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L402 to pay for API access with Lightning
921 sats \ 3 comments \ @phaedrus 27 May 2023 bitcoin
L402 (previously called LSAT) seems like a great way to gate API calls with Lightning payments https://docs.lightning.engineering/the-lightning-network/l402
This could be used to pay for nostr relays, including for specific services. Maybe this could be used to fix Tor incentives (ie pay for exit nodes or routing).
Is anyone using this (besides Lightning Labs, ie Pool)? Any downsides of this approach?
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200 sats \ 2 replies \ @OriginalSize 28 May 2023
I think there's a mental friction aspect to this that meant it didn't take off.
Balaji made it possible with the 21 Bitcoin computer back in the day but if normie world is any signal, mostly people want to be billed monthly after the fact instead of pay first every time. The power of APIs is automation so the last thing you want to do is slow that down whatever the reason.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @phaedrus OP 1 Jun 2023
Yep. That's more less the argument Nick Szabo made long time ago (I love Nick's writing). However, I think it can be solved on the consumer/customer side, ie you can set policy for paying rather than making decisions per API call.
But it's a good point. Maybe paying for API calls is not needed. I don't know.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OriginalSize 1 Jun 2023
Thinking about this more it might be neat as a speculative kind of API call. If a service doesn't implement something but listens for these things, it could be a signal to create the endpoints.
The other purpose I could see is for operations that have some uncertainty, like a CFD or hedge or bet.
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