I'm John Carvalho, CEO at Synonym, where we created Bitkit, a self-custodial Lightning and on-chain wallet.
Bitkit allows you to hold your keys for Bitcoin and a LDK-powered Lightning node in the app. This is supported by our Blocktank LSP server, providing connectivity to the wider Lightning Network.
Bitkit contains an open widget system, with more cool widgets on the way. It also supports a contact list and pay-to-contact features.
We recently formally launched into app stores after being in a beta for a while. We've got a lot planned for the next year and we're excited to grow our userbase and collect any feedback!
I'll answer questions for 1-2 hours, starting at 3PM EST // 7 PM UTC.
Ask me about:
- Bitkit features, plans
- Building self-custodial wallets, apps
- Building with the Lightning Network
- payment protocols
- UX/UI, design, branding
You aren't new here! What's the best thing you like about Stacker News? Anything that you don't like?
I like that SN is unapologetically SN.
I don't like that I also want to obsolete it with new stuff!
Is there a single thing that would make you quit Bitcoin?
I imagine there are many things... I suppose it also depends by what you mean by "quit."
I love my job, but it is just as much "freedom software" building as Bitcoin now.
I have outgrown much of Bitcoin culture at this point, but I'm still here, right!
Bitcoin culture is a tapestry of narratives, eventually you realize most of them lack substance.
When you want to question the narratives, you don't have many friends.
Truer words are seldom spoken.
More than 1 year and you (and Bitkit team of 12 people !) still didn't have an explanation for this post... #155848 These 2 issues are still NOT fixed:
I think I recall you not following up with support at the end?
Either way, that version of Bitkit is an ancient beta. Feel free to test the latest app.
I always update it. Never works as it should be (and I expect). I was always responding to the support emails, until they closed those issues, without fixing them. Restoring that old node never worked with any of the Bitkit versions. I was always trying to help the Bitkit team with more testing but you consider my help a threat to Bitkit. Wrong. You better have me as your friend than keeping me away. You lose, not me.
Please contact support if you have an issue with the current app.
LOL I am waiting for support answer for more than a year! In fact the issue is from 2022 and was never fixed, but ignored !
What is the biggest challenge you've faced building on and around Lightning?
Implementing LDK before they shipped ldk-node, getting it all working consistently across LND and all of the other pitfalls of the LN protocol in general.
LN itself is kind of like lightning in a bottle. It's beautiful when it works, but designed to break.
When do you see Bitcoin overtake the fiat shit?
Bitcoin can't scale, thus it has not solved fiat.
It can be argued that Bitcoin itself is a form of "market fiat."
So what? People make monies of various qualities, and various people use them in various quantities for various reasons.
If Bitcoin is the best, then the question is by which measure?
Wrong. Scalability is subjective. Everyone is free to use bitcoin as a measure today of they wish without ever having to touch bitcoin directly.
You have a broken model of "money" because you are not sufficiently familiar with the notion of measure of value, the often ignored 4th function of money.
Anyone who sincerely wishes to understand the nature of total global adoption must start here or remain in ignorance.
Hello, I come after the debate but could you please reference a chapter of a book or an article? His point I think was Bitcoin is not scalable for all people of planet earth, which looks to me correct, hence his conclusion is I guess let us use Lightning. I am not sure what you mean as counter argument by "measure of value". If you don't have a chapter of a book or an article could you then explain?
"measure of value" requires agreeing on a unit, hence "unit of account"
"Scalability" just means to make something bigger, so the question is "scaling what?"
Ah sorry, I was asking to @DiracDelta as I didn't get his answer. I guess your point was transactions on Bitcoin won't scale to all people on Earth, which made sense to me. And he seems to refute somewhat that. So I was wondering what he meant in more details.
Sure, I wrote a bit about it. https://heaviside.substack.com/p/the-forgotten-fourth-function-of
You can also look into Financially (USD) Settled Forward Contracts.
"Using" bitcoin as MOE for regulated long term contracts with a dollar unit of account is a total LARP.
Thanks for your honest answer.
Who is the smartest person you ever met?
I have met a lot of people smarter than me at various sciences, and a lot of people that are simply precision instruments that are smart by process or diligence...
I don't know man! I don't think about stuff like this. Like who I wanna have dinner with or whatever. haha
Fair! lol
What has been most surprising or unexpected to you while building BitKit? Any particularly interesting discoveries in customer behavior, product strategy, tech, etc?
How many weird decisions were made in Lightning protocol/implementation designs.
Any you would consider straight-up "bad", or just weird?
millisats, channel reserve
Which other Lightning wallet do you think is better than Bitkit?
Phoenix is the best at LN reliability, owning the whole stack and being rockstar protocol devs makes them great.
Zeus is great for a power user, home noderunner, enthusiast.
