10 random things I learnt about wallets from Stacker News \ stacker news ~bitcoin

After I discovered Stacker News, I quickly realised that Muun - the wallet I’m using now - might not be the most appropriate. This set me on a trail to find out more about the distinctive features of various wallet. Maybe this list of things I learnt about myriad wallets will be of use to you:

It doesn’t get any simpler than this. ZBD (short for Zebedee) wallet allows you to receive satoshis just by inputting your email address. You don’t have to worry about cashing them out to an exchange or whatsoever because you can expend your sats on gift cards inside the app.
The Wallet of Satoshi, while easy to use, is a custodial wallet. This means that you don’t actually have control over your sats. Should The Wallet of Satoshi company collapse due to some market contagion, you can be prepared to kiss your previous Bitcoin goodbye.
Blue Wallet straddles custodial and non-custodial use. Got on-chain use, it’s non-custodial but its Lightning Network wallet is custodial. To make your head spin, you can collect this LN wallet to your own LN node though.
Simple Bitcoin Wallet is developed by a Ukrainian who is currently fighting in the war against Russia. It employs mobile optimised Lightning Network library IMMORTAN (https://github.com/akumaigorodski/IMMORTAN) and shows on-chain and off-chain (Lightning) balances alike on the same user interface.
Muun is easy to use because your funds are always on-chain and are converted to lightning via submarine swaps when you want to conduct a transaction. So you don’t actually have any Lightning channels open. Take note that you can’t send to a LNURL (static Lightning address)
That’s why some people who use online sites that utilise LNURL frequently move on to Phoenix wallet from Muun. Be prepared to put aside a 1% (3000sats min) fee to create a channel though.
If you wish to batch your transactions and send sats to many friends concurrently, Hexa Wallet will be right up your alley. (https://hexawallet.io/features/)
If you are more of a laptop user, Alby Wallet is a browser extension that not only allows you to keep your sats, but also uses it to sign Nostr events on the clients you engage with.
Blixt Wallet and Open Bitcoin Wallet empower you to run non-custodial Lightning Network nodes on your mobile.
Should running nodes be too complicated a process for you, Breez wallet is said to have the same level of privacy as running your own node and connecting to it remotely.

24 sats \ 3 replies \ @inevitable 26 Dec 2022

Knowing about muun vs. others, I still use it for orangepilling, because the less friction on this stage, the better. And it's just hard to explain the initial 2000 or 3000 sats 🤷🏻

28 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 27 Dec 2022

As someone new to the LN, I totally agree. But I’m ready to give Phoenix a shot now. Wish me luck!

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 29 Dec 2022

Just pay them 3000 sats more

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @inevitable 30 Dec 2022

Fair enough.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 27 Dec 2022

About 8, you can use Alby without any extension, they just give you a lightning address, and a custodial wallet.

The extension just makes it simpler to use, but it's not needed.

Also, you can import your Alby wallet into Blue Wallet and manage it from there as well.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rex 27 Dec 2022

ZBD can only be an occasional handy wallet because it has KYC built in. I prefer that SBW can open the channel by itself.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 27 Dec 2022

Solid list! Taking self custody is a great first step!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 27 Dec 2022

Indeed. Self custody is empowering n healing for the soul

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @dhikrullah 27 Dec 2022

Thanks for this, am confuse btw exodus & Zeus right now..

About 1. you can simply just use your SN lightning address, like nullama @stacker.news and you will be able to receive sats there, and also spend sats from there into any service using lightning.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheWildHustle 27 Dec 2022

Just added my stacker news address to Damus, just tested and it works like butter

I was too late and couldn’t get onto the beta program for Damus ;(

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Eximpius 27 Dec 2022

You leave out the best one of all. Zeus

19 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jbana 27 Dec 2022

Zeus is indeed awesome, however it’s reliant on operating your own node. It doesn’t really fit your n with the others noted. Its more of a user’s “final form”