reply on: Ecash mints are just like the Fed's Repo Window \ stacker news ~bitcoin

102 sats \ 4 replies \ @BallLightning 7 Jun \ parent \ on: Ecash mints are just like the Fed's Repo Window bitcoin

While i don't think they have objective to steal, some mints that will appear in the future may have such objective.

Ecash is booming due to a very simple reason that hardcore bitcoiners aggressively deny. It's not "simple" to open a self custodial channel. Imagine you are presenting your friend to bitcoin. You tell him download mutiny, when prompted tell them to select freedom one as a federation, then tell them to use the receive button and immediately send them 100 sats. Then create an invoice and get them to send you 10 sats. Bam, the new user has experienced sending and receiving bitcoin in 1-2 minutes. Good luck doing the same with a pure lightning wallet.

52 sats \ 2 replies \ @supertestnet 8 Jun

If you simply tell a noob to select freedom one as a federation, they will think the bitcoin user experience is the freedom one user experience, and it's not. Freedom one is not bitcoin. When you send sats to them, your intended recipient never receives them, freedom one does. So your intended recipient will think "wow, bitcoin works great!" But they haven't actually used bitcoin. They've used a permissioned database, and didn't give informed consent to let that federation hold their funds.

I greatly prefer telling people the truth: bitcoin is sometimes expensive on a per tx basis; lightning is sometimes expensive to set up; and you have to actively manage it or you will lose money. Federations, on the other hand, are cheap and easy, and some of them give you compatibility with bitcoin and lightning, but with this massive tradeoff: you have to trust them not to censor you or shut down and keep your money, and they probably will sooner or later. They are not magical. They are custodial.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @BallLightning 8 Jun

I explained why ecash solutions are "blooming". You are not really contradicting me.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @supertestnet 8 Jun

And you, my friend, are not really contradicting me. Truly we are all members of a great circle of life. Kumbaya, BallLightning, kumbaya.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 7 Jun

This is very much true. Great point!