Thank you for saying this. I've been thinking about this alot lately. I view Lightning as a failure. I've given it so many chances and I just don't wanna deal with it anymore. I either deal on-chain or I don't. It's all good.
reply
deleted by author
reply
A "small amount" could be like 12 months worth of groceries and expenses, and a "big amount" could be your life savings of 20 years. Would that still be reasonable?
reply
No, that would not be reasonable. How would that work in a bitcoin circular economy? I just collect my wages for twelve months before deciding to spend them via lightning?
reply
I would store all your wages in LN and at the end of the year move the excess money on-chain once per year as long-term retirement savings. If you expect to make some bigger purchases in the upcoming months, you could also keep that on-hand. Hopefully over time, your long-term savings is much bigger than what you keep for daily expenses.
reply
All of this requires liquidity management and thus on-chain fees.
reply
Sure, but I think people are realizing how valuable the hardest money in the universe actually is and what a premium it is to be able to store your money on it really is. The security of it is that good. If you can compromise on that, you can save money in exchange for risk. For example, using Liquid or some other side chain system. I'm not saying Liquid is as good as on-chain BTC.
But it's like telling someone that it's probably healthier to eat this $50 grass fed steak rather than the $2 soybean veggie patty. It doesn't help if they can't afford such premium food and can only afford $2. So, you make do with what you can afford. I don't know if that's a sign of a broken system, but maybe just a sign of the reality of the highest level of security in the universe. And maybe we ALL don't need it, but certainly it's pretty damn awesome that we can get a piece of that security today.
So keep your liquid funds in something, and if you're literally broke AF, and even Liquid fees are killing you, then you might have to go custodial. But work your way towards something non-custodial. And I don't think you really have to go non-custodial. I think there will always be some weird but viable and properly running side chain you can use. Not a fan of those side chains, but they are better than custodial crap.
reply
Agreed. And soon they will be telling to just use custodial accounts. Sometimes it feels like lots of bitcoiners are just operating off blind faith
reply
It's already happening, and it's ridiculous. It needs to end.
This goes against the Bitcoin ethos and for all the bitcoin maximalism out there, I fail to see how that is reasonable.
I go on Nostr and see "bio: Bitcoin maximalist! Live or die on this hill!" "Ln address: @getalby.com"
Hum... Now don't get me wrong, I know you xan keep only what you immediately spend on a custodial wallet but a) it sets a precadent. On fact, it already has. b) if they have their own node, might as well use it, no reason not to.
reply
deleted by author
reply
Yeah, I don't see how we're going to get this into the average Joe's head, either.
"Money of the people" but only for the ones able to out-bid others when transacting.
reply
deleted by author