What was the last thing you bought over the Lightning Network?
My beers. Every fucking day I go to my regular bar and drink at least 1 beer paid with sats. Just to fuck around and show to the other consumers how I pay it with my awesome NFC LNURL card (made by Plebtag)
How was your purchase experience?
I am buying with BTC/LN mostly in person, sometimes online. The experience is great! The feeling that you fuck the banks every day is awesome.
Was it a faster or slower process than it would have been without Bitcoin?
Is not about being faster or cheaper. The whole point of using BTC/LN is to FUCK THE BANKS AND GOVS. I do not care if is more expensive or harder with BTC. Freedom is not cheap or easy.
What improvements would you like to see Lightning merchants introduce to their purchase flow?
Just more acceptance. People are afraid nowadays to accept BTC. Their mentality is deep into fiat mindset and statism.... is hard to change them.
What steps should the Bitcoin community take to help all merchants accept Lightning payments?
I help merchants to accept BTC for about 6 years now... They need education, basic education about money, about bitcoin, about processes.
To help them you first need to know very well Bitcoin and many solutions, test them, learn them BEFORE going to a merchant and ask "why do you not accept Bitcoin?" because they will come with many questions and if you are not well prepared and even worse you give them the wrong answer, you are doing more harm than good.
Each merchant have its own system or method of doing his business. First you MUST listen their need and after that think about the best solution for their NEED. A wallet or an app that you use frequently is NOT the best solution for that merchant, it is only for you. So don't start by recommending what you use day to day... Find the solution that FIX their problem. And are many solutions out there. STUDY THEM!