Regulation for sure. 10 years of the BitLicense has deeply harmed businesses in NYC from advancing the broader ecosystem. Without this barrier we would be able to explore all sorts of cool functionality around splitting tips, membership/loyalty programs and such.

It can be hard to explain how Lightning works to someone who is new to bitcoin, because it requires a basic understanding of how payment channels and UTXOs work. Customers who come from out-of-state with apps like Strike (not available in New York) have an easier time making Lightning payments, because they are getting something that's more of a Venmo-like experience.

To set up your own self-custodial Lightning wallet on something like Zeus or Phoenix, you have to have some bitcoin on-chain that you can use to open a channel. People get confused why they have to make an initial transaction to send or receive sats on Lightning. This is also why we host monthly Lightning meetups, because there is a lot of education to be done.