hybrid between a custodial wallet and a full node wallet.  Easier to set up, but has a little less smoothness than WoS, or Zeus for example

Phoenix  8/10
-Will handle ad-hoc amounts
-Cheap fees
-Can receive when in the background
-Good UI
Best in this class.  Solid.

Breez 7/10
+Similar to Phoenix but not quite as smooth
-Forces you to keep 600 sats there at all times (?)
+Can do micro payments to streaming podcasts and has a podcast PLAYER in it now.  Kinda neeto.
+Can work in POS mode
-I think this needs to be in the foreground on your device to receive payments.  Meh.  But just a little meh. Usually this is OK.

Muun 7/10
+Also similar to the two above
+nice UI
-Cannot do ad hoc amounts
-VERY unique backup strategy. 


Non-Custodial connected to your node. Hardest to set up.  You have to connect these to a real node.  You will be spending the money on THAT node so setup and maintenance is a bitch.  You have to manage and balance channels etc.  BUT, if you can do all this, it is also the most sovereign solution.


Zeus 9/10
+The nuts.
+great UI
+can do ad hoc amounts
+can do MPP!!!! (Multi path Payments.  I have actually not tried this yet.  But it's in there... Could be good when needing to send a large payment.

Zap 8/10
+Very similar to Zeus, but not quite as slick a UI
-And can't do ad hoc amounts.

So, say I was going to spend a week at Bitcoin beach.  I would load Zeus and WoS on my phone.  I would also have Strike standing by to drop more funds into my channels as needed (But if i spent all the money on my node, um, that would be a problem of some kind).  I would probably try to live out of Zeus, but if I had any trouble I would just keep WoS going.  Of all the wallets I feel like it is #1 in just payment ease.  And since I have a channel to it I can swing money to it for free from my node in 1 hop.  I was surprised that Bluewallet still stunk like it did when I first tried it... too bad.

Honorable mention.
Strike 8/10
I don't know how to classify this one.  It can work as a bitcoin wallet, a lightning wallet, and the cash app.  The lightning features are kind of hidden, but you CAN sent a payment to a lightning destination with it, in fact I use to to refill my channels from time to time.  I would not probably use it much on my trip, but I would certainly have it loaded as a sort of backup.

 

It might be in the articles which I am too lazy to read, lol.  But if I were doing it i would make the users download a "new client".  But that would probably be the hardest part to pull off...

From what i understand it has something parsitic added to it.



It looks like the installed a wee little internal device with a standard USB connection and soldered that to pins on the board.  It may just be nvram.

It could be writing the seed to that and then sending it home, or even signing a transaction and sending THAT home where they can then broadcast it and take the monies.

I would not really use it. but I might play with it some, if they send it.  I have a little skill with electronics...

Wait, what?





Does that not tear a hole into the fabric of reality, at least?

I am also hoping to be selected for this!  First thing I do will be to paint it orange.  But I would LOVE to get this hardware.  I might even remove the hack and just have another ledger.  They are obviously putting serious work into this.

I bought.  So someone sold, yes.

Page 29000.  Kinda cool.

Oh, and Elwar:  https://www.coindesk.com/panama-to-present-crypto-related-bill-in-july

Wild ass times.

I see your point, and have also wondered about the one sided nature of it.  At the same time I am aware sattelite is used well especially in asymmetric data exchanges where what you download is greater than what you broadcast.  You can broadcast a transaction with a small amount of data, on maybe a cell phone network, but recieve the big data from the "bird".  AND it can allow a connection to the blockchain in remote places.

I totally agree with you on the two faced bit. 

OK. I have a confession.

I am becoming a blockstream fanboy.  Maybe it's partly to be contrarian because of all the BSV types talking about how they subverted bitcoin.

1.  Scaling choices and general philosophy.
OK, This is the controversial one.  They are the consummate small blockers and they are often accused of subverting bitcoin because of this.  I will not ignite yet another blocksize conversation, but since I agree with their choice then I see their actions as rational.  The products they offer are tailored towards scaling needs based on small blocks.  Something they are quiet about is THEY are pocketing the liquid fees.  I see this as COMPLETELY reasonable.  Particularly because if it is something someone does not want to use, then it does not HAVE to be used.  Elements, their federated blockchain model in use with Liquid is FOSS and anyone can build their own.  If someone wants to launch a sidechain that charges NO fees or distributes them differently then they can.

