By: Walter Maffione (@bit_walt) - Recorded October 1, 2026 at bitcoin++ Berlin, payments edition — Berlin, Germany.
Bitcoin's layers keep multiplying, and each has its own way onto Lightning: open to competing swap providers on some, gated by the operator on others. A wallet tied to a single provider loses swaps the day that provider goes down.
Starting from RGB and client-side validated assets on Lightning, this talk maps today's layers and their routes onto Lightning. It then introduces SSPS, the Swap Service Provider Specifications: a shared settlement core with signed quotes, explicit timeouts and unilateral refunds, plus provider discovery over Nostr. We show the stack that implements it, then close with BOLT12 offers that carry the receiver's preferences: Alice pays in BTC from her own layer, Bob receives BTC or a stablecoin on his, and because Bob holds the preimage, no provider in between can take Alice's funds without paying him.
This is a good point. If a wallet depends on only one swap provider, it stops working when that provider goes down.
A shared standard makes sense. It gives users more choice and forces providers to compete on price and reliability. The part about unilateral refunds is important too, because users should always have a way out.