I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you to Hydro, our latest offering aimed at businesses looking to step up in the Bitcoin Lightning Network without the usual headaches.

Why We Created Hydro

Over the years, we've seen how powerful the Lightning Network can be, especially in creating fast and low-cost transactions. But we've also noticed that businesses have been hesitant to jump in. Why? Well, most entrepreneurs are focused on their core business and don't have the time or the deep technical expertise needed to manage lightning nodes. Let's be honest, managing liquidity in the Lightning Network can take an exorbitant amount of time if you let it.
Watch the 90 second setup video here:

What Hydro Does for You

This is where Hydro comes in. We've designed it to automatically source payment liquidity from the open market straight to your lightning node. This means you don't have to become a Lightning Network expert overnight or lose sleep over managing channels. You get to focus on what you do best: running your business.

How We're Changing the Game

We're genuinely excited about the potential Hydro unlocks. Businesses can now enjoy all the benefits of the Lightning Network - fast transactions, low fees, and the enhanced privacy and sovereignty that come with Bitcoin - without any of the complexities.
Picture this: you're a local coffee shop owner who wants to start accepting Bitcoin. But you're too swamped with day-to-day operations to become a Bitcoin whiz. With Hydro, you can effortlessly accept lightning payments, and the old "swipe" fees will even drop significantly as more and more businesses get on board. Imagine going from initial setup fees of 3.5% to transaction fees as low as 0.003% in a circular economy!

The Power of Magma

We've integrated Hydro with Magma, our existing marketplace for buying and selling Lightning channels. Magma allows Bitcoin savers to earn extra BTC by opening channels, and it helps us source high-quality liquidity from the market for you. It's a win-win for everyone. As the LSP spec develops, we're keenly interested in connecting to all nodes that implement the LSP spec for the best pricing across the globe.

The Nitty-Gritty Details

All you need to do is set your target node size (capacity), purchase some "ambucks" prepaid credits, and Hydro will handle the rest. You can also specify your target inbound liquidity to get exactly what you need, when you need it. We built this with optionality to provide for privacy-first users as well as the fine-grained management that requires more data.

Let's Build Something Amazing Together

Hydro isn't just a service; it's a gateway to a burgeoning global economy. We've already seen glimpses of what a circular Lightning Network economy could look like in places like Costa Rica's 'Bitcoin Jungle,' and with Hydro, we're aiming to kickstart similar ecosystems around the world.
I invite you to join us in this exciting journey. Check out Amboss Space for more details or get started with Hydro right away.
Cheers,  Jesse Shrader Co-Founder and CEO, Amboss Technologies
Why not run this automation on the node itself? Ahhh, because Amboss needs to you to leak valuable data from your node to erode your privacy.
Same reason magma marketplace doesn't use nostr for its orderbook. Then Amboss couldn't be the databroker or fee-collecting middleman.
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Lol learn to read
If you don't want to use Magma, just use liquidity ads. It needs a lot of UX help to make it easier to use, but it lacks incentives for anyone to build improvements.
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Amboss could make an opensource app that implements this automation on the node using magma API. But they want to nudge noderunners into disclosing their inbound vs outbound balances. So they make the automation server side and closed.
Not only does amboss erode the privacy of their customers, but also the privacy of their customer's channel peers.
With enough nodes volunteering their balances, amboss can deanonymize payments, identify net-payment flows and sell this information.
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I'll share this with the team! We were thinking this is the way to do fulfillment since that needs private key access, but it shouldn't be hard to do completely client side. It's been possible for over a year now since we launched magma.
As stated in the announcement, balances aren't required to use hydro. It can work using only public info (capacity).
We'll roll out accounting & audit functions for (primarily) businesses that need third party validations and share balances. Also, pathfinding support for improved payment reliability & insights.
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I wonder what would happen if you had LNDG Lightning Terminal and Amboss Hydro automation all running at the same time. Great to see more options for node runners
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It should be a great combo!! LNDg lives on the node and Hydro is all external
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If I'm understanding right, this is automating purchases of liquidity through magma. Pretty cool. What are the privacy implications?
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Exactly. This should have no impact since the service can be offered using only public node capacity information.
With more info shared to Amboss, the purchases can be tuned to your inbound liquidity needs if you already have a lot of inbound.
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So privacy loss is opt-in. Cool 😊
What made ya’ll implement this? Always curious what factors into feature decisions, particularly in B2B where customer comms are a little more scarce.
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We noticed our marketplace was demand constrained. If we want to see lightning yields grow, the buy side of the market (merchant side) needs to be extremely easy.
This simplifies it immensely.
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We want more of X, X is maybe kind of hard, make X easier. Solid. Thanks
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nice work, excited to see the effect this has on magma yields & volume
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I sense some spice. What is it?
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I'm experimenting with memes in the comments looks like it's a great way to stack, don't you like it?
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