It seems like hosted channels is about to take off. Within next 6-12 months i think the LN is going to grow exponential. What helps this is the hosted channels concept. Need the reputable hosts, need reputable wallet, already have SBW but only android. But also there needs to be consensus that hosted channels is the way forward among current lightning users, so that they can help educate new users. 1) Get a wallet that supports hosted channels 2) Find a channel host. If this becomes mainstream within the lightning community, LN can really start growing fast but also in the proper way since hosted channels allows decentralized custody and privacy unlike current custodial solutions. But lets see :)
Weren't the hosted channels in BLW? When the project was abandoned people couldn't get their sats back.
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You are wrong. BLW wasn't "bandoned", just migrated to SBW (Simple Bitcoin Wallet) and hosted channels are separate thing and are a good thing. There are many HC now, fiatjaf and others are offering them now. You also can offer HC if you run a node.
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I personally lost sats in BLW, and know others who also couldn't get their sats because the BLW node was down for good. I see no benefits of hosted channels at all.
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The hosted channels concept will mature and there will be less instances of this kind of thing, but there will always be someone somewhere who picks a bad custodian similar to someone somewhere always seem to find and use some shady exchange and end up losing money. Dilligence is needed wether u r using custodians or not.
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