Decentralization is a double edged sword. Change to protocols, even on layers 2, take time. This is the way it is and how it should be imo. @Darthcoin said it all.
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  1. Is not so easy to develop and implement big changes in BTC/LN protocols
  2. BOLT12 is quite a big change and have to be carefully implemented
  3. In the same time BOLT12 is not so necessary (right now), LNURL can do most of the things BOLT12 will supposedly do
  4. There are many other good features in LN to be used and improved before this. How many you used?
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Bolt12 Allows for recurring payments which is very important for subscriptions, static QR codes and much more trustless than LNURL? How long till Bolt12 is active in your opinion?
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  • LNURL can be trustless if you run a server yourself.
  • Recurring payments is not part of the bolt12 spec anymore, and more over they are already possible today, it's not that bolt12 will provide some magic for this. In fact I think it shouldn't be in a BOLT.
  • Static QR codes is the only thing that bolt12 will provide really
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BOLT12 must be also supported into LND and other LN implementations. There was posted here a transcript of LN devs meeting back in June I think. They were talking also about how will be the roadmap for bolt12. TLDR: Will take longer thena we think.
In regards: recurring payments: is not so important right now. There are many other very important aspects of LN to be fixes/improved. Users still struggling to understand how LN works and you already want subscriptions...
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Allows for recurring payments which is very important for subscriptions
And who are subscriptions very important for? Not everybody, in fact only to a small minority who have in the credit card environment come to depend on being paid even if someone isn't using their service.
How important are subscriptions to such vendors, well one site offered a month of service for $14.99 in exchange for your credit card details and monthly rebilling, but $30.00/month for bitcoin payments. PaywithMoon.com is good for these services.
Payments are simple enough that vendors can send an email with an invoice and be paid. I'm very suspicious of services that want to make it easy for you to forget you pay them. In fact the problem for subscribers is large enough create an industry to monitor your subscriptions:
"In fact, in a recent survey, Chase found that two-thirds of consumers admit to forgetting about at least one recurring payment they’ve signed up for in the last year."
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Recurring Payments is very important part of user experience and fundamental part of commerce. Many small and large business require for recurring payments and it is a great form of conveneince for the user and a revenue model for many businesses. If it is not an option apart of the Bitcoiner's tool kit for adoption people will use centralized custodians or whatever to get it done. For example if you have a phone bill, ellectric bill or internet bill every month, or music subscription having the option to automate recurring payments and not have to think about it offers convenience that people like.
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Dude most of the world doesn't have enough money to bother with subscription services, you're developing for niche use cases and saying it's game changing. I'm in South Africa, we don't do automated billing for any of those things, because prices change and so does demand so it's better to do prepaid phones, electric
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Exactly. This reminds me about that interesting bitcoin docu about bitcoin in Africa https://www.bitchute.com/video/H7AMhpnzN0KO
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There need to be two implementations before something becomes a bolt. CLN has it now. LDK is working on it. Once it starts showing up in wallets, I think adoptions is going to take off.
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Is bolt 12 really going to change much as part of your current LN experience right now?
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totally, static LN QR codes in of itself is a total game changer, recurring payments for businesses major usecase. The ability to use QR codes like ATMs to disperse money. It's really a big deal. The elimination of the need for a webserver with lnurl increasing privacy.
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It is cool but kinda useless in its current form, like keysend.