Of course, I think Bitkit is best in other aspects ;)
Hey John heard a story that you were the one who came up with Web of Trust model for Stacker News in 2021 is this true?
Uhhh, I often think I invented things that already existed!
Is it hard to find good talent willing to work on startups like yours?
Yes and no. It is time-consuming, but you eventually do find great people. We are taking a break from hiring and seeing how long we can cruise at 21 people.
Self custodial wallets are usually hard to nail since the UX is not "there yet". How do you guys manage that user frustration with Bitkit? Does Bitkit have a big difference Vs other non custodial LN wallets?
We definitely rethought the LN UX, and we continue to iterate on it.
We have also seen other wallets imitate several of our UX changes and novel features.
Sometimes our hands are tied by what is available in our LDK/LND stack, but we also innovate in other ways to simplify things.
Is Lightning only "the best we have" or is it really "a great solution that will keep improving" until we can onboard everyone there?
It's both. LN is limited by Bitcoin's onchain scaling, and its security model falls apart when blocks are too full. But it works otherwise, and it is at least less retarded in design than all other proposals I know of.
How does Synonym generate revenue?
Will the apk file be available for direct download?
Synonym is not focused on revenue at the moment, but we do make some modest fees through the channels we provide via Blocktank LSP, which is integrated with Bitkit, Bitfinex, and our web app at https://blocktank.to/#connect.
Bitkit is open-source and apk's are always made available with each release: https://github.com/synonymdev/bitkit/releases
What is the best suggestion you'd give to newcomers in Bitcoin?
99% of what you are told about Bitcoin or crypto is bullshit. You really need to figure this out for yourself until you have confidence.
Whats that 1% kernel of truth?
Given your history of working first at Bitrefill and then going on to create Bitkit. Is it easier or harder than what you first imagined to develop a Bitcoin Wallet with On-chain and Lightning capabilities?
It was all harder than I thought, but I also could have made it a lot easier by compromising at many stages.
We could just be another lndmobile app, or make Liquid shitcoin app, or experiment with LN cloud nodes, etc etc.
Thanks for your service!
Thank you for your appreciation!
What are your hobbies?
https://m.stacker.news/50346
Which Bitkit widget(s) are you most excited to build + ship in the future?
Most excited about seeing other apps and services taking advantage of it. We mocked up some ideas and will be sharing with friends these coming months.
I think the better question is what kind of widgets would YOU want to see!?
Some kind of self custodial lightning powered derivatives platform other than lnmarkets because the ui is trash, if anyone could create that, that would be Great!
Haha that isn't a widget that is a whole application! That said, it is possible for LNM to make an account widget where you could see all your important stats or trades.
For the newbies out there who don't know how to tell the difference between all the different on-chain and lightning wallet options, what would be your summary on what sets Bitkit apart from the crowd?
Bitkit is one of a few wallets that lets you hold your own keys for both Bitcoin and Lightning, well-designed and easy to use.
Why do you call Bitkit a wallet when it’s not? Isn’t 'wallet' merely a bad analogy? What happens when regulators ask you to treat Bitkit as what you call it?
Everything about Bitkit is trying to speak in "user terms." So "wallet" just makes sense for managing your money.
I know it is a keychain/keysigner. You know it is. We are both okay despite it being also a wallet.
Terms won't protect you from regulators.
I don’t understand that. You also use the term ‘money’ to describe Bitcoin, and there are laws that apply to money. Since Bitcoin is not money, why would you promote it as such? Using the wrong words to describe something can cause serious problems in the future.
Why invite unwanted attention?
This is my only unwanted attention at the moment.
Tell us your current biggest concern around Bitcoin (protocol) and your current biggest concern about Bitcoin (Culture) :/
Progressives.
The potential utility of most proposals is wildly overstated, while the risks are unmeasurable.
Our governance process is currently too centralized and trusted.
Would you support a hard fork to remove data carrying from bitcoin?
I wouldn't support any hard fork for any speculative reason, nor for any reason meant to negatively affect an existing user space.
You are funded by the likes of Tether; do you plan to add their coin to your app?
Tether has no notable influence on our roadmap aside from budgeting.
We have no plans of our own to "add their coin" to any of our current or planned products.
To be more topical, we also have no plans to directly support any "token" tech on any blockchain.
If you want my thoughts on credit, they are here: https://github.com/pubky/atomicity
What do you think about cashu?
That it should work more like this: https://github.com/pubky/atomicity
Generally, I like the idea of separating trusted credit from any blockchains, but I don't like the idea of banks as a scaling method.
(How) has your thinking around bitcoin as medium of exchange evolved in the last 5years?
Yes, understanding Cryptoeconomics, by Voskuil, better and better.
What is your view on Bitcoin and privacy? Should we have some mweb on Bitcoin like Litecoin or base chain will be enough with lightning and coinjoins?
