An interesting project about lightning in the browser

[nullama]

Lightning has been very successful so far, but adoption for small transactions in the web are still not as streamlined as much as I would like. You still need to generate invoices, scan QR codes, switch tabs, etc.

We already have a few lightning technologies that help with these things, like LNURL-pay, LNURL-auth, WebLN, lightning address, etc.

I found a great project that puts some of these things together in an easy to use interface. It's called Alby and you can see it here: https://getalby.com

Alby brings Bitcoin payments to the web with in-browser payments and identity, all with your own wallet.

With Alby you're able to do many things easily in the web using your own lightning node(or using a custodial one if you don't have one). Here are some of the highlights of the project from my perspective:

Easily send and receive lightning payments from the web


Login to websites with your lightning wallet, no more user/pass for each site


Generate your own lightning address which you can then use to get paid/tipped directly to your lightning wallet from different places, like your profile at youtube, twitter, reddit, etc, or your own website.


For example, if you visit my reddit profile you'll see the option to tip me directly from the web if you installed the Alby extension:



If you click on Send Satoshis, you'll see the following:



That's extremely easy to let anyone tip you from any platform you're using, even on custom made websites, directly to your own lightning wallet. Note that the lightning address works with any other software, it's not only for the Alby extension. That means you can just share it to someone and they can pay to you directly from their wallet using your lightning address (if supported by the wallet, of course).

The project is completely open source
The source code is available here: https://github.com/getAlby/lightning-browser-extension

You can use your own lightning node
Alby currently supports LND and Eclair nodes directly. If you don't want to connect your own node, or you don't have one, they also give you access to a free LNDHub that you can use with them. You can also use LNBits to connect basically any lightning node to it. For example if you have a c-lightning node, you would need LNBits.



You can of course send and receive lightning invoices as usual


Here's the send screen:


Here's the receive screen:


And finally, of course it is password protected


I really think this is one of the best streamlined experiences there are out there in the web with lightning. You can use your own lightning node, or a custodial one, it's open source, and it works great. It's worth checking it out if you're interested in using lightning in the web.

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[mk4]

I'll be totally honest — I haven't used LN for a while now. But how fail-proof is it nowadays?

Also, while Bitrefill etc are great, I still think for LN to gain adoption, we need to get top betting sites(or like, exchanges, please) to implement it. Because gambling and speculation is still one of the top use-cases of bitcoin for the masses.

[nullama]

I'll be totally honest — I haven't used LN for a while now. But how fail-proof is it nowadays?

Also, while Bitrefill etc are great, I still think for LN to gain adoption, we need to get top betting sites(or like, exchanges, please) to implement it. Because gambling and speculation is still one of the top use-cases of bitcoin for the masses.

In my experience lightning works amazingly well these days. There are so many projects and new things being built every day and it just keeps getting better. Here are some cool demos: https://github.com/fiatjaf/awesome-lnurl

I think it's getting there, with more and more services being built like the one I mentioned here. Most of these libraries are fairly new, so it will take some time for websites to use them, but things like lightning address should make this extremely easy for making payments on the web, for example at those betting sites. It's just a matter of implementing these new standards, and many projects are doing that already. Here's a fast growing list of wallets/services that support payment to a lightning address: https://lightningaddress.com/#providers.

[franky1]

I'll be totally honest — I haven't used LN for a while now. But how fail-proof is it nowadays?

its not fail-proof.. but you might hear fangirls say that the failures are part of its feature/design

back in 2019 coinbase said they would support it.
but 3 years on.. they still dont trust it.
even though coinbase is a subsidiary company of the barry silbert group that funded the blockstream devs that pushed for features to make LN possible.

blockstream->rustyrussell->bolts/c-lightning

yep even the main institutions that wanted to invent LN and funded its development are not using LN for commercial use.

when exchanges are happy to add crap coins but have spent years avoiding LN even though their colleagues helped build it.. you gotta think something is up

[Kakmakr]

I have always said.... "Make the Lightning Network more user-friendly ....and they will come" ....so incorporating this into a browser without having to run your own Lightning Network node... is a giant step towards that goal.

I could care less if large Exchanges will be getting onboard with this, because they are already making loads of money and they are destroying Bitcoin's pseudo anonymity.

