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During my stay in Zimbabwe I wanted to find out how self-custodial LN wallets perform in rural areas to enable inclusion for anyone. You'll be surprised by the results!
664 sats \ 3 replies \ @ama 28 Jan
Aqua wallet from Jan3, supporting Bitcoin on-chain, Lightning Network, and Liquid, as second layer, as well as USDT on Liquid, might be a good alternative wallet for such requirements.
It isn't a native LN wallet, but it uses atomic swaps between Liquid and LN to do Lightning transactions through its Boltz integration, which allows for cheaper fees than managing LN channels.
I think that by combining Phoenix with Aqua could be a good solution to handle most LN needs at lower fees.
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Liquid is not a second layer. I like Liquid, I use it, but it's a sidechain and I don't like this misleading description by Liquid/Aqua. And yes, Aqua might be a good option, but as you said, it's not a LN self-custody wallet and therefore I didn't include it in this test.
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Exactly, IMO liquid is a shitcoin.
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Liquid is not a second layer
Can you expand on this ?
I understand Liquid is a sidechain but why does being a sidechain preclude it from being a second layer (as you seem to be saying) ?
I did see this part of your article :
Compared to self-custodial Lightning there is more trust involved in using Liquid, because you have to go through intermediaries for the peg-in and peg-out and trust a federation of 15 companies, who are the signers for Liquid transactions, whereas in Bitcoin and Lightning you don‘t have to trust any intermediaries.
Is that part of your argument against it being a second layer ?
Looks like I need to jump on the Phoenix bandwagon!
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Very thorough results, thank you for testing, documenting, and sharing it! We hope to improve Mutiny a lot for next year's tests.
(minor note, Mutiny does have 12 word backups, not 24)
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No worries, appreciate that!
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7 sats \ 0 replies \ @KLT 28 Jan
Thank you Anita for all that you do. It’s incredible and is doing so much for humanity.
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Phoenix and wallet of Satoshi are best here in India even in extreme locations. I personally tested both in far off regions, almost in every corner of my country and they work quite well. Hardly 2 to 10 Seconds for sending and recieving. The reliability is top notch.
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Is the lightning network common in India? I would be surprised to learn that it’s widely adopted
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Not widely adopted but they work in every location. Of course, there aren't so many merchants here that accept bitcoin payments. It's largely because government here has imposed a 31% straight tax on any gains people extract out of Bitcoin.
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Good to know!
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Interesting tests ! It's a shame that Breez has not be tested though, as it's IMO the second best just behind Phoenix.
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125 sats \ 1 reply \ @anita OP 28 Jan
I tested it last year and it wasn't able to sync. I knew that the optimizations of Breez in 2023 didn't go so far that the results would have been different. So I didn't include it.
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You mean syncing in rural areas with bad connection I guess. It may be because Breez is performing the route calculation (for more privacy) on the client side, so you need to download the graph to use it.
I see good to know, Breez not good with poor connection
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Thanks for the article Anita. Test in the ground are very useful and enlightening
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Thank you for the work you are continuing around the World, Much Aloha, Richie
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @joda 29 Jan
Thanks for the update! I'm a big fan of your work, as are many others here, it seems!!!
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Appreciate!
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @heidi 29 Jan
Good testing/review!....enjoyed it more than you enjoyed the scorching heat ants I'm sure!
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haha!
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"Conversely, permitting the seed phrase to be copied to the device’s clipboard for convenience may compromise the security of the funds. Uninformed users and newbies might copy it, send their seed per email to themselves, store it as a screenshot or in a Word document. I have seen it all. Convenience is the enemy of security."
I like to copy the seed and save it in my password manager. After, I immediately clear my clipboard. I have never lost a single sat from this backup method. It's a hot wallet and not cold storage. What do you think? @TonyGiorgio
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They're going to do all those things anyways. Preventing a copy button doesn't stop any of that. It's just going to cause someone to skip and not write down at all.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 28 Jan
Agree with more coin control features. It was recently pointed out to me that blue wallet has some coin control.
I'd like to see this comparison with larger channels.
Still, interesting to see your perspective on LN and the problems with low internet band width.
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Thank you for this, Anita! While I was worried about ETFs you were working on important stuff.
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11.6k sats \ 0 replies \ @anita OP 28 Jan
;-)
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Excelente post.
Coinos could be a custodial option to try next time.
Cheers
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This test was about self-custody only. I only included WoS to see how it compares.
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Thanks for a very thorough and interesting test @anita !
What was the reason for not including Breez wallet, because I remember you did test it last year? Anyway, keep up the great work and I'll keep supporting our through @geyserfund !
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I tested it last year and it wasn't able to sync. I knew that the optimizations of Breez in 2023 didn't go so far that the results would have been different. So I didn't include it. Thanks for your support!
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Great review Anita! Your dedication is admirable.
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Cheers!
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“Coin control is going to be more and more important as transaction fees are rising. We need Bitcoin mobile wallets allowing us to do coin control and choose different UTXOs for a transaction. Sadly, none of the tested wallets allows that. This limitation impacts users’ ability to manage transaction costs effectively. While Green does offer coin control, it’s only available in their desktop version, not on mobile.”
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Great read! Nothing like testing in the real world! Zeus has some work to do.
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1196 sats \ 0 replies \ @anita OP 28 Jan
Thanks
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.