99% of people do not give a shit. So, if you give a shit use what those 1% use, I guess, but you probably don't actually give a shit, right?
If you don't like Bitcoin, you don't have to use it, right?
What is the status of pear credit?
The research was made, the development was not.
It is out of my hands for the most part, but I have since conceived of other designs we may pursue instead.
Who is your favourite guilty pleasure person in bitcoin?
someone you know you probs shouldn’t enjoy following but you still follow them.
Coinfessions
How did you find your way to design?
Are there any designers you look up?
Where do you find inspiration?
I have been designing all my life, and I am old. I have a process for when I do design. It does involve some research, but I always have my eye on design in various ways, following brand design accounts, etc.
But Synonym owes most of its shine to Aldert. I imagine our dynamic is uncommon, as most of our competitors have, and are effectively led by, CTOs.
How have you integrated nostr or what are your plans for future integration? The contacts seems obvious
We don't have any nostr features planned for Bitkit.
I'm generally skeptical of the tipping/zaps use case (i suppose that is blasphemy here!)
I also think nostr needs to convert to pkarr before we could reasonably support it in our other plans. https://pkarr.org/
Pkarr looks interesting. Have you suggested it to or discussed it with any nostr devs or considered writing a NIP?
Have suggested it to Fiatjaf. I find it difficult to suggest things to nostr devs generally, so we don't bother.
What's the biggest breakthrough you are waiting for that would make you excited for the future of crypto?
Humans that think more critically. We don't really need any technological miracles to make the internet do amazing things for us, we need humans to wise up.
Otherwise, I think breakthroughs in data storage and transmission are more meaningful than cryptographic constructions, currently.
Where do you see more opportunity for Lightning..
A) As a payment method with merchants? B) As a way to transfer money between 2 people (no merchants)? C) As a micropayment way to transform the current kind of social web / apps?
Payment channels primary utility is for high-frequency transacting, so the core use case is with B2B.
I would like to know if there is any problem that prevents users of the Cuban Bitcoin community from accessing the wallet services, something that happens with other wallets.
Cuba is a sanctioned country, so any business outside of Cuba is likely to prohibit use.
Would you have approached the Blocksize War differently in hindsight?
I think hypothetical alternate realities are a trap. It happened the way it happened.
I am much more experienced now, so yes, I would handle something similarly differently today. I have much less trust in protocol devs now.
What is one cool or fun LN powered app than can be created right now but no one has and you'd love to see/use?
Congrats on Bitkit :)
LN is a payment protocol, so you can build into any app use case that needs payments.
I always liked the "crowdwall" concept, and we'll bring it back someday. https://thebiz.pro/about#crowdwall
How do you see India progressing on the world Bitcoin map?
I'm not going to pretend I have an informed answer to that.
How many users do you think read the terms of service
What I think about that isn't actually important, right?
Who is the best karaoke singer at bitkit?
🙋
No idea!
Is BitKit a reliable daily driver app yet? I was using the beta and found it too unusable, even though I really liked the approach and design to having contacts that support push payments and even wanted to get some friends on it with whom that would be a great feature.
I was using Phoenix for reliability, but as an American, I am not sure if the app might suddenly stop working? They say they no longer support America, but the app still seems to work so I am confused about this.
I think Bitkit is at a point where you could use it daily, but that the Lightning Network itself still faces many challenges that will affect self-custodial usage. Every LN payment is a unique situation that can go wrong in many ways.
All complex software has bugs, so use what works for you and submit feedback when you find something off.
Regarding the USA and Phoenix, it probably still works because all they did was remove it from the app store, not block US people (yet?)
Now we have an AMA with John Carvalho, On-chain fees high, on Lightning they're low They created Bitkit, you should check it out yo, It supports a contact list, you can now add your bro
I missed it 😟
I'm still alive.
Is it Available on play store or app store?
Yes! https://bitkit.to/
Lighting + on chain wallet I am shocked. This will be the great wallet. Can we use this wallet right now
You can try it at https://bitkit.to
i do think that bitkit is a good wallet so far since it changes the basic key concept of money and proudly stating that money is the value and everybody has to own it in different ways by proposing each for their own keys, your keys your coins they are the best so far .
Why use Bitkit? What makes it different from other popular wallets of the moment?
Can confidentiality be guaranteed and is the lock strong?
Not sure what you are specifically referring to. We do not collect your personal info, and we do not store your bitcoin for you.
So many wallets out there. What makes Bitkit unique? What excites you about your roadmap?
There aren't that many mobile wallets that have a Lightning node inside, nor many that are well-designed. Bitkit is one.
As for our roadmap, it includes things like new widgets, ways to spend, hardware wallet support, and of course, integration with our next product ;)
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Bitkit is built and maintained by the most dedicated team working on making the best Bitcoin wallet app by rethinking the UX from the ground up.
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