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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @m00ninite 30 Mar \ on: I'm closing my old 300 channels Lightning node, here are the reasons bitcoin
I think we're moving into the age of "only tech-literate enthusiasts will run this".
I was in the raspiblitz telegram through the last bull market and was astounded by how many people rolled through with very basic Linux-related issues with their nodes. I've had to bail quite a few people out of some trouble.
To begin with, I found it incredibly irresponsible for influencers and plebs alike to encourage noobs to run their own LN node. It's far too technical and way too many things can go wrong if you aren't already savvy in running a Linux server.
It's much better this way. Average plebs can use their easy mobile wallets, leave running the lightning infrastructure to the guys that already know how to run infrastructure.
Agree, but that wasn't my problem. I was a dev and very technical, and I know LN very well from the inside out.
But yeah, a very serious problem about this is the oversale of LN nodes. They sell freedom and sovereign just by having a LN node but I don't believe that for a moment, at least now. Just using Bitcoin is enough to be sovereign, no need to go technical and have a computer 24/7 running for just making some payments from now to then.
But, of course, if you a merchant runing your own node is good if the number of tx is high enough to deserve it. That should be the real intended use of nodes.
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I'm even more skeptical about merchants running their own nodes. They have enough to worry about, let alone making sure their payment system is safe, secure, backed up, built in a redundant way to reduce downtime.
I think there's going to be a lot of middleware-type companies that handle this for merchants, like visa and mastercard do. That is, of course, if we land on LN as the "final" solution for payments.
Frankly it's probably going to be a custodial situation for most merchants unless we can do away with the need for an immaculate server. Self-custody is pointless when the rug risk of your server crashing is higher than the rug risk of your custodian running off.
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Right, I do agree. That's why I said if the number of tx is high enough to deserve it. For example, imagine you are Bitrefill, then you are very interested in running you own node because you have a very high traffic.
But Imagine you are just a small merchant selling tomatoes. Would you run your own server? No, you just will use a mobile wallet like Phoenix or Breez or even Zeus. And note that those mobile wallet are still fully under your control even if they connect to an LSP like ACINQ.
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