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2062 sats \ 18 replies \ @TonyGiorgio 3 Dec 2023 freebie \ on: Why all the UMA hate? bitcoin
Copy and pasted an existing spec (adding one or two little things) we've all been hard at work building for years and they called it their own. Notice how there's not a SINGLE fucking word about LNURL on their marketing site. They literally don't care about lightning or the open source community. The correct way to do this is to submit a PR into the spec. They've essentially gone hostile as far as I'm concerned.
If you disagree with KYC, you'll see their version is supposed to enable regulated surveillance through the use of VASP to VASP fincen requirements. This is likely why they didn't even bother trying to engage the open source community at all.
The cross currency compatibility is the least of anyone's concerns.
I popped open their docs and they say they're an extension to LNURL right there https://docs.uma.me/uma-standard/introduction?language=python#uma-standard-overview
They also mention it upfront on their GitHub, even going as far as to say you should submit changes to LNURL as a LUD https://github.com/uma-universal-money-address
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First paragraph incorrect, second paragraph correct.
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Show me where it says LNURL here. I'll wait.
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Fair point on the spec. At least they kept it open source and it’s backwards compatible with non UMA Lightning addresses.
The KYC stuff sucks for sure… it’s just the next step for bringing Lightning payments to the masses. We need to meet them where they are and the vast majority of people are still making payments in their local currencies.
My opinions is, once they start using Lightning payments, it’s just a matter of time before they make the switch to sats.
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So everything you like about this is actually called Bolt-12 (yes bolt-12 has a fiat currency field as part of the spec). All that Uma adds, is kyc.
There is absolutely no excuse. There is no "helping adoption". There is only you, all your information getting leaked from corporate server hacks, and the IRS meddling in African payment transfers. How does that last one work? It doesn't. Which is why they're unbanked in the first place.
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I found some info on it I don’t understand how bolt 12 could send fiat currency if a bank can’t be connected. For businesses that want to get paid in dollars via lightning network, they need the money to come in as dollars and I feel like only a bank connected to lightning can do that for them.
Is there more you can share about it?
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Basically with bolt 12 you can ask for an invoice for $12 instead of 30k sats. You still send sats in the end, but the invoice request amount is in a different currency
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if a bank can’t be connected
The main idea of BTC and all the tech on top of it is... to fuck the banks... so, why we need to connect to them?
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I agree for the long term. I just see UMA as a way for non-bitcoin businesses to start benefiting from faster, cheaper, cross-border payments. By using Lightning as the rails, it entrenches bitcoin so when fiat currencies do eventually lose favor, it should be a seamless transition to sats.
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non-bitcoin businesses could start right now without UMA, and get faster, cheaper, cross-border payments, just use LNURL.
The business will have to do "a lot" of work anyway, UMA don't add value to them, just a bad blueprint to follow, but "they" don't touch anything. The rate, conversion and change from fiat to btc (in best case scenario) or shitcoins are in the business orbit, the business need to "compliance" to local authorities and be enabled to accept btc and change for fiat.
From my view, UMA it's just trying to size an opportunity without risk, follow my recipe (pay me) and I am clean.
I need to dig a little more into the infrastructure they are using, because seems a "private" network on top off lightning, their nodes router only kyc/compliance invoices, so if a normal node try to connect with them, it will be forbidden.
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Have you heard of strike or CashApp? They both have this thing called "pay with lightning". Fiat to btc to send, payment app with connected bank account converts btc to fiat on the receive, but Fiat is only on the ends. Either end could not use Fiat at all. Its more interoperable that way.
And that's without Bolt-12