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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @jivan 8h \ on: Survey on Custodial Wallets 👛⚡ bitcoin_beginners
Genuine question: Why is anyone using any of these options, which have complete custody of your funds, when the likes of Breez and Phoenix exist? Is it just a result of marketing or ignorance/unawareness? Is it just as a proxy/middleman with extra features such as a Lightning address, and any received funds are being immediately swept/sent to another Lightning account/node? Beyond that, I can't see any reason why people are using the likes of Wallet of Satoshi when Breez is right there, easy to use, and cheap.
Using a solution that depends upon a single LSP, such as Breez or Phoenix, still has a single practical point of failure (the LSP node) for the user, as payments cannot successfully be routed to/from you without that node; but crucially, your funds are always fully in your own control (except briefly for transactions where a new channel must be opened to satisfy them), and if the LSP node never comes back online, your funds will simply return to being on-chain.
The only thing better than something like Breez is running your own node, but that comes with some meaningful barriers to entry, in particular running a machine as a server with high uptime.
Personally, I've been using Breez for a few years because it's significantly cheaper than Phoenix at the point of use. As a subscriber to Club Orange (formerly Orange Pill App), I get a Lightning address from them, so I don't need one from elsewhere. So if I had to directly answer the question of which custodial Lightning wallet I use, it would be, "Other: Club Orange, only for receiving payments via Lightning address." If I were a Strike customer, I would probably use the Lightning address that they provide.
I intend to run my own Lightning node (probably CLN) soon and then use it from my phone via BitBanana, but it's on the backlog of other homelab things that I want/need to do.
Thank you for taking the time to write your response. And you are absolutely right that we often use these tools out of ignorance or unfamiliarity with other full custody tools. This rabbit hole (Bitcoin + Lightning) is quite extensive, so we just have to keep learning and searching for the best options to be sovereign over our SATS. Thank you again. 🤝🤠
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