2. Liquid.  
This is still a sleeper.  I think the power of a federated settlement layer on top of BTC is not yet grokked by the masses.   It adds CT to a BTC settlement layer which is super valuable.  Since it is a fedarated model the database can be bloated up as long as the Federation member will continue to store the chain, and can be trusted AS A GROUP not to cheat. Again.  Since this is not the BASE CHAIN it leave the base chain pristine so we do not have to introduce trust there.  This is the way.

3. Liquid assets.  
Ethereum is a train wreck.  It is a tool creating the problems it then claims to solve.  Did we really NEED OMG, or any of the other stupid tokens?  No.  hey were nothing more than an abstracted layer from the base that was used in countless shell games to fleece us.  But the reason I am writing this is Blockstream created a token on liquid that I paid $35.99 in L-USDT for.  It is sitting in my wallet on my phone.  When they get their Jades in stock I will be able to use it to buy one.  This is one of the FIRST token i have seen that is actually used for something that is... well... USEFUL.  And they are choosing to do the idea that ETHEREUM did badly the RIGHT way.  These tokens and all the data associated will be clogging up hard drives ar BitMex and Wiz's computer.  No extra garbage on the main chain.  And if this sidechain ends up being in heavy use it can maintain low fees and make Blockstream all the money they need to keep going. And if they get too frisky?  Well people will migrate to another chain for all the whiz-bang stuff we do not want clogging up BITCOIN.

4. Mining
They are investing big money in mining farms in the less socialist/communist sorts of places.  I think they might be building in my state of Texas.  This is a GOOD THING.

5. Satellite
I am not sure how they plan to monetize this.  But it's just damn cool that you can be in any remote place on most of earth and get the blockchain live.  Cypherpunk af.

6. Jade
I already have enough h/w wallets.  But this one will (eventually) be able to sign transactions completely air-gapped.  It has a camera.  That alone is worth the $36 it costs.

7.  Their explorer
I trust this explorer more than one ones funded by Roger.  They are all security leaks, but I would rather run that one.  It has a TOR address.

8. Lightning
They are maintaining one of the three major implementations of lightning, and contributing to BOLT etc.  They also are doing dev to make it work on Liquid.

9. Bitcoin Dev
Schnorr/Taproot came via Maxwell (ex blockstream since he's too busy trolling big blocks on reddit with his 200k sockpuppets j/k), and was contributed to by lot's of core devs, but BS carried a lot of weight.

Anyway... I see them as a HUGE net plus for Bitcoin.  Are they trying to make money by establishing themselves as early as possible with protocols and applications that are needed by the public as well as enterprise?  Well of course they are!  That's how this SHOULD work.  Could they end up being a net negative?  Absolutely, and they should be shunned if that happens, but I do not see that currently.  Quite the opposite.

Can we call you llurch now?

(see what I did there??  haha a funny - and before you call me out, I could not figure any way to make a funny using the spelling of "alpaca" and Lurch))

Amazing, yes?  And this is just PUBLIC channels.  I have seen several estimations on private ones being in the real of 30% to 100% of the number of public channels.  And of course in that cloud of nodes there are the BIG custodial providers like Bluewallet, and WoS etc which are currently servicing THOUSANDS of clients.

I think many people heard arguments against lightning back in 2017 and have just stuck with them.  It will be centralized, payments will fail etc.  During the last 4 years several earth shattering upgrades quietly went in like "multi-path-payments", which completely changes the game.

Currently there are more lighting nodes than there are bitcoin nodes.  By a factor of 2x if I am correct. (But I am not sure if Bitnode.com is reliable as a source of truth here)


It is a little scary though.  Because Bitcoin has been battle tested for 12 years, and attacked over and over.  But the Lightning network, which is going to enable Bitcoin to scale and work before CSBCs can get their pants on has not.  And a LOT of value is pouring into it.

You have to imagine some pretty smart black hats are trying to find a vulnerability.  And if they do, it could be catastrophic.

But if they don't?

I am personally betting a pretty large sum of money on the latter.  I hope I am right.

You spelled BITCOIN on your hat wrong.  Otherwise awesome!