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200 sats \ 2 replies \ @kr 21 Jul 2022 \ on: Lightning Node Categories & Customization bitcoin
This update looks cool, what is the plan for categorizing and adding new Lightning nodes over time?
I suspect it will be a tedious task to continually add new merchants, apps, exchanges, etc. I wonder if it makes sense to financially incentivize node operators to connect their nodes and do the heavy lifting for you?
Thank you, that's the question top of mind for me.
There are some dual sided marketplace dynamics and incentives at work here - I suspect people/companies will spend the time to verify and customize their node when it offers some sort of tangible benefit for them. Bitfinex doesn't need to be verified on Exponential Layers yet, but for many smaller nodes this can offer another way to get their node and customized details and links out there.
And I'll be doing more direct outreach, sales, marketing, newsletters, articles to offer more in the way of distribution benefits to anyone who is willing to verify and customize their node early.
I'm hesitant to do pay-for-play initially - it already costs hundreds of dollars per month for Azure & MongoDB hosting and to collect what is now >100 million node history data points in the last ~2 months. The backend setup for classifying and estimating node categories without verifications is a one line update so some of the larger players are 'seeded' and will be continually linked to their public nodes to give everyone else the insight.
I think that there can be great value to incoming research firms, banks, etc who want to understand the network and category level analytics - among other dimensions - as they onboard or adopt lightning, and I'd like to get that proved out before spending too much more to build a 'verified' marketplace.
But absolutely my top question is what people and companies are/will be willing to pay for with data/analytics - or any tools, features, etc. And I'm building a couple more of these avenues in the way of finding product market fit and adding unique perspective to differentiate from already great platforms like 1ML, Amboss, etc. With bitcoin buying opportunities at 20k, I'd love to get cash flow positive asap :)
I know you talk with more businesses and leaders in the lightning space than anyone else, so I'd love to hear anything you'd be willing to share on what would be most valuable for you or any companies you talk with.
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One more 'market' I'd love to brainstorm on is a hypothetical (for now):
If I am a Product Manager at Truist, Bank of America, Chase, etc tasked with researching and looking to adopt lightning technology at the firm, what would that process look like? Are there articles, how-to's, best practices - research on what others have done, reasons to adopt - and analytics on volume, fees, capacity? What other products and services are other competing banks using? What would my relationship be with merchants in this new system?
I don't claim to have any answers here and there are a lot of conversations I need to get started, but I think these types of questions will be top of mind for many financial firms and banks over the coming years...
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