How would this not be a problem for global payments system today? So, we could imply this is a scaling problem for banks and payment processors, due to reliance on electricity. Maybe we should not be n a hurry to phase out cash (for ultimate scalability)
I've got nothing against covenants, federations or ecash mints. I stiill don't see that lightning is unscaleable. Most use it today without a node or channels of their own.
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @joda 21 Feb
It is indeed scalable if you are willing to make that tradeoff and risk (sovereignty vs custodial).
Custodial solutions are vulnerable to KYC, censorship, rugs, fractional reserve, etc.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 21 Feb
Can't argue with that. I'm just concluding that when you stretch any system to it's logical maximum usage, you've got imperfections and vulnerabilities. Because we live in a political, human and mechanized system. They are all subject to error and exploitation.
reply
No doubt it would be a problem. But channel states and backups are a different thing, and there are costs involved with reopening them, and the force closure of channels incurs fees. And scarce block space.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 21 Feb
But that's what I'm trying to say, it's not relevant if lightning is becoming a different kind of solution whereby most people transact using wallet solutions.
Sure there're trade offs, but as there's only 21/the global population, it's highly unlikely most will be throwing it onto lightning channels of 500,000 sats
reply