0 sats \ 1 reply \ @KesterBils 9 Nov 2023 \ parent \ on: deleted by author bitcoin
Does this mean that LN is somehow centralized? Or am I just confused? 🤦🏾♂️
You sound a little confused
Lightning is highly decentralized, i.e. no one controls it
Nonetheless, it has imperfect privacy
Some of its privacy issues come from the popularity of large LSPs like Acinq and Voltage
Popularity and centralization are not the same thing
Centralization entails control but popularity does not
Acinq is popular and has a lot of insight into where many lightning payments come from and go to, because -- due to how popular their routing node is -- they are involved in a lot of those payments
But they do not control their users' funds, so they are not a central point of failure for lightning, i.e. they do not (and cannot) make lightning centralized
If Acinq stopped existing, lightning would continue as normal -- but a lot of people would be sad because they couldn't use Phoenix Wallet and the Acinq routing node anymore
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