Thank you OP for posting this.... hope to see a lot more innovation like this. 

[davis196]

I have always said.... "Make the Lightning Network more user-friendly ....and they will come" ....so incorporating this into a browser without having to run your own Lightning Network node... is a giant step towards that goal.

I could care less if large Exchanges will be getting onboard with this, because they are already making loads of money and they are destroying Bitcoin's pseudo anonymity.

Thank you OP for posting this.... hope to see a lot more innovation like this. 

Who will come?The merchants?The Bitcoiners?
I'm a little bit skeptical about this.The Lightning Network can (and will) become more user-friendly for sure,but  the BTC users would want a good incentive to join such LN projects.Convenience simply isn't enough.Most of the crypto exhcanges and crypto wallets are already very convenient and user-friendly.Many LN supporters would say that faster and cheaper transactions are the main benefits of LN,but right now,the transactions on the Bitcoin Core blockchain are pretty affordable.I guess that BTC micro-payments would become the main niche for such LN projects,but I don't know where such micro-payments could be implemented.Probably the gaming industry or the gambling industry.Who knows...

[franky1]

I have always said.... "Make the Lightning Network more user-friendly ....and they will come" ....so incorporating this into a browser without having to run your own Lightning Network node... is a giant step towards that goal.

I could care less if large Exchanges will be getting onboard with this, because they are already making loads of money and they are destroying Bitcoin's pseudo anonymity.

Thank you OP for posting this.... hope to see a lot more innovation like this. 

i guess you forgot the new laws being drafted where anyone operating as route of value over $1k for a fee will have to register as MSB's and have to perform KYC.
YEP LN wont be immune to KYC.

any channel allowing payments over $1k will be classed as a MSB, so be sure you set your autopilot route limits super low and with 0 fee, so you dont become a route(MSB) for others

oh and ensure you have your channel set to private so that people cant even find you to route through you.
and um yea by default LN channels are set to public so anyone can link a IP to a funding locked transaction. so hide behind tor aswell when you set it all up

LN is not anonymous. nor pseudonymous. its actually more public then bitcoin is
https://1ml.com/location?type=city

Who will come?The merchants?The Bitcoiners?
I'm a little bit skeptical about this.The Lightning Network can (and will) become more user-friendly for sure,but  the BTC users would want a good incentive to join such LN projects.Convenience simply isn't enough.Most of the crypto exhcanges and crypto wallets are already very convenient and user-friendly.Many LN supporters would say that faster and cheaper transactions are the main benefits of LN,but right now,the transactions on the Bitcoin Core blockchain are pretty affordable.I guess that BTC micro-payments would become the main niche for such LN projects,but I don't know where such micro-payments could be implemented.Probably the gaming industry or the gambling industry.Who knows...

LN has a niche. for "penny betting"
but try to shift $100 and you run into issues with routing liquidity, and where by each hop along the route is costing like 1% of the amount to move per hop. meaning it can be expensive the more hops needed on a route.
then ofcourse there is the issue with some paths having no route to the destination which means then locking up more value in different channels to have more possible routes.

its not easy to set up a successful 100% always works payment. its not just about the GUI design. its about the actual reliability of guarantee that when you make a payment its gonna succeed.
it requires alot of pre planning how to split funds up over multiple channels and have an idea of how much you want to spend days/weeks before you intend to spend

coinbase tried it in 2019. and their locked 'reserve' got raided(used up) in hours in their limited trial. and when they tried to raise their locked value. they found their connected channel partners couldnt handle payment forwards, so the routes dried up.


LN's purpose was not to have a 100% guarantee to work every time system. it was designed so middlemen(peers) can make money off of you through relaying payments(something thats free on bitcoin)

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[nullama]

LN is not anonymous. nor pseudonymous. its actually more public then bitcoin is

You can have a transfer of lightning between peers, without anyone else in the network knowing.

What you're linking are just public nodes.

[NeuroticFish]

yep even the main institutions that wanted to invent LN and funded its development are not using LN for commercial use.

From what I know, officially LN is still beta.
And you cannot realistically expect real commercial use for LN as long as it's beta.
Let the plebs test it, iron the bugs, then the big guys will join too.