18 sats \ 0 replies \ @btcschellingpnt 13 May \ on: Thinking through Cashu bitcoin
Great write-up and equally keen to continue playing with this as it evolves and see where it goes. Certainly the pace of development and change is astounding.
I value the privacy and the interoperability and that it requires no L1 softfork of any kind.
The three key points I'm thinking about at the moment with eCash:
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Unilateral exit: Redeem-ability .. at any point you choose, you can send all your eCash to any lightning invoice, node, address you control. Super important feature, and imo, one which places eCash as a Layer 3 and not some type of quasi-L2 (sorry @PeteFedi we're going to agree to disagree on this point). So this means you're never a hostage .. except that ..
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Fast RugRisk - mints by definition are custodial As with lightning, you can run your own mint, or mitigate the risk of a rug-pull by concurrently using multiple mints. But typically you'll be trusting someone else who is operating a mint. The concurrent use of multiple mints is a different way of achieving a similar risk mitigation that Fedi achieves by having a quorum of custodians for each mint. Bottom line though is that the mint operator can just take the underlying bitcoin and shut the mint at any point. That's the big fast rugpull .. whereas the other rugpull is the ..
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Slow RugRisk The mint operator could fork the open source code and start slowly debasing the eCash that's initially 1:1 matched by sats. There are a few proposals about how this could be checked (comparing sats held in the mint vs eCash tokens issued) .. but at it's core this is probably an unsolvable risk, prima facie
Potential mitigations
Part of the way to mitigate these risks, to varying extents, is to consider operating mints with a defined lifespan, and in the absence of action, to provide an address/invoice/eCash mint where your eCash is redeemed on shutdown. This forces the mint operator to deliver on the tokens issued, and validates for all users, that the sats are (were) there. A final fail-fallback in that circumstance (eg: provided LN URL no longer exists) could be to send to bitcoin charitable entities like OpenSats, Brink, HRF etc
Also curious on this one.
America is about 4% of the world's population and USD is the current global settlement rails for (the vast majority of) international trade. That trade isn't just Australia selling oil to Asia, but it's people buying 'stuff' off Amazon and having it shipped to them. So money, state control/issuance, and international activity all become entwined.
Doesn't explain why the US seems to have some extra-judicial authority to slap non-US citizens. Suspect there would have to be legal instruments contained within extradition treaties established as part of diplomatic relations with the US.
Thanks for sharing!
Very similar to my journey but without the liquidity levels since I came to bitcoin much later on. Ran a node since late 2018 and was once in the top-100 .. and like you, got burned by the hot-mess that is LND.
I'm about to fire up a new node and it will be on CLN, but my focus is now quite different.
In the beginning (like you I suspect), I was keen to support the network, add some liquidity, and learn and help others learn. My node quickly became a routing node. I was involved in starting Ring-of-Fire, which like PlebNet which followed it, helped accelerate liquidity, connections and education for plebs learning about lightning.
Now, as Darth identifies, we've got some large exceptionally liquid and well connected nodes, and we've also got LSPs, both types need to be economically viable to survive - and we want them to do that. All I want to do is send and receive LN payments privately and I specifically do NOT want to route, so my thinking is:
Small node for private use
2-4 channels in total
2-10m sats/channel
1-2 channels with frens who run small reliable private nodes
1-2 channels with larger well-connected nodes
Reliable redundant infrastructure
Clearnet with a public proxy
I expect to continue to use Zeus as the mobile front-end to my own node - it's been great in the past - even on Tor .. which appears to be increasingly unreliable/attacked. Hoping that I'll be able to keep those channels open for years now. Small functional self-sovereign plebnode
It is a joy to not know how much time you have left.
Knowing that would remove one of the great unknowns from life; and at our age it sharpens our sense of what is worthwhile and lasting, and what is transient. That in turn drives decisions about where to invest time and energy - just as it was for your Dad. Whilst we have different backgrounds, I can resonate with your Dad's later life of continuing to want to provide value (which at later life tends to be advice and capital); sitting by the pool drinking cocktails for years isn't my idea of a good time either.
If today was your last day, what would you do today?
That focuses the mind on priorities like nothing else.
Great post - thanks!
I tend to talk about privacy and security as two sides of the same coin, and as bitcoin is a purely digital asset, important to consider and learn as a bitcoiner .. however, the privacy and security topics are deep and complex, so it's always important (imo) to offer a small number of concrete actionable steps that help people get started.
In the case of digital privacy and security the three I usually mention are: always run a VPN on every device you use, use a password manager if you're not already, and use separate email addresses for different activities but especially for tardfi and for bitcoin.
It's the same concept as with talking about bitcoin which is a wide and deep topic .. but worth giving easily actionable advice for noobs to start with. Regularly stack some bitcoin into a wallet that you control, read a few key titles/watch a few key YT's/listen to a few podcasts.
In both topics, starting by having some skin in the game fosters the curiosity to learn more. Everyone's needs are unique, and some people live in far more adversarial environments than others so, like bitcoin custody (for example), there is no one-size-fits-all.
That is fucking bonkers
Credit card interest rates are the most expensive bank credit available .. obscenely expensive .. things are getting really bad especially in those states where 25%+ of credit card holders aren't making minimum payments
50 sats \ 1 reply \ @btcschellingpnt 18 Feb \ parent \ on: Bitcoin Learning Resources bitcoin_beginners
Pretty sure Swan in the US has it available as a free download - Yan was their CTO for a while
Into your booklist, especially for those coming to Bitcoin from a non-technical background, is Yan Pritzker's "Inventing Bitcoin" which explains how Bitcoin works without getting technical. Through understanding this, many of the normal early questions